June 30, 2008

The past few days (my last days at Franconia) have been pretty crazy.  I haven't had time to post much, so to catch you up: Thanks to a freindly junk shop owner who was willing to part with some of his thingsI was able to finish my sculpture and include a lot of found objects.  I also finished filming my performance, though I haven't finished the editing process yet.  Then, after one last costume party last night it was time for me to fly back home today.  I was sad to leave such a great place, but I had a great time and I was able to get some decent shots of my sculpture before I left this morning.  In ten more days I'll be off to my next internship, but for now it is time for some much needed rest.

June 25, 2008

It's my final week here at Franconia and my sculpture is nearly done.  I think I have one more day of work ahead of me before I'm finished.  Then, I need another day or two to finish filming my performance.  Luckily, though, one of my housemates has been nice enough to get up with me at sunrise (around 5 AM) to help film, which makes things a lot easier.  I'm sad to be leaving in a few days, but I've also been having a lot of fun.  Yesterday I went fishing and swimming and this morning I helped pick strawberries at the co-op where we get our vegetables.  I should have some final documentation of my work up in a couple of days, but right now it is late and I must go to bed so I can rise bright and early at 4:30!

June 21, 2008

The past few days I've been hard at work on my piece.  I haven't posted any good pictures of it in a while, so here's some updated photos.  Also, I thought I'd include a picture of my adventure into Minneapolis yesterday (this was in the basement of an exhibition space) and also one of a huge spider I spied eating another insect while I was working today. 

June 18, 2008

I believe it is finally hot in Minnesota! The nice weather has afforded me a lot of time to get some work done on my sculpture.  If all goes as planned I should be done in a week, which will leave me with a bit of time to relax before I have to go home.  

Since my last post, we've gained some new housemates here at the park.  Five new interns showed up on Sunday, so things have been a little crazy around here lately.  It's been fun getting to know some new people, though, and to have some help with the chores around the park! I think we may be headed back into Minneapolis tomorrow, so I should have some pictures of our adventure to share later in the week, plus some more pictures of the nearly-finished "nest."

June 12, 2008

After some epic rains on Wednesday, I have been able to get back to work on my sculpture. Luckily, my mud walls weathered the storm just fine and I think I may be beginning to see the light at the end of my mud-brick tunnel.  However, I'm kind of sick of writing about that and I'm sure you're sick of hearing about it so maybe I'll talk a little more about what else has been going on.  Since the rain on Tuesday put a stop to all of our outdoor activities (i. e. all of our activities) it seemed like a good time to make a trip into the city.  We visited the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and saw exhibitions with work from Richard Prince and Donald Judd as well as an interesting exhibition focused on the theme of "suburbia."  Even if it was necessitated by bad weather it was still nice to take a break and get back to civilization for a little while.

The weather is supposed to be nice the next few days, so I imagine I'll be spending most of my time working outside or swimming in the river, but as soon as I have some more progress to show, I'll be sure to post some pictures.

June 9, 2008

Well the work continues... slowly but surely.  I'm about halfway finished with the mud walls and I don't think I could be done soon enough.  Somehow I don't really see a future for myself in the field of mud brick construction.  Luckily, though the weather has finally gotten nice again and I've had plenty to keep me distracted:  On Saturday I received a visit from some (more or less) long lost relatives who live in Minnesota and were nice enough to come see the sculpture park, take me to lunch and tell me a few stories about my dad.   Then yesterday, I discovered a really great junk shop in one of the nearby towns.  I bought a couple of things to use in my sculpture and the owner threw in an old "View-Master" projector for free.  It's just like the red plastic View-Master binoculars that I had as a kid (the kind where you insert the cardboard disks with little slides on them),  except that it functions as a projector.  I'm not exactly sure what I'll do with it, but the bulb still works and it was too cool to pass up.  Finally, last night one of my housemates and I threw a dinner party for everyone else at the park.  Everyone came in costume and we made fondue, stuffed pears and chocolate-covered fruit.  So, in the end I suppose stacking mud bricks isn't so bad, when you get to eat chocolate-covered strawberries at the end of the day.

Bunny, Dinner Party and some mud...

June 4, 2008

I got started on the mud-building phase of my piece last weekend and I've been hard at work all week.  The weather hasn't improved much, but I've been able to work between rain showers and get a lot done.   I was also able to squeeze in a swimming trip to the  frigid St. Croix river today. My housemates told me the water wasn't that bad.  I probably shouldn't have believed them, but it was still nice to wash off all the mud and get a break from the mosquitoes.  On that note, it seems all the bugs have decided to come out this week.  I've seen spiders, ticks and mosquitoes, but also june bugs, fireflies and millions of little green inchworms.  Oh, and (though he's technically not a bug)  a baby rabbit who is currently residing in our kitchen... the rest of his family got run over by a lawn mower, so we've been keeping him in a box and feeding him formula out of an eyedropper.  Perhaps I'll post some pictures later, if you can bear the extreme cuteness.   

I should have more pictures in a couple days, but farewell for now!