More than 60 feet in length, David Kearns’ new mural Travels with Seamus occupies the West Corridor of the Bulova Corporate Center. A cartoonish landscape made up of Queens’ shorelines, wooded areas and industrial zones, the work is inspired by the artist’s train rides and walks throughout the borough. As visitors walk further into the atrium, they encounter reflections of the past and present less committed to a representational view of Queens than the artist’s own personal lexicon. From May 22 – June 18, visitors and employees at the Center had the opportunity to see the artist develop his mural during Bulova’s day and evening hours.

In Kearns’ paintings, found or inherited objects and characters recur. Objects ranging from favorite books to figures from art history to his dog Seamus become both containers for meaning and metaphors for memories of growing up in New York near water, mass transit, and disused technology.

From the distortion of traditional perspective to techniques borrowed from sequential art, animation and cartooning, Kearns uses drawing and painting to understand travel through space and the passage of time. Kearns, a native of Rockville Center NY, and the fourth generation of his family to live in Queens, has given us a vivid contemporary mural that tells of the constant growth of this borough while drawing on icons and images of the past.

David Kearns is a painter living and working in Queens. He received his M.F.A. from Johnson State College and B.A. in Studio Art from Yale University. Recent exhibitions include Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (2012); Out of the Woods, Vermont Studio Center Gallery, Johnson, VT (2011); Painting Groucho’s Duck, 222 Shelby Street Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (2011); Homespun, College of New Jersey (2010).

This exhibition is curated by Jessica Vaughn, 2011-2012 Lier Curatorial Fellow, Queens Museum.