We are in the trenches. It is official. Yesterday the muck, water and thorns, today the trenches. This is the very hardest / most uninspiring part of transforming debris into art. Step 1. Clean the material. It must be 100% as clean as humanly possible. This is material nobody wanted or saw the value in. We are reversing that fate. Cleaning the debris this way helps reveal hidden potential in it. You must be still to reflect. Like water. We are now reflecting upon unloved objects that are without a home or purpose. We must prepare the material for these gifts that we will bestow upon them. We will give them a home and a purpose.
Students worked diligently outside with spray hoses and scrub brushes, and inside with rags soaked in Citrasolv, scrub brushes and sinks to get their material clean. (We use a number of environmentally friendly cleansers to get the material clean enough to be safe to work with - mostly Seventh Generation products.)
Music is becoming increasingly necessary to help us get through one of the most challenging parts of this process, but we have to share the studio with others -- some of whom unfortunately do not appreciate relatively loud music. It is a challenge, just as is the broken ballast in the fluorescent lights which provides a horrible migraine-inducing buzz and evidently has been doing so for 7 years. My heart goes out to the faculty in the art department who have been working under these conditions for close to a decade! I am beside myself on that. The students are very frustrated by it as it is not at all conducive to success. We have only 2 options, either work in the dark or tolerate the mind numbing buzz. Making art worth looking at requires people to be sensitive and light... Woe be us.
SO students! What is trash? What is the opposite of trash? Opinions and ideas and thoughts about this are welcome and officially invited. Please use this blog to divulge your perspectives.
Below are pics of what some of the students are doing so far. Cleaning, organizing, arranging, preparing. We have until the end of Monday to get all the material to sculpt with clean and organized so that we can have enough time for assembly/sculpting.
P.S. One student, I found here after class displaying her enterprising spirit by enlisting some friends (who aren't taking this course) to help clean her massive collection of debris -- she has a rather ambitious project in mind and until I saw this I was a bit worried about her.... Bravo for finding a way to get through the trenches! If you can, you must.
For MONDAY: Students, you are each required to email me 1 written paragraph about your perspective on TAPPED before class starts at 9am. You are also required to read the chapter provided under required readings by Suzi Gablik before class. We will start class Monday with a discussion of this text.
Have a great weekend!
