An opening and a new phase

Heighten, Fire Extinguisher detailThere were certain things I wanted to see in place for the opening that night. I was exhausted, running on too little sleep (I had worked on site till 10 the night before and come home wired) and these magic green Chinese pills from a friend that were thankfully drying up the last of the cold that wouldn't die.

It was the kind of state where the slightest irritation feels unbearable - someone talking too loudly too near you in the hall, someone asking you how you're doing when you're obviously in a frenzy - I had no reserves to handle anything more than the work I was doing.

It's amazing how the vision of something can drive you forward...

I kept working till 4:30. The opening was at 6. I kept telling myself this was unnecessary - no one could possibly know what I had in my head that I wanted to see, and besides, the whole point is that this is a work in progress - yet at the risk of feeling like I was cramming for midterms, I kept at it till the emergency cutoff time sounded on my phone and I forced myself to climb down off the vending machine where I was working. Stubborn I guess, or just plain excited about my idea, despite the exhaustion.

I made it home on the bus, showered and changed into the dress version of what has become my default look of a black miniskirt, black/gray top, black boots and tights or for this occasion, macro polka dot nylons. I felt myself slowly reviving and shifting into opening mode.

What a night. The University Heights folks did a beautiful job of making the place welcoming and warm, with a hearty food and drink table and a nice display about the project and the center. The sounds of live jazz guitar drifted from the landing on the stairs. People began trickling in and by 7:15 or so there was a wonderful crowd and a buzz. It was especially good to see so many of my students, several of whom had contributed their skills and hours of their time to the project.

I know it's a good opening when I don't take a single picture. I wish I had but for once, it didn't even occur to me. I was too busy talking and enjoying myself.

It was a huge milestone and I've been recuperating the past couple of days, getting ready to go back in for the next phase. The piece is well on its way but as the gigantic three-dimensional painting I envision, its many parts are not quite yet doing what I want them to do.

It will take many more hours of work to see if I can close the gap between my idea and my realization of it. It's never an entirely closeable gap and things keep morphing, but I'm going to keep going till I emerge with some version of the plan that satisfies me. What more can an artist do?

The edge of madness. Also, Sol le Witt at Mass MoCA

Photo by Elizabeth Emery MoriOkay "madness" is a little dramatic but I am a touch delirious after a day of teaching followed by a night of installing. Tape and tape and little bits of paper and more tape...I never get as much done as I'd like, but it's coming.

I put in a solid ten hours on Monday and it felt great. I've been stressed out about how much there still is to do and how few blocks of time I have to do it. While I can get a fair bit done in one spot in two hours, there's nothing like an unbroken stretch where I can dig in, spread out, and cover ground.

It's pretty funny really as the entire thing is self-imposed. This project is for no reason other than that I feel compelled to do it. I'm an artist, so help me God (please, like could you magically extend this ladder so I can reach the ceiling, that would be huge).

You'd think the most efficient thing when faced with seeming acres of wall to cover would be to keep it minimal, yet perversely I tend to get more elaborate. For me efficiency is making it work in a way that I like. I do best when I'm excited about the plan.

Each area of the piece now has a name - the Smear, the Pour, the Drip, the Sonic Boom, the Sol le Witt Awning...this last along with the Fire Extinguisher may be my favorite part. It's influenced by my trip to Mass MoCA in December and the Wall Drawings I saw there, filling three floors and my eyes with geometry, color, line and shape, ideas bursting in every variation le Witt could conceive.

My tribute is ripped, cut and stuck, and very much not measured or ruled.

Today I found that with the direct sun on that wall in the afternoon (there was in fact some sun today) some of the strips had peeled off the wall or delaminated as I said wryly to myself as if giving it a technical name might help me maintain a calm approach to the problem. I'll have to figure out a firmer way to attach them.

I spent tonight unifying the stairwell down across the window and up the other side toward the exit sign at the top, then beginning to finesse the Pour into shape. I'm excited by how it's coming together. Yet there's so much more I want to do.

Instead of being a finished, static show that goes up and is done, it will continue to grow all the way up until the closing reception.

Which is appropriate given that I am always teaching my students that art is process. This entire thing is a gigantic experiment both in area and in concept. I don't know yet if it's working. I don't think I'll know till after today's frenzy.
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Sol le Witt at Mass MoCA

Crew at work installing 2/10/12

He's figured it out!

...Says the Russian woman triumphantly as her young son examines the blues and browns and whites apparently flying out of the recycling bin.

He says it's garbage! They both look up at me on my ladder and grin hugely.

Assistants at work 2/3/12

It's art and it's abstract

...declares the developmentally challenged boy emphatically to his teacher on their way down the stairs then less certainly, Why is she doing it?

I hear his voice before I see him. I'm surprised.

They come over to me and with a little prompting he says hello, placing a cool small hand on mine and looking into my eyes as he tells me his name. He asks me directly why I'm doing this.

I don't think it's a question an adult would ask. They'll ask what it's for but not why. The candor I guess seems rude. A child doesn't consider rudeness, he just wants to know.

The candor is a relief. I don't think too hard just tell him sometimes you have an idea and you just have to go for it. Then I say I'm highlighting the building so people will notice it in a new way.

He looks at me with big eyes behind black framed glasses, his lime green t-shirt picking up on the soda machine behind.

Evidently...

...I am not the first person to set foot on Planet Fruitopia®

I am the Coke Gnome

My response to the fifth child to ask me what I was doing on top of the Coke machine. The straight answer (installing an art project) started to bore me

She said it's an art project...

...and you can watch it grow. - Six year old boy conspiratorially to his Mom after asking me what I was doing

Is this a treasure hunt? - Man watching me work