Update

The meeting went very well with the Museum. Yay! They really do love my work and in the end I will make 9 pieces for the garden for a two year loan and then they will keep three for their permanent collection. So far that is what we have worked out and I am pretty happy with outcome. In addition they were very happy with my model and graphics and in the end the model stayed with them. Drawing of water garden area of sight. Image copyright by Madge Bemmis Architect.

I did get an email yesterday about possibly changing locations. The landscape architect is worried about the young trees blocking views of my work in the original location and wondered if a spot right in the water garden beds might be more appropriate and visible. I kind of like the idea. I love gardening and to see them with in that context would be super. In the end they are leaving the decision to me, so that I, "...feel that the setting honors the concept of your art". Pretty cool I think. I am waiting for some images to be emailed so that I can look at the whole picture and make an informed decision.

In the mean time I an working on layouts for the bench that I am fabricating for artist Martha Ferris for the same art garden. Soon I should have funds in hand to order the stainless for that project and get it going.

Today and over the next few days I will be practicing my tig welding on some other projects as I work out some possible designs for my the pieces in my commission.

Still Working

The museum project is moving along, at least I am pretty sure... I have received digital renderings from the architect, Madge Bemiss, and have a spot designated for my work. I was asked to take my preliminary drawings and merge them into the renderings so we all could begin to get a sense of the scale and space and what the sculpture will look like installed. I am not savvy on the fancy 3D computer programs (yet another skill to learn...) so I did some drawings in Corel and imported the renderings as a background. A little tough to do much manipulation but I was still pretty happy with them. After looking at them for a while I decided the drawings were not giving me enough information so I made a real 3D model and after placing a standard 6' (actually 6") figure next to the works I decided the sculptures in the model were too tall. So I did a few additional quick sketches, scanned them and sent them off to Madge and the museum this morning.

The model is proving to be challenging and fun. The scale images of the sculptures were done out of steel, very small pieces, and tig welded together, not so fun when the studio is only 34F. I then made the background/landscape out of MDF. I only made three steel maquettes and then a handful of simple shapes out of rods and wood that are to be used for placement and height arrangement. The base of the model has a number of holes so the pieces can be moved around and the rods and top pieces can be interchanged so that I can look at every conceivable possibility for arrangements. It has come out pretty well and after taking another look at it Sunday evening I cut down the pieces some so they are a bit lower.

I have another meeting at the museum today and I guess I'll find out more about it then. Maybe I am jumping the gun with making the model so early, but then again it is a working model and I have learned a ton from making it.