Day is Done

Day is Done (2020)

Salvaged brass bells, duct tape, musical score fragments, plywood, and recorded voices on 6 channel audio. Dimensions vary.

“Every sunset for five years, U.S. Marine veteran Guy Taylor Sr. stood on his balcony overlooking a downtown Galveston intersection, put a bugle to his lips and played taps to honor friends who died in a struggle for an obscure hill in the Taebaek Mountains in what is now South Korea.” (Houston Chronicle) Over time, Taylor’s solitary performance grew into a cherished local ritual, bringing together residents, tourists, and even attracting national press. Taylor died in 2017. ('A True American Hero,' TIME Magazine, Feb 2017)

Day is Done is a memorial to Taylor and his nightly taps performance. Made from salvaged trumpet bells and musical score fragments, these sculptures play a six channel composition assembled from recordings of Day is Done, sung to the melody of taps. Local residents were invited to submit recordings of this song by leaving a voicemail message. These recording were, in turn, sutured together by the artist during the the COVID-19 pandemic to create the musical composition below.

Special thanks to the Galveston Arts Center, curator Dennis Nance, and the individuals who participated in the creation of this work, including Coby Cagle, Roy DeGesero, Claire Drennan, Mary Lee Eneberg, Judy Friesen, Allison Johnston, Maria Molteni, Leslie Moody Castro, Alese Pickering, and Cathy Power.