A Village Comes Together

Another week of good work punctuated by a morning off installing artwork in the lobby of the Liberal Arts Building on Southern Miss campus in town here. The installation went perfect thanks in no small part to the physical plant guys who worked hard to make sure it all went smooth. I also want to thank Dean Steve Moser and the College of Arts and Letters as the project was mainly his idea. Here's pictures of the final install. I really love how it looks and this is by far the best location for this installation, I am calling it Life is But a Dream.

Image by Matthis Piel

Image by Matthis Piel

Work continues on Homes for Everyone and now a small village is beginning to take shape. Lots more work to do as I build additional structures and do all the finishing work.Since I am teaching a morning ceramics class and an on-line Art Appreciation class my studio time to work on this sculpture can be very tight. Of course on Friday evening when working on the piece I sprained my ankle real bad and was on crutches for a day. Bummer. Shit happens and you just have to deal with it. It forced me to slow down an bit and in the end I had an excellent Sunday in the studio and got more done than anticipated even though I was limping around a bit. The ankle is getting better, so no worries!

Things Are Coming Along.

I have been very busy and seems things will get even busier every soon. On Wednesday I will be installing one of my Red Boat installations in the lobby of the Liberal Arts Building on the USM campus. Dean Moser has been asking for some time now about having an art installation and now is the time. Folks are welcome to come by anytime on Wednesday to see what is going on.

The Homes for Everyone project comes along well too. Anyone who builds anything knows that there is always some anxiety until the first one is fabricated and standing. Until that time I am always hoping my engineering and design work is on track, but it's not until after the first one is done that I can feel some relief knowing now that the rest of the process will happen a bit easier. Now, if I could only get a good period of undisturbed time to work!

Here are more images from the last week.

House parts, plasma cut and edges ground

A better way to cut windows and doors

The house all welded up

Building the base that goes under the house

The house on its base, one of my students K.W., demonstrating how you can get in and look out the windows. In some of the smaller homes this will not be possible.