Packing it All Up

Oh what fun! Not! But I did get some help for the day, one of my more enthusiastic students, Grace K. came and worked with me packing up all the artwork. So much easier when you have extra hands, especially since some of the works are awkward to handle. We got everything done and now I will finish up with a few pages of installation instructions. USArt will be here with their truck on Wednesday to pick up the work. It will be nice to get my living room back.

My flight reservations are confirmed and I will be in Moscow, Idaho on Monday, February 20th afternoon until late morning on Thursday, February 23. I am very excited, it's always fun to visit new places and be a part of local art communities.

Lots of Boats, mostly wood, some steel

Cast iron Greenland style paddles, very heavy

Oops!

More Work

Getting closer to installation day. Some new works finished and painted, rust on the new swamp shacks, and some new paint on one of the large boat frames. A few things are in the kiln now for a cone 10 reduction firing and that is it for new stuff. Now comes the work of cleaning, oiling and taking inventory and then packing all the works for the installation. Phew.

Updates

Ahhh, classes are finally over. With summer classes being every day of the week the work load is pretty amazing with little or no time to do my own work. I now get a two week break to do as much relaxing as I can and try and get some sculpture made. I have two ghost ships in the works in the school shop right now (it has AC!) but my work has been punctuated by many other little tasks that have come up and need to be taken care off. So I get a few hours and then I have to run off, come back for an hour and then I am off again. Oh well at least I am getting something done. I would really like to get some metal work done , but with the 100+ heat indexes we have been having I am simply not going out to work in the shop.

I finally got my contract for the North Carolina show and after studying the images and layout of the space I think I have come up with a good idea for the installation. I am excited! Physical help will be minimal so I am thinking about something that does not have a lot of hanging from the ceiling involved. I will probably do a wave effect; boats coming off the floor, in a tightly knit grouping that waves up onto the wall and back down again and so on and so forth. Of course their will be houses in their as well, of course.

In the fall my teaching schedule goes back to two killer studio days a week, Tuesday and Thursday all day with Wednesday being my office day. Friday many times ends up as a meeting day. I have a lot of work to do this fall, the early part devoted to this big installation in North Carolina and the later part of the winter and early spring devoted to the show in Florida. And somewhere in there will be the museum commission for up in Jackson. Whew! I am tired just thinking about it. It was interesting when I was talking to my students about my job and was explaining to them about how making work and having exhibitions was actually part of my job and that if I did not keep up with it I could lose my position. Most people don't understand that. They think that us faculty members have some cush life, teaching a few classes, making some "fun" art. Most people have no idea of the pressure we are under to perform, so to speak. Luckily I love what I do, even if the pressure is substantial, my love of my work and making that work outweighs all the negatives.

Here is a PR image from the Majestic National exhibition, you can see my work on the bases in the background.

New Sculpture

It's been a busy few weeks! Here are some updates on what's going on.

Jackson Museum of Art Project- It's been a while since I up dated this one. As you recall I am working with an other artist who is designing a fountain/splash pool for the new garden project and I am the head contractor and fabricator. The project keeps changing. A lot. I initially got paid for working on a model and driving up to the artist studio where we worked on the project for two days. Since then the model, which came to rave reviews, has seen numerous changes. All requiring new budgets and materials research. And the size of the project keeps getting smaller. It went from something big enough that I could employ a few folks with some summer work to now me maybe getting enough work out if it to survive, maybe. I have probably about an additional $1000 in additional billable hours and travel expenses but I can not invoice for any of it. It is also possible that the all the sculptural objects could get cut and then I am totally out in the cold. Which is why I am still working on it, in hopes it will come to fruition. Keep your fingers crossed! I am still loving the project and that is an even better reason to work on it.

My Business Plan- I have not mentioned this before, but I have been working on the many details to make my studio a real business. Most likely it will end up being Jen Torres Sculpture LLC. Sounds cool, right? But it is much work. Luckily for me the Mississippi SBDC (Small Business Development Center) is very active here and I have access to some great people (for free) who will work one-on-one with me to learn the ropes and get every thing set up. I went to my first class and am all jazzed, I know this is something I can do. My basic goal is simple- I eventually want to get out of teaching (love the students, hate the administrative BS) so that I may design, fabricate and sell my own work. This part, setting up a real business, is just the start; I have no intentions of quitting my job for many years. Writing up a business plan is hard work but very rewarding, I look forward to the rest of the journey.

My Sculpture- I finally got my last wax cast in Georgia. It came out OK, but the casting has a lot of burn in and I will have to do a lot of work to grind off the sand embedded in the surface. On another front I finally got time to photograph all of my other 'houses' for my web page, which I will up date in a week or so. So above I post for you a few of the many "houses" that are fast becoming a major part of my portfolio. It's important to remember that these range in size from 6" tall to over 17" tall, some are wood and some are iron and generally are shown in a grouping of 3 to 10 pieces or what I like to call a Village.

My Shows- I am waiting for my contract from East Carolina University for my solo show in October, all the details have been pretty much ironed out so things are set and that will act as a good goal date to work towards. I also just received an invitation from the Ormond Memorial Art Museum in Ormond Beach, Florida. It is a three person show in April of 2011. This is a tough one, as it is a very cool place to show, but they offer no compensation for travel or shipping. My work requires that I be present for installation so there could be some real expenses for a show that is a ten hour drive away. However, there is a good possibility for sales with this show and that might be the deciding factor for me as I forge ahead with my business plans. There are always risks, I just have to decide if I can afford this one. Anyway it might be a cool excuse to go visit the beach!