DAY 9: Only 3 days of sculpting left!

YIKES! The pressure is on, but whenever I feel stressed (as most of the students do at this point) I think about how diamonds form. Try impersonating a diamond. Let the pressure make things clear as opposed to blurry. Let your points be made and make them sharp and true. Remember, a deadline is a gift. Pretty much all artists need deadlines in order to complete work. This is a crucial part of any artistic practice, sharing what you've completed with the public. The public helps determine the cultural value of your work - if any.  To have the gift of people from the public paying attention to what you are doing is something to be appreciated - but you must prepare for it. It is time to start preparing your work for some serious scrutiny - every decision you make that affects your piece is crucial. However, you must practice making decisions in order to get good at making them. It is a little scary, but this course is an exercise designed to help you on a number of levels. One of which is to determine if a career in fine art is for you. I am also here to help you start developing the skills you will need so you can be taken seriously as an artist - if you so chose. The water is fine, really, but there are all sorts of creatures in it, with varying degrees of intelligence and sensitivity... So there is that. 

Fortunately, some transformation is making itself visible! I am delighted to see evidence of the ideology I am sharing with the students manifesting itself in the objects that these young people are creating. Beautiful reflections of their inspiration, refined and carefully (care being the operative word) executed - this is when and how poetry starts resonating from an object made of debris.

It is clear to me that some students spent time working over the weekend in the studio, though not the majority. (Which surprises me as they have so little time!) Organizing your time and scheduling yourself is crucial. If you think you might want to be a professional artist, you need to be professional about it. You will need to be your own boss and not let yourself be a lazy negligent worker. Honor your vision, your time, your practice -- then others will follow suit.

Here is what today looked like in the studio:

Lotus flowers from aluminum cans... with such a dreamy quality!

Celtic Tree of Life in colorful packaging, on a tree shelter

PVC pipe phonograph? Is it possible?

Suspended works finding hang points...

Play ground part + 2 liter PET bottles = fish

High density polyethylene bird coming to life

Aluminum + Polyethylene Terephthalate Bird Forming

Pink foam from Lewis Creek = Earth

Mixing colors to apply w/airbrush. Ratio = 2 parts Polycrylic:1 part H20

And a bag of lovingly created urchins + anemones from a mix of HDPE + PET plastics...

TOMORROW: Bag it screening at 7pm at Francis Auditorium. Open to the public! This film is incredibly informative, uplifting and empowering - especially compared to a lot of the other films we've watched that have been more sobering. Invite people you care about, the more you know the more you can protect yourself and the planet! Spread the knowledge you've gained and see what can be accomplished.

DAY 8 Progress

Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot

We started the day with donuts from Rolling Pin (5 star home made local donuts delectable!) for all and a brief discussion of the reading from The World Without Us which I could tell most of them hadn't read. A few did and they had lights on in their eyes and made it quite evident to me. But, I am not going to hold a grudge against them - they have a lot to do at this point. In fact, in lieu of the crunch time at hand for the students, I've opted to eliminate 2 of the readings I had planned to assign. I am replacing one with a 20 minute video that you can watch via The Story of Stuff website (Bravo Annie Leonard!). I have asked all students to watch it and please post a comment to our class blog with their perspective on it before class on Monday.

I want to stress to students to try to take turns looking at the big picture and the details, as much as possible from this point forth. I know is really hard with the lighting problem in the studio but this is the critical phase of their creations. Also, I'm asking students to stop to consider the foundation for their sculptures - whether it be a practical solution for how to wall mount their relief, a stable foundation for a standing piece or establishing a hang point for a suspended piece, this aspect should be addressed before too much more fabrication takes place - if any. It is easy to get lost in art making and forget these important issues and end up in a quandry later on.

That said, I am glad to see more effort being put in by most of the students. Effort makes itself apparent. Effort has a value. Art reveals everything the artist is thinking and doing. It is a window into the soul of the artist. There should be no automatic decisions. Kill your autopilot, love what you love to the fullest, make that your focus, and then you will make unique work that will resonate. Easy as pie. But you must think it all the way through, for yourself. Straight from the Aurora advisory board. Ha.

Good news: Thanks to Professor Sconyers (who has work in an exhibit called Printmaking Perspectives opening tonight at The Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton from 5:30-7:30) we managed to get our paws on a mini-airbrush that he loaned us for the duration of the class. It is so much more efficient and good for the work we are doing then using Prevals - which are simple and quite useful, but also very fussy & require an extremely light touch to get a consistent paint application. They really require some getting used to.

Okay, signing off for the weekend! I expect the students to be here diligently working in order to achieve their respective goals... If you are reading this send them some love and feel free to comment and cheer them on!

Note the reusable BPA free water bottle...

Don't forget to breathe & be conscious of your breath!

Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot Kill Your Autopilot

DAY 7 Progress

Tree shelters and cigarette boxes...

Slowly the studio is transforming into a refinery of sorts. The students are starting to consider each step they take a bit more. It is a way of looking at "things" and our relationship to things that leads to a more conscientious life - practicing being considerate. It opens up a whole new sense of appreciation. I am interested in helping people develop their senses - all of them, whenever I can. The more sensitive and appreciative you are the more you can enjoy your life. If you master this, you will start to find joy in smaller things, you will find you need less. You will start to see waste or debris for what it really is: Abundance. You will become less of a burden on the environment as a result and find you want to only share things of true value (work, craft, care, conceptual richness, etc...) as opposed to merely rearranging and recontextualizing debris.

Turns out the big blue Lewis Creek object is from the "little tikes" company circa 1984. The student working with it discovered that when she cleaned the sides. Part of a vintage playground indeed...

A metal heart is forming & the Tin Man is salivating.

Precision,  intention & care being applied to tin cans.

Poor man's silver leaf experiment.

Focusing! How beautiful the world is -- especially when you see it clearly.

FOR TOMORROW: Please remember to read Chapter 9 of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman for discussion at the beginning of class.

DAY 6 Progress

Light is finding its way into the studio - despite the lack of actual lighting! Sparks are going to start flying. Yesterday was pretty dark to be honest. I was getting so very worried about the students... a few of them in particular were striking me as painfully misguided -- setting themselves up for failure. I didn't have a chance to speak with any of them at the picnic, as I was rather occupied by a small active human I know and love who seems to be quite attached to me these days. But alas! A new day! Light came to join its dark friend. To break up the darkness and start striking a balance... of sorts. To dance. You must have both. Always... It is and always remains -- like change, one of the few constants. Bravo to the interplay, the dance, the battle, the wrestling match that is art. (I like to envision Sumo wrestlers myself, but the more local Mexican variety will do just fine!)

Many of the students are starting to crystallize their visions and start actually creating.

The ones that had the most challenge at the outset are starting to shed old skins and become raw and vulnerable and open -- that is precisely when you find your truth. It is often so hard to accept that the real answer to this process comes from love -- always. Find what you love and follow it. Love it more. Love loving it. Consider why you love it. Explore your love - how broad a territory does your love span? How deep is it? How long can it last? Where does it lead you? Will it lead you to more love? Are you equipped to follow it? Do you need a hammer to go there? A Dremel? A jigsaw? Some scaffolding? Following and exploring your love is an interesting journey that will challenge you but reward you along the way. Like marriage. Like being a parent. Study this incredible thing you are capable of - love. Study it through debris! What a radical notion! This unloved object deserves to be the recipient of love. It has been without love for so long. Your love it yours to shed upon any object or activity you chose.  Your piece of debris has been waiting for someone patient, caring, and thoughtful to recognize its potential to practice being a loving human being with it and raise its lowly status. The students are beginning to understand the way this incredibly challenging but rewarding type of artistic practice works. But still, a great deal of work must be done and sufficient lighting would really, really, really help....

I started the day by asking the students to create a schedule for themselves to help them visualize how they need to structure their time in order to finish.  A day by day plan. This helped many of them recognize that they need to get cracking and that they might need to simplify their ideas. Some didn't realize exactly how little time they have for this. Simplicity is something I think we all appreciate in life and often the most beautiful sublime and conceptually complex pieces of art are quite simple.

Here is what today looked like:
 

I showed them the simple technique of using a Preval to spray whatever color of paint (non-toxic water based kind) onto their debris so that they can alter the colors. That process takes quite a bit of patience and an extremely light touch, but I think the concept of using color is exciting to many.

To add to the light today, an extremely generous member of the Staunton community - Paul Borzelleca, the owner of Modernboy Woodshop on Middlebrook Ave. has kindly loaned the class a bunch of tools! Without a pre-existing sculpture studio at MBC, I have been struggling to help the students achieve their ideas. 1 jigsaw simply hasn't been enough to go around. We now have a second Dremel, a cordless drill, some cube taps, clamps galore, and extra extension cord, an orbital palm sander, some rasps and more to use for this class. What a gift! Plus Professor Ryan, Professor Jim Sconyers and I got to visit the incredible shop that Paul Borzelleca built today. It is truly an inspiring place. Regardless, on the behalf of all the students enrolled, I think a big fat thank you to Paul Borzelleca is in order... Students feel free to thank him yourselves on his Tumblr page.... (link above).

And a quick reminder students, WASTE LAND is screening tonight at 7pm in 105 Deming. If you can't be there -- just watch it on Netflix tonight and be sure to post 1 paragraph with your thoughts on it before class tomorrow.

Onward & Upward! 

DAY 5 Progress

Food packaging finding friends by color...

Immaculate Lewis Creek debris + evidence of planning

Students are beginning to find ways to work with this material. It is incredibly challenging for most of them - but if it were easy would it be worth doing or teaching?
What is the point of anything easy? Does it expand our knowledge or understanding of anything?

This process usually become increasingly enjoyable after the cleaning is done.  I suspect that will be the case from this point forward for most of the students. Once you land on an achievable goal, it is just a matter of doing the work. Typically it becomes a pleasant meditation at around this juncture.

One of the hardest things I've noticed for many is the idea of "transformation". It is essential. In creating art from debris -- we want to avoid making "sculptures"  that are really just garbage put together in the shape of a tree or the shape of a moon or a bird or something else. To really transform the material is the key - taking time with each component to make it worthy of inclusion in an exhibit - to have light shine on it and draw attention to it. A piece of art is a series of decisions you make - open to scrutiny. Every choice you make is a reflection of you as an artist.  Making the garbage aspects recede and the art aspects come to the forefront are highly advisable. A rough, torn, tattered background with a refined and lovingly rendered foreground is one solution... that is an interesting option if you have an ambitious project in mind without enough time to refine every component. 

A practice paper peony!

I am excited to see what they do.

I am doing my best to provide them with the appropriate tools, conceptual guidance and technical advice. Here is some of what is going on:

The satisfaction of using a Dremel to soften rough edges...

Exceptionally organized work area + deconstruction.

A question for all of us to ponder. Why are we here?

May the transformation begin!

An inspired work table.

Tonight we have a class picnic at Professor Ryan's house. Very nice as there is a lot of pressure in the studio with such little time. An extra week would solve a lot of problems - students really only have 8 days to get their pieces together and there are still many learning curves to traverse. Fortunately, the majority of them don't have any other courses they are taking at the moment and anticipated needing to put a lot of time in the studio. For those projects that are on the overly ambitious side, I am stressing QUALITY over QUANTITY.

Now that a jigsaw and dremel are set up, I hope to see some serious progress in the next couple of days. Save a few who are still working out their basic concepts, I think we are off to a great start.

May the transformations begin!

DAY 4 Studio Day

Citrasolv soaking bottles...

The day started with donuts (thanks to Professor Paul Ryan) and a somewhat lively discussion of the last chapter of Suzi Gablik's The Re-enchantment of Art.  I think Suzi Gablik would be pleased at the impression her text made on the class. Everyone seemed to agree that art is far better when it is engaged and engaging with others...

And then, what should be the last day of cleaning commenced. We did it in the relative dark as the buzzing lights give us no mercy. Scrubbing, scraping, sanding, soaking and cursing a bit the students rolled up their sleeves and muscled through.

Trash is dirty, dark, unloved. We have this opportunity to make it clean, full of light and give it love so that it is not what it was. Thoughtfully considering what is still great about these objects - focusing on that... What is it about this big blue object that compelled this student to spend hours cleaning it?

Big blue mysterious object courtesy of Lewis Creek.

She saw something. It is a massive cerulean blue object that was polluting the creek... slowly photo-degrading. She is tackling it and daring to take it out of the inappropriate context it found itself in and raise its status. This process is akin to what happens when you fall in love with a person - for some time, you can only see the best parts of them they become elevated, enveloped in a mystifying glorious light of some sort.

Cleaning debris allows us to be seduced by debris - it slows us down to see hidden potential in a profound way. By paying very focused attention to the way your trash behaves when you clean it you become intimate with it (perhaps frustrated that it doesn't want to bend to your whim) but you persevere. What is the option? Art doesn't make itself. Aurora Robson won't just give out As. Giving up is likely the most boring thing a person can do and the easiest route is usually one that has been widely traveled and all the fruit from the trees has already been picked there... get out the sickle and hack away at the thorns. That is how you create and find your path. 

So. Instead of giving up, you become informed about how your material will respond. The dance (or battle) of making a work of art begins. You start to see and respect the limitations of your material. Does it release dirt particles better with this brush or that? Is it brittle or flexible? Does light pass through it? Is it strong or flimsy? Are the murmurings of grace hiding beneath its surface waiting for you to eliminate excess so it can reveal itself? Get to the core of what works with your debris, free it from whatever ails it. Remove the excess. Trim the fat. Get to the point. Make a point. Think about why you want to make what you want to make. Be kind and honest with yourself.

Once you've discovered what the best things are about this piece of debris, figure out how can you highlight those positive attributes in order for them serve your vision of what you think needs to exist in this world. Anything you chose to create - as long as you do it with honesty and intention, will be better than pollution --- but will it be art?

Mysterious plastic object from Lewis Creek.

Lewis Creek PVC pipe getting a bath.

Metal from the creek with river barnacles of glass + mud glue.

Clean river debris awaiting its fate.

DAY 3 Progress

STUDIO DAY working with Lewis Creek debris | The TRENCHES

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!