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.

Idaho Reception and Final Install

The trip to Idaho and the Prichard Art Gallery went well. Transcontinental flights are not for the faint of heart and it takes almost a day to get from home to where I was finally headed in Moscow, Id. Once there, and completely exhaused, I meet artist Christine Destrempes and her assistant Will Broussard. We would all be house mates for the next few days and thankfully they were some of the coolest folks I have meet and we all got along really well.

Gallery director Roger Rowley had done an excellent job installing most of my pieces and we had a few last things to install before the reception two nights later. During the next couple of days I got to talk to three classes in sculpture and ceramics from the University of Idaho, which this gallery is affiliated with. I really like the fact that the gallery was downtown and not on campus. It gave the gallery a more professional appeal and visibility in the community. 

The reception, which correlated with the opening of the local jazz festival, was well attended and I met lots a great people and had many interesting conversations about my work. The gallery staff was very accommodating and professional. All in all I had a super experience and would like to thank them, especially Roger, for all their hospitality and for providing transportation and a nice place to stay. I also want to thank The University of Southern Mississippi for understanding the importance of such an event and helping me with the airfare.

The opening reception

 

Final installation. Photo C. Destrempes



Final installation. Photo C. Destrempes



Final installation. Photo C. Destrempes

The beautiful landscape of the Palouse, in western Washington and eastern Idaho.

Engineers and Such

Work progresses slow right now. Had a few hiccups to deal with in the process for the commission for the Mississippi Museum of Art. The most notable one had to with a requirement by the Museum for me to have an engineer OK the installation details of the commission piece. I will admit this was unexpected and after I got over my initial unease with the matter I went ahead and contacted the suggested engineering firm to hire them to do the drawings for the pole attachments and the slabs bases for the sculptures.

This is a first for me and it indeed was an unexpected expense. I was however pleasantly surprised with the outcome. I had design in mind for the flange system that would bolt down to the concrete slabs for installation and after furnishing the firm, or specifically Tom Schaefer, with a pdf file of my drawing along with specific information about height, material weights, etc, he came back with virtually the same design as I. The only changes were some minor additions in the width of the flange and specific information on the steel thickness and anchor depth and size. In the end I found it was nice to have a real drawing of the items and now know that my idea has been run through the figure mill and will work just fine.

My dealing with Tom and and the Structural Design Group have been easy and fast. He replied to emails right away and was clear with me on costs and any structural issues. If I needed something explained I could call and talk to him personally. I highly recommend this firm and Tom for any structural work any artist might have. I feel very confident knowing than my piece has the firms mark on it. I know I will use him again in the future and now know to make sure these kinds of issues are brought up at the onset of any consultation for future installations and/or commission works.