Up Dates and the Faculty Show

The most recent news about the 'water park' project, for lack of a better name, is good. Martha and I meet with Madge Bemis, Betsy Bradley, Ed Blake, Dan Piersol, Ed Magowan and a few others, to talk about the various components of the new art park and water gardens going into the museum site. It was very exciting. Madge Bemis and Ed blake are super stars in their respective areas of architecture and just to be spending time with them was an honor. There were a few questions about our proposal, some about the imagery that Martha covered and some about structure that I covered. But for the most part the project is ours! Yea! A bit of money for the summer months will be great, never mind the fact that that this is a super project and will represent a first, in the art realm, for Jackson Mississippi.

More details to be worked on, a few budget items to be re-figured, and hopefully in a few months we will start working. Hopefully some pictures later too.

On another note we just had the opening of our biennial faculty show in the USM Museum of Art. I showed some newer boats and then for the first time put together the 'house' piece called Homes for Everyone. With all the stuff going on in Haiti it seemed so weirdly appropriate. I love how the different materials, scales and colors come together in this work and am excited about doing more if them.

My big solo show in Tennessee is coming up in a month and a half. I have a tone of work to do!

Been too Long!

Gosh I am so remiss in my posting! The business of being an academic along with the holidays has conspired against me in a big way!

However, I have not been idle. I am still working on finishing my 'houses', but since my studio has no heat and it is 16F out right now I will dispense with and shop work until it is a bit warmer. Just a bit.

Currently I am working on a project with another Mississippi artist, Martha Ferris on a proposal for a sculptural water part up in Jackson at the MS Museum of Art. It's a hug project that involves all kinds of gardens and art and we are responsible for just one part of it all. Martha envisioned the original plan and called me to work with her as head fabricator and subcontractor on the project. Our part consists of what are called splash pools with a variety of animal forms that rise up from the floor and are covered with mosaic. It will be bright and big and lots of fun. Madge Bemiss is the architect for the whole project and I am excited to work with her as she has a very creative vision as a designer. Last week Martha and I finished the maquette for the committee to view this week. We have been working on budgets and time lines and it has been a lot of work!

The budget for water park part of the project is $200,000. I will be responsible for building the three dimensional shapes around her 2D drawings and concepts. Martha is an amazing artist and I love her imagery and color, that makes working on this project even easier. We think that we will use a ferro-cement method of building, but that might change as the process goes forward. First armatures will be constructed out of steel and mesh and then covered in ferro-cement. Check out this LINK for some fascinating information on this style of work. Once the pieces are in place at the museum another team will take over the detailed work of covering all the objects with mosaic. Next week the committee will look at it and then we will see from there if they approve the project or want changes and such. I am keeping fingers crossed.