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!

DAY 2 Progress

RIVER CLEAN UP:  √

I am happy to report that all 17 students were in attendance today and were willing and able to get down and dirty in the muck of the Lewis Creek to clean up debris. We managed to haul two flatbed truck loads in the 3 hours we had to clean up.

We were so fortunate to have had help from Tom Yeago of Staunton's Lewis Creek Advisory Committee, Professor Bruce Dorries from Mary Baldwin College and Joe McCue from Friends of the Middle River. These gentlemen shared their valuable insight in terms of the health of this tributary with myself and the class. Joe's vast knowledge about the chemicals and excessive nutrients in the water and their impacts on all manner of life forms that are attempting to coexist in this delicate ecosystem was enchantingly informative.

It was perfect weather for a clean up. We had sufficient sunscreen, leather and rubber gloves, trash grabbers, bags, energy and spirit to clean up a substantial stretch of the creek.

How long of a stretch did we cover? Anyone care to guess?

We came up with items ranging from tires (many) an old television, tarps, gloves, shoes, beach balls, cups, bottles (galore), cans (galore) straws, styrofoam, plastic corrugated tree shelters (dozens), food wrappers, golf balls (many), planters, hub caps, a barrel or two, trash bins, dog bowls, caps, and all sorts of other mysterious objects of which I will provide further documentation tomorrow.  

Many students found choice items to use in creating their sculptures. Cleaning up debris is completely different when it is hunting for art supplies at the same time. I suspect the class actually enjoyed the process - I know I did. Here are some pics....

P.S. Sad note: so, it turns out that Lewis Creek is full of PCBs. (Signs stating this were posted on trees - all along the creek.) So, one student asked me what exactly are PCBs? Well that is a good question! Here is the answer: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of manufactured organic chemicals that contain 209 individual chlorinated chemicals that are believed to impair neurological development of children, to be harmful to the human reproductive system, cause cancer, be harmful to the immune system, and are endocrine disruptors. PCBs are especially problematic as they are the type of chemical that increases in concentration as they move up the food chain. Oh bother.

I trust all students have showered properly and check yourself for ticks too!

We will meet Professor Dories at 9am tomorrow outside the studio to collect the remainder of the covetable debris items that you've collected that are in the back of his truck. Hopefully we can get our paws on a hose outside of Deming to clean some of this trash with tomorrow. Dress messy gang.

And... B R A V O ! Job well done!

P.P.S. Reminder, tomorrow night -- Screening #1 Tapped  7:00 p.m. Deming Rm. 105 *Attendance required.

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!