Michael Thompson never set out to become a kite artist.
It started with a case of beer.
While studying printmaking at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Thompson and his friend John McQueen entered a competition to design the kite that would fly the highest. The prize was a case of beer, which Thompson said was “certainly something worth attempting.”
They built a 5-foot-diameter round kite and took it to Grant Park on the day of the competition.
There was just one problem.
“We were greeted by the calmest day imaginable. Not a whiff of a breeze,” Thompson recalled.
A girl with a store-bought kite won the case of beer.
Then, in a blistering wind, Thompson and McQueen watched their kite race into the sky.
“Something about the kite stuck with me though,” Thompson said.
That chance experiment eventually became a decades-long artistic journey that has taken Thompson’s kites from Chicago to museums, casinos, yachts and even the big screen.
His work is featured in “Kites,” an exhibition at the Saint Xavier University Gallery running through Sept. 19. Thompson discussed his work and the evolution of the unusual medium during an artist presentation and reception Sept. 2 at the gallery.
The exhibition features recently made pieces from a collection currently being offered by Pagoda Red, Thompson’s sales representatives in Chicago.
Thompson said he was intrigued by the opportunity to exhibit at Saint Xavier University because it would allow him to introduce his work to a new audience.
“I found the offer for a show from St. Xavier intriguing since it would offer exposure of my work to a new and diverse audience,” he said.
Thompson said the kite initially appealed to him because it was simple, strong and playful. After his experience at the Art Institute, he began making kites in his loft and quickly became fascinated with the possibilities of the form.
“Easily constructed, robust and seemingly popular they seemed a worthwhile avenue to explore. And I did,” Thompson said.
He particularly enjoyed working with bamboo.
“I started making them in my loft and enjoyed the pliability of the bamboo, its strength and the playfulness the pieces engendered,” he said.
The first public showing of Thompson’s kites came about through another unexpected connection. His girlfriend approached her friend Gregory Mosher, then director of the Goodman Theatre, and asked if Thompson could hang some kites in the lobby.
Mosher agreed.
“That was the first showing of the kites,” Thompson said.
From there, Thompson’s work continued to find an audience. He eventually sold the pieces through a showroom at the Merchandise Mart and began creating increasingly ambitious installations.
Among them were a pair of 100-foot segmented kites that hung in the atrium of the Marshall Field’s State Street store. He also created a 50-foot kite sculpture for Navy Pier.
His kites have since appeared in a casino in Macau and on a yacht. They were featured in the movie “Batman: The Dark Knight” and excerpted during the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony.
His work also has been selected for exhibition at the Doulon Museum in Shanghai and the Smithsonian.
Yet for all of the places his work has traveled, Thompson remains fascinated by what the kite itself allows him to do as an artist.
“The kites have proven to be a medium that offers endless possibilities,” he said.
The pieces have changed as Thompson has changed.
“Like any medium, the kites change as the artist changes,” he said. “Familiarity, improving skills, maturity, depth and experimentation all influence the work.”
That evolution is closely tied to Thompson’s broader interest in collage.
His art has included printmaking, monoprints, assemblages made from found wood and memory jugs created from found ceramics. His kites eventually became another surface for his interest in combining materials and incorporating objects with a sense of history.
Thompson has used fabrics, including obi and kimono pieces, as well as paper scroll paintings and calligraphy scrolls he collected during trips to Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam.
“My Art is primarily composed of collage, the applying of various materials onto a surface,” he said.
The materials have helped determine the appearance of the kites over time, but so has Thompson’s willingness to see the kite as something more than a traditional craft.
“I enjoy the notion of the kite because it embodies a number of disciplines- part applied art object, part craft, part sculpture, part decorative and part art,” he said.
“It is this potential for interpretation that continues to hold my interest and challenge my skills,” he added.
Although Thompson’s creations are constructed with the same care as functional kites, they are not meant to fly.
“My kites are not meant to fly but they are made with the same robustness and care as any kite,” he said.
Each piece begins with a latticework frame of split bamboo. Thompson carefully ties the joints before attaching thick canvas to the structure.
“My frames are a latticework of split bamboo, each joint firmly tied and the face is made with thick canvas which is shrunk to the frame,” he said. “It is taunt as a drum.”
For Thompson, the construction is as important as the finished artwork.
“Fundamentally kites are about construction and engineering, the dynamics of shape, wind, and history,” he said.
That combination of engineering, craftsmanship, collage and personal history has allowed Thompson to transform an object often associated with childhood and play into something much more complex.
What began with two art students, a homemade kite and an ill-timed windless day in Grant Park ultimately became a defining part of Thompson’s artistic career.
The case of beer went to someone else.
The kite, however, stayed with Thompson.
