Redefined

Modern Materials gallery space

As I've mentioned before, I am curating a national invitational exhibit of exceptional art quilts, Modern Materials, for an Oklahoma City gallery, Untitled[ArtSpace, scheduled for July-August, 2009. A couple of weeks ago, I traveled to OKC and took pictures of the space, plus did some planning with the staff.

Here is a picture of part of the main gallery space. I couldn't stand back far enough to get everything into the picture because of a couple of movable walls that were in my way. There are also two side galleries that you cannot see. All in all, there's about 8,000 square feet of space for me to fill. The pillars are 16' apart and the ceiling is 13' high, if that gives you some sense of the size. The strange white artwork that sits on the floor in the back left of the picture is a wonderful installation work by Petah Coyne, not Cousin Itt from the Addams Family.

Yesterday, I finished creating a scale model of the gallery out of foam core, scaled at 1/4" = 1 foot. I plan to print itty bitty pictures of the artwork and use them to figure out the placement of everything. If you see the pillar to the left of the entryway, that's about where I was standing when I took the picture above, facing toward the opposite corner.  Now all I need is a white rat to run throughout the model, looking for cheese. It would drive my cat crazy except she's the only cat I've ever known who has let mice run all over her body and even rescued a baby mouse in distress.

I also started a curator's blog documenting the exhibit. I will be writing about the planning process, plus highlighting the artists and the work that will be in the show. If you would like to follow along, here is the link. Feel free to subscribe using the Feedblitz link in the left column. I have to admit that this post is very much like one of the posts I published for the new blog today, but I also wrote about one of the artists, Angela Moll. Given time, I will write about the rest of the 23 artists, in no particular order.

Convoluted

Here is another new artwork I recently created, called Convoluted. It's the fourth one in this particular style, following Discombobulated, Melted and Tangled. The quilt is 2 inches wide by 10 yards long and is installed on site, so it will be different every time. As shown here, it's probably about 6-8" high by 14"x 14". I made this because artwork is generally considered to be "old" after only two years and the others have been so successful that I felt it was time to make one more. I dearly love the color scheme and wondered whether to put a black binding on it, but I'm glad I did.

It may appear as though I've used all the colors in the rainbow, but if you look closely, you will see that there is no purple. When I create a piece that has lots of colors, I will often leave one out on purpose. For some reason, this makes the color scheme a little more interesting even though you may not consciously know that something is missing.

I'm not going to sign it until January, 2009. Officially completing it in 2009 instead of 2008 makes it seem so much younger, even if the binding ends up turning prematurely gray.

Miscalculated

I've been beseiged by paperwork, dental appointments, trips to various places and other non-creative activities for quite a while but this week was blissfully free of any. so I've been taking the time to work in my studio. I've almost finished the piece shown here, called Miscalculated. It's fairly large, at 65" high by 52" wide. The colors shown are not totally accurate, but my photographer will do better.



Miscalculated is even living up to its name. I was sewing a black trim around the inside section and ran out about two inches from the end. I was sure I'd purchased a yard more than I needed. So, the dilemma now is whether I leave it the way it is, purposely fix it sloppily so the error is still visible or buy some more trim and fix it fairly invisibly.

Tom Otterness and his "Millipede" sculpture

On Wednesday, the Ulrich Museum of Art here in Wichita welcomed a new sculpture by Tom Otterness into its collection. The Ulrich, which is part of Wichita State University, already has one of the top ten outdoor sculpture collections on U.S. college campuses and this was one more (and very giant) feather in their cap.

Tom Otterness, a Wichita native who now lives in New York City, was there for the dedication. This picture shows Millipede (affectionately known as Millie) with the dedication wreath around her neck.  I took pictures of the sculpture without the wreath earlier in the afternoon, but there was a crowd around her at all times, making her difficult to see. All of the feet rest on the ground with the exception of one back foot, which is being helped along by a very little female creature. The dedication included a street party complete with music and refreshments, an original dance by members of a choreography class at WSU and speeches by about 50 million people. OK, it really wasn't 50 million. In fact, the speeches ended quite a bit earlier than planned. The director of the Ulrich, Dr. Patricia McDonnell, was the MC.

After the dedication, everyone convened at the campus theater for a Powerpoint presentation by Tom. He talked about his career and how he made the Millipede in particular. Apparently, as the sections of the sculpture were joined together, the workers had to crawl inside to weld the joints. He indicated that he probably wouldn't make another piece that way again.

On my way back to the car, I took a couple of other pictures. One was of the ivy that was climbing the museum walls and turning colors for the Fall, which I thought was very beautiful all by itself. The other was of a work by Andy Goldsworthy, called the Wichita Arch. A tree is planted underneath the middle of the arch and will interact with the structure of the arch as it grows over time.