Studio over the North Atlantic

So far I have used this blog to as sort of a virtual studio. To show projects and ideas that are in progress or might never see the light of a gallery. It has been several months since my last post but my lack of writing has nothing to do with my creativity level. I have been very busy working on several commission projects and a few new sculptures.

Today I want to write about an inspiration instead of an action. I have always tried to follow my interests- investigate them thoroughly and hopefully they become fodder for my work.

At the moment I am totally absorbed by air traffic over the north atlantic. It sounds pretty strange, I know- but there is a alot here. It is the busiest air corridor in the world and also one of the most isolated and potentialy hostile.

I have the air trafic control frequency for Gander, Newfoundland playing on my studio computer. The controlers can't really talk to the plane once they get out over the ocean- they set them up with certain clearance containing altitude, precise speed, track, and time of entry and they funnel them onto this set of 6 or 7 skyways that are laterally separated.

Late in the afternoon pacific time is when many of the big jets are heading out eastward over the ocean for an arrival early in the morning in europe and asia, I am hearing flights receiving there clearance as they pass the maritime provinces of canada. Delta 72 from JFK to Itanbul, American 236 to Rome.

Coming back the other way in the morning and mid-day are westbound flights and the controllers are quizing them about the state of the air at their altitudes for the last several hours so they can pass the info on to the eastbounders.

There is something so exotic, dangerous, and romatic about it to me. To the people o the radio it is another day at the office. Navigating high above the north atlantic in the dark of night at 8/10th the speed of sound; It seems so brave and at the moment it is so interesting.

I am scheduled to do an artist residence on the north east corner of Newfoundland in the fall of 2010 . It is directly under these tracks. I know that focus will translate to something in my work, if not sooner than later.

Post bliss yuckiness

It has been longer then I would have liked since I wrote here. After hanging the two large works in the hospital and getting all of the documentation and loose-ends wrapped up, I am in that sweet place that I dreamed about since November; the land of no big projects to worry about.

Why am I not happier? Well, I do know the answer to that and it has taken me years to figure it out. The creative process and the energy spent getting a large piece finished and installed takes its toll.

It is a bit counter-intuitive. I thought that finishing a large work, getting paid, and feeling the sense of success and completion would lead to a high that would carry over into the next project. It doesn't work that way. Thinking it does only makes it that much harder to deal with the reality.

After a big creative and energetic push my energy tends to crash for a few weeks or even months. During this period I am forced to muddle through the details that I have been ignoring when I was working hard. It is depressing and slow. Sometimes in the past I felt so non-creative that I have gotten myself involved in other money making projects that, once the creative energy came back, I was not too happy to be doing. Learning what to expect and how to be patient through it has been a real learning curve.

I have to have faith that the creation will be back. Hopefully sooner than later.

Now, to address those envelopes and clean my studio. Blaaaa ;(

Color, hardcover Books!

I wrote a 20+ page book about the creation of each of my last two works, "Body Metaphoric" and "Insight". These can be purchased online. For the "Body Metaphoric" book go to

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/619570

For "insight" go to:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/617334

These books are super high quality and very nice. They can be ordered in soft and hardcover. Thanks for supporting my work!

Hanging the "Body Metaphoric"

Today was a big day. I have been working hard for months on the piece of art for the new addition of Providence Hospital, Hood River. The work was part of the "Youthful art of healing" program. For this piece, I worked with a class of tenth grade English students from The Dalles to identify positive metaphors regarding the human body.

The womans form is based on the famous painting called "the birth of Venus" by Bottacelli.

The work is made of 1/2 inch thick corian solid surface material. The overall work is made up of hundreds of small pieces glued together. The piece weighs 350 lbs and mountaing it to the wall was a real challenge. It is a real relief and pleasure to see it on the wall as part of the permanent art collection of the Hospital.









Special Thanks To:
Dave Adams OF Adams construction,
Micheal the corian master, Siv Lavell,
Norm, John, Clinton and Sarah @ Versatile Supply.
Joe T.
Jamie Guth and all the staff at Providence.



Scroll down to the previous post to see a few more production photos.

Install and progress

Well the first of the Providence Hood River Hospital art works was installed. The name of the work is InSight and it is two steel panels hung in the waiting room of the new radiology department. here are a few picks of loading installed view:




The other work "Body Metaphoric" is coming along and should be installed this next week if all goes to plan. Here are a couple of teaser photos:

110%

I have not updated the my studio blog for a while and it is not for a lack of action in my studio. I am working hard to get the two large works done for Providence Hood River Hospital. One of them is installed and the other, the corian work should be dont this week.

Doing large art is really like birthing a child- Conception is great fun and the excitement builds through the first trimester. AS it gets closer to being born the details and tactical decisions really start to weigh me down. Here I am at the end of the final trimester on a really big piece and the stress and excitement are both very high. It is a time when I am very creative: the creativity has nothing to do with the piece being born... it is a ton of new projects that are vying for their own time in the womb.

I love being an artist. It is really one of the hardest things I can imagine as I am always challenging myself with new materials techniques and scale. I tend to choose projects that are beyond where I am.
To do anything less than challenging wouldn't be interesting artistically. Am I different in this way? Do other artists feel the same drive to challenge the self? I feel like I am only really engaged in my work when it is 100% of my life energy.

I will ad some photos soon. Lots of photos taken, not so many made it to my computer...

Floppy work

I have managed to get the new rubber piece. The rubber is actually neoprene rubber. It is a relatively soft even for this material. I used Copper hog rings to put it together. Often I have to live with a work for a while to see which direction it will go. In this case I have several ideas. One is to have the sculpture start off in the collapsed form, as in this photo. It collapses very nicely. A clockwork mechanism will slowly pull the work upright to the point where it is totally suspended then it will slowly return to the colapsed state. The whole process would take 6 hours or so. a person seeing it in a gallery would see it in one form or another but probably not both (collapsed and extended).

The other way to take this is to extend the concept of the copper/rubber material into the idea of conductor/ insulator. One thought here is to create a copper frame on which to stretch the rubber sculpture.