May 30, 2008

This past week has really flown by.  It's hard (and also a little sad) to think that my time here is nearly half-way over.  My work still seems to be  coming along well, though.  I'm almost completely done with the outside walls and if it would just stop raining (two days and counting), I could begin the mud-building process.  Not all has been lost to the bad weather, though.  I've had a chance to work on some drawings and I've also been able to do a little more work with yarn,  thanks to the patience and benevolence of one of my housemates who let me wrap him up.  Needless to say, wrapping a human is quite a bit more involved than wrapping a twig, but three hours and trip to Wal-Mart later, it was done.  For the documentation I tried to stick to photographing the wrapped "object" in its original context.  Some of the pictures are kind of interesting and, if nothing else, I think they may serve as a jumping-off point for some further exploration of this idea.  I suppose all this rain might not be so bad after all!  Hope the sun is shining wherever you are.

May 26, 2008

Well, its been a rather eventful week as it goes out here. I went into Minneapolis a couple of times with my housemates to see Chris Larson lecture at MCAD and to see a James Turrell installation at he Walker Art Center.  Even the weather the past couple of days has been pretty crazy.  Yesterday afternoon we had severe thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes and I got the chance to go tornado-chasing with a couple of my housemates! Apparently people out here use their car radios to track the location of tornadoes and then drive around trying to get a glimpse.  We drove to the next town over where some had been spotted, but alas we were too late.  In all the excitement, though, I had forgotten my camera, so I suppose it could have been worse… maybe next time…

Despite all the distractions, work on my sculpture is coming along a bit faster that I had expected.  The picture here shows “the nest” (as it has become known) in progress a couple of days ago.  Since then, I’ve been able to build up the fabric quite a bit more so that the walls are nearly solid and the beginnings of a roof-like structure are visible. The weather is supposed to get pretty cold and cloudy the next few days, so I may be doing some more indoor work, but I’ll be sure to post some more recent pictures as soon as things perk up. 

 

 

Some more pictures, as promised:

The view across the road, the beginnings of my piece and our home.

Rainy Day...

Well it is raining here in my corner of the world today, which means that everything at the sculpture park essentially shuts down for the day.  In some ways, though, it's kind of nice.  It gives us all a chance to rest and reflect, which means I can catch you up on my most recent activities:  Yesterday I was able to finally put up the frame for my sculpture which, I'll admit, was immensely gratifying.  I still have a long way to go, but just seeing the little frame sitting there under the trees made me feel hopeful.  This morning I was able to shovel even MORE dirt and sand for my piece (hazaa!) before the clouds rolled in.  Once it started raining, I headed over the border to Wisconsin with one of my housemates for an ever-entertaining trip to Wal-Mart.  Bet you didn't know they sold individually packaged hot-dogs already in the bun or industrial sized cans of chocolate pudding, did you?  This afternoon I have been able to complete some more sketches, catch up on some overdue correspondence and reorganize my itunes.

Hopefully the sun will be back out tomorrow morning, not only so I can get back to work, but also because the sky here is fascinating to me.  A friend of mine told me the other night about the phenomenon of southerners used to living in heavily wooded areas having near-religious experiences when they witness the openness of the midwest for the first time.  I think she was right-- I've never really been anywhere else so open, where the clouds taper off into the distance and you can see a storm coming from miles away.  Sometimes, when I can see so far into the distance, it almost feels as if I can see the curvature of the earth.  However, it has also brought to my attention that my perception of distance it heavily reliant on my surroundings.  Case in point: I went for a run yesterday down one of the dirt roads near the park.  I saw a silo off in the distance and figured I would run until I reached it and then turn around and run back.  20 minutes later I still had not reached the silo.  It was a very long run.  

And for those of you back in NC, I'll make sure to take some pictures to illustrate this point as soon as the weather improves.  Well, I suppose that's all for now.  Happy trails, friends!

PS-- Didn't post this detail picture the other day, but look at the spider at the bottom.  He must have crept in there when I wasn't looking.

Dumpster-Diving is a Useful Skill...

Well, I have been hard at work all week building the frame for my piece and collecting my materials.  These tasks have encompassed everything from shoveling dirt to a late night trip to th U of M in Minneapolis for my first experience in dumpster-diving, which yielded a lot of great free sculpture-making materials.   Apparently we college kids like to throw out a lot of useful stuff at the end of the semester!  On another note, I think I have solved my camera issues so i've posted a few pictures of some smaller things I've been working on.  More on the big stuff later...

Getting to Work

I can hardly believe I have been here almost a week already!  The past few days have been busy ones, but I'm finally feeling really settled down at the park.  I 'm getting used to all the technical lingo used here and cooking communal dinners with my housemates.   My few ventures into town however, have all been interesting to say the least and make me think the culture here may just take me a bit longer...  

Work-wise, things are going well.  I have decided to combine some earth-work techniques with found materials (think linens, clothing, broken dishes, etc.) to make some sort of nest or burrow-like structure here on the property.  I'm interested in investigating some ideas I have about materialism and how it relates to human instinct.  Currently, I'm just trying out some basic construction techniques to get the whole thing off the ground.  Today I experimented with cob-building, a technique that uses mud, sand and straw to make large-scale structures.  If this works out I'll be able to begin construction next week.  

Today, my camera decided to stop uploading pictures, but hopefully I'll be able to fix this soon so I can put up some real evidence of what I've been working on.  Farewell until next time! 

In Transit(ion)

Well, survived the hail/tornadoes in Chicago to make it safely to the prairies of Minnesota, my new home for the next two months.  It was dark by the time I arrived, but I met some new friends, saw Minneapolis for the first time and moved into my new digs.  The view the next morning of the sun rising over cornfields filled with enormous sculptures was amazing to say the least.  50 degree weather in May was... not so amazing, but luckily there is lots of work to be done around the park to keep me warm!  It's not all manual labor, though -- these peaceful and beautiful surroundings are inspiring all kinds of ideas  for the new work I'll be producing.  I have a feeling that I'll continue working with fabric and yarn that, though dealing with sculpture that has to be weatherproof is certainly a new challenge.  On the bright side, I hear the temperature the next few days is going to be in the 60's, so hopefully the ideas will keep flowing and I'll post some pictures soon.