the show is installed. on sunday i met pete brown and craig martin at artists' own to begin the mural and install the show. i threw some fionn regan on the stereo and away we went. my piece is a gigantic sculpture that sits in the middle of the floor, and pete and craig covered the walls with their work. none of us really had any idea what the others were going to be showing, but in the end, the work is very consistent and shows very well together.
craig is showing mostly tree and flower abstractions,
pete has stencil work of celebrity and pop culture icons,
and i have an installation of a movie theater with the midwest existential film inside.
then, there's the collaboration.
as we were installing we got started on a new mural, right on the walls of the gallery. we laid down washes of color and then began adding in details. i printed several pattern sections, pete added some graphic arrows, and craig added a tree and a flower. now we are leaving it up to the audience to finish the work. that's right: we are inviting our audience to continue our work on the wall. this is a great participatory concept for the people of our community. art is meant to be inspiring right? what better way to inspire than to just give people the opportunity to contribute to a work of art. we are documenting it day by day as it changes and will show the process and completion of the piece by the end of the show. after the success of the white board from the children's book show, i'm hoping that this larger installation will get the same kind of attention.
it's been a long last several days trying to get everything finished up, and if the truth be told, i'm still not done. i've still got several things to make and install, before the opening reception on friday. i've got all the art made, now i've just got to finish the products, and get them down there and priced for sale. it's always a struggle for me to do the small things that will help my art make money. i've finished the idea, built the installation, and created a world for people to encounter. now i have to give the something to buy. but if i don't make some money, i won't be able to do the next piece. so it goes with the territory. but i know me too. when mindy and i go the museum, if we see a show that blows our minds, we often buy the book at the gift shop or some other bit of memorabilia. these things are important to experiential art, for the same reason that people buy a little something from a vacation or a concert or a sports event. it's a memory of a moment, and memento to spark it. so it's off the to the studio for the rest of the day to finish this stuff up.
our opening reception is on friday. we'll have the full regalia for the movie, and have even considered spilling some soda on the floor to give it that bit of extra reality. sit and stick to the floor. nothing like peeling your shoe bottoms from the darkened concrete floor, not really knowing what stuck you there.
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