Switzerland part 2

I just returned from a one week whirlwind trip back to art-st-urban, in Switzerland. It is hard to believe that it has almost been two years since I was there for the ISC residency! This time around there were several other past residents and we worked from dusk till dawn making sculpture. I met some pretty amazing friends/artists and had some good debates about the merits of westcoast vs. eastcoast art. At the end of the week an auction was held to benefit art-st-urban and its artist residents. The auction was a success, and I am pleased to report that I sold some work and received an award from art-st-urban. Here are some pictures of the sculpture that I made while there. It is constructed out of gusasphalt and glass.

Fun with crystals

Here are two new sculptures fresh from my studio. They are is beginning of a new body of work, which combines some of my personal iconography and family history. As a child my parents were avid rock hounds, and my sister and I were often drug into wilderness in search of quartz crystals, fossils and gold. Now, as an adult I cherish those memories as invaluable, but wonder about the false value often placed on the endless hoard of possessions that we surround ourselves with.

Unseen Forces Are at Work

I am finally getting around to updating my blog (sort of). Here is a compilation of images from my show at Igloo this past September. Also, here is a little blurb about the work...

This interactive installation asks the viewer to become part of a collective memory: the continuous shaping, erasing, and reforming of their environment.

The installation consists of magnetized walls which attract and hold a formation of hand-placed steel pellets placed by viewer participants. Over the course of a month, the installation undergos continuous transformation as visitors add the steel pellets to the magnetic wall and begin to reshape the growing mass.

The work comments on the nature of memory formation and transformation, creating a visual experience referencing organic systems, synapses, and natural growth. The individual becomes connected to a larger experience through this interaction with the work, leaving behind a mark for someone else to interpret and continue.

Interview on Bellevue TV

I am not really comfortable in front of a camera or being filmed, and even less comfortable with people watching, but this was pretty cool, so I thought I should share it. This is a show on Bellevue TV about the 'Sculpted Green' exhibition, which is up until October. My interview is about half way through the program. I don't know how to upload parts of video, so instead, here is the link:

Bellevue Interview Link

Fingerprint Project now at PDX

Here is an image of the fingerprints installed at PDX Contemporary Art. It is a hard space to document, but this picture should give you a good idea. The space is about 81" high by 94" wide.
I built a false wall, so that the work could be closer to the window, and then covered it with felt. If you are in the Portland area, check it out. The gallery is at 925 NW Flanders, but my work can be seen from the outside on 9th street.

Coming up:

2008 Bellevue Sculpture Exhibition, Sculpted Green. This is an biennial juried show featuring the work of 40 sculptors. I am showing 'Aspens' (an installation of aspen trees that I created out of cardboard tubes, fabric, string and paper), and 'Have and Have Not' (the stained glass shopping cart).
June 14 - October 5th, at the Bellevue, Washington City Hall

-There is a small blurb on the SeattlePI site, posted by the art critic Regina Hackett: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/art/archives/140457.asp
- Also, the local Bellevue television station will be doing an interview with me about my work, so I will let you know when and where to look for it.

PSU Alumni Show: Cross Section '08. I will be showing new sculptural works... to be determined
July 11 - 25, at the Autzen Gallery, PSU

Igloo. This will be a solo show, where I will be creating a site specific, super interactive, magnetic, sculptural installation. A good time is guaranteed to be had by all.
Opening party and all of the action will occur September 4th, for first Thursday.
Igloo is located at 325 NW 6th #102 in Portland

Current project

I have been hard at work on yet another very time consuming project... I just don't seem to know any other kind! Here is a sneak peek at the first finished piece, 'Right Pointer'. I am crocheting doilies of all ten of my finger prints, an endeavor which should keep me busy for months to come. It has been a great way to wait out the dreary Oregon winter and keep me from getting cabin fever. The finished size of each print is about 10" x 14", give or take depending on the finger. I am very excited by the project, and even more excited by the fact I now have a place to exhibit it. It is going to be shown in June at one of my favorite P-town galleries, PDX Contemporary Art. It is going to be in the PDX Window Project, which is a window installation space that looks out onto the street.

I am also working on another magnet installation, which I also hope to exhibit this summer. Lots of work ahead of me, but probably not much to report for a while. So stop by periodically to see what is new, and hopefully I will have some more pictures and video documentation to add in the next few months.

What things are made of

There have been some questions about what I made these sculptures out of, so I am going to give a short description of some of my processes.

The corsets are laser cut from 1.5mm steel: thin enough to form with a rubber hammer, yet sturdy enough to hold a shape and not be bent easily. I would have made them out of stainless, but I didn't have a way to weld them. The pattern for the pieces was rather complex to make: There were a couple of ridiculous hours I spent in front of a mirror covering my torso in plastic wrap and then tightly wrapping duct tape... I felt more like a contortionist than an artist. I drew on the lines of the main corset shape and stays, then cut the pattern off of my body, cut it into the individual pattern pieces, and then transfered the shapes to paper. From there I drew the design of the corset 'fabric', which is taken from my tattoos. Through the residency I was given the opportunity to have steel cut at Sean AG, a company in a nearby town. Mr. Jorg Sean was a wonderful help and host: he scanned in my drawings, converted them to the cad files, and then gave me a tour of the company while the steel was being cut. I was amazed at how fast the process was, and I had my pieces done that same afternoon. I then hand formed each piece and welded them together using a MIG.... a kind of tricky task with that thin of steel. After the welds were ground I had the corsets sand blasted and then I clear coated it, which is why it has that nice matt gray color. I hope to take pictures of them in the future actually on a person. I like the idea of how the flesh will be pressed out of the holes in the steel... I have always been fascinated with the blurry line between self-imposed, idealized beauty and the grotesque.

The dark body casts and the curved spine sculptures are all made out of gussasphalt, which is a mastic asphalt. It is a great material to form and cast with, because you can build it vertically. I have been fortunate enough to be one of a small handful of artists to use this to make sculptures out of. Heinz Aeschlimann, who the residency was with, owns a road surfacing company and has created the only large scale public artworks out of the material.

The body casts are a combination of gussasphalt and lace dipped in bitumen (which is like tar) I tried create a seamless transition between the surface of the skin and the lace. This work was similar in some ways to some of my old bronze cast corsets, where the skin becomes the garment. I enjoy that on these pieces, not only is the skin being laced up (or unlaced) but there is a second skin underneath.

The syringes are made out of steel, with bitumen appearing to flow out of the needles. I welded rods to pieces of Heinz's unused sculptures pieces to create a base for the bitumen flows. When bitumen is heated up it can be poured and cast, and then hardens and is ridged when cool. The glass vials at the top are actually antique wine bottles filled with a black liquid primer that is used for steel before applying asphalt - it helps make the asphalt stick to the steel.

Almost all of the materials used for the sculptures created during my residency were industrial materials from Aeschlimann international. I was lucky enough to have a well equipped studio, and a company that has everything from steel to recycled plastics to use.

I finally started cleaning up my studio here at home... so hopefully there will be new work following soon! Also, I am going to start looking for a gallery or alternative venue to reinstall my magnet piece "Artifacts of Memory", and I will post any news of that as well.