DAY 1 PROGRESS

 

The first day of Sculpture + Intercepting the Waste Stream went very well. Professor Ryan and I spent yesterday adjusting the studio to make room for the debris and the students to work with me. Students brought a variety of materials from the waste stream to work with ranging from food wrappers to soda bottles to tin cans. Some came with ideas, others just with material. We started cleaning and organizing their debris.

TOMORROW the class will meet at the red X at 9am. It is the intersection of Commerce Rd. and Statler Blvd at Stuart Hall School Athletic Fields. (Not at the In-Town Stuart Hall Campus). I did a preliminary scout of the river today with Joe McCue of Friends of the Middle River and Professor Paul Ryan from MBC. We saw a great deal of plastic debris. We also found thorns and poison oak/ivy. So! Students please wear long pants, hiking boots or rain boots if possible or crummy old sneakers if you don't have hiking boots. Make sure your ankles are covered. Make sure to put on some sun screen and bug spray if those are concerns for you. We will be providing leather and rubber gloves, trash grabbers, bags for collecting debris in etc... Be prepared to get muddy and wet.

If anyone has any questions about tomorrow morning please email me immediately! info@aurorarobson.com 

Thank you.

P.S. The votes are in! 7 Students chose "Interceptors" and 6 voted for "Rebirth". The rest split... So, the exhibit will be titled "Interceptors". Jolly good. Let the intercepting begin. 

POP-UP Exhibit Title Search

Today I am sending an email to the students to ask them to come up with a title for the exhibit we will be having at the end of the course out of the works they will make out of the trash they are collecting.

It will be at the Staunton-Augusta Arts Center (very generous and kind of them to let us use their space) and it will be open to the public as a fundraiser/auction. More details TBA.

I am sure the young ladies will make their debris into viable, covetable works of art in the 3 weeks we have. I will work closely with each of them to ensure they do and hope to have time to make a small piece of my own to include in the auction. I'm excited by the opportunity of using tree tubes m'self -- (see image below). Evidently there are plenty of these compelling objects littered about the rivers in Staunton and the surrounding areas.

Anyway does anyone have suggestions in terms of exhibit titles? 

My initial thoughts are:

Honoring Nature

Waste Management

Interceptors

Please share your ideas and any suggestions for titles - or you can just vote for one of the above.

Thank you! 

-Aurora

p.s. I've also just agreed to speak at the Annual Capstone Festival at Mary Baldwin College in order to honor the tradition of the Doenges Scholar giving a short talk at this festival. I almost never agree to speak without slides/images of my work on view as I am lost without my work... wish me luck!

RAW MATERIALS

Here are some of the raw materials students have collected in advance of the course to create their sculptures with. Very exciting variety of trash!