Installation... transporting, placing, and hanging touchable sculptures at the museum

I’ve been installing the work with the fantastic team at the de Saisset Museum. It’s hard to believe the show is nearly up and ready after all this time and work. I have been so pleased that the installation has gone really smoothly. Hanging, placing, and lighting over 70 pieces of art seems like a daunting task, but most of the preparation was done beforehand and not much was left to figure out onsite.

It all started with bagging up and labeling all the work that has been filling my studio and then Tetris-ing up a truck for the short drive to Santa Clara University, just down The Alameda/El Camino from my studio. Three of us were able to get it all packed in about forty minutes, then we had even more helpers at the museum to unload. The trickiest parts of the installation had to do with the ‘support’ items: the steel hanging structure in Gallery 2 for the Hanging Pods and the plexiglass mirrors mounted in Gallery 1 for the Holdables. Luckily that went well too: Chuck Splady and his team from Splady Studios in Oakland fabricated, delivered, and installed the steel structures without a hitch. Chris Sicat, the museum’s Exhibitions Coordinator, has the experience, specialized tools, patience, and cool head to handle just about anything, and he got the big plexiglass mirrors mounted on the wall with help from his team. We all got to unwrap the sculptures onsite, which felt a little like Christmas even though I happened to already know what was inside. It felt great to see them in the big, beautiful galleries. More photos of the finished installation next week, unless you’re able to come by and see/photograph it for yourself starting with this Thursday’s Opening Reception!

Funding: how I'm raising money to make my touchable, interactive art installation

This past summer brought a ton of progress thanks to all the help I had from paid studio assistants and volunteers. It was a big leap forward for my studio practice to have others assist in fabricating my sculpture-- a leap that required me to get my head around the idea of not doing everything myself, and to up my funding game so that I could afford to make it happen.

One ingredient that made a lot of this possible was an Audience Engagement Grant from SV Creates, a Silicon Valley nonprofit that seeks to raise the value and visibility of the creative sector and increase access to arts and creativity. My InTouch project worked out to be a good fit with their goal to support special projects that strategically broaden or deepen connections and relationships with audiences. With InTouch I’m trying to create connections between people through my unique form of touchable art-- both in the making phase and when it is ultimately on display. But, of course, that takes money-- there are definitely costs associated with creating big museum shows-- go figure!

No one ever wants to talk about funding, and there are so many complicated and unhealthy beliefs out there about artmaking and money. You know, the idea of the Starving Artist who lives off passion (and lovers/handouts), the "I'll benevolently trade your original art/writing/music for 'Exposure' because we don't actually pay for content" racket, and so many 'pay to play' gallery situations both online and brick-and-mortar. Plus, there's the sense that if you do sell your work you’re ‘selling out’. Well, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that most people realize that materials, tools, and workspace cost money. So, how am I funding this whole thing?

To make InTouch happen, I’ve been raising funds in several ways. Grants are just a piece of the puzzle. There are very few grants available for individual artists, and they are extremely competitive. Most of my support so far has come from individual donors and sales of my artwork. Over the past two years I’ve put over 200 hours into raising half of the budget for this project; I’m looking for some help to raise the remaining $25K so I can be working in the studio as much as I need. Would you or someone in your network be great at connecting this project with individuals, companies, and foundations that would love to support it? I’m all ears…

Corraling Styrofoam: creating a dedicated space in an art studio for messy work

Settling in to my studio has been a gradual process as I prepare the space for the tasks I have planned. I happen to hate cleaning things up, but I love a tidy environment to work in-- so I focus on prevention and try to put systems in place to deal with messes ahead of time. To that end, I knew I would be carving some styrofoam models for larger pieces (don't worry, I'm recycling through repurposing) and want to contain the tiny static-infused bits as much as possible, so I took a note from some home remodeling we did and enclosed a corner of the studio in heavy plastic specifically to work with styrofoam. I still have to vacuum up all the bits when I'm done for the session, but the zippered door and taped-down-to-the-floor plastic walls help me keep the bits from traveling all over. I wear coveralls to work with styrofoam and have to use the shop vac on myself when I'm done, too. But I'm reclaiming the bits to use inside finished stitched pieces, so there's very little waste, and patting myself on the back makes it easier to deal with the cringey mess of EPS.

Dedicated foam-friendly workspace...

Dedicated foam-friendly workspace...

Laying out plastic on the blessedly large floor in order to stick on the zipper door kit-- basically two long zippers with sticky sides you can apply to the plastic, then cut in the center.

Laying out plastic on the blessedly large floor in order to stick on the zipper door kit-- basically two long zippers with sticky sides you can apply to the plastic, then cut in the center.

A view towards the styrofoam carving area in the back left.

A view towards the styrofoam carving area in the back left.

Moving in slowly... preparing a new art studio space for working

I've had possession of my new studio space for about three weeks now, and I'm at the tail end of readying the space for work. A lot of work has happened thus far, just not artmaking. In a way it has felt like those puzzles where you have to shift all the tiles around in order to move one to its real spot, then shift them all again to move the next into place. In my case part of it has been getting and putting up shelving in my back storage area (thanks as always, craigslist) and readjusting the shelves twenty times as I figure out what will go where as I try to find homes for everything-- supplies, tools, packaging materials, finished work-- it doesn't seem like much when I type it out, actually. Hm.

My space is basically a warehouse with a window, so while it is bright and lovely and cool in the summer (I've visited its previous occupant, my dear friend Tricia Stackle, then), it is also quite cold already this far into winter. I installed carpet tiles (Habitat for Humanity ReStore is a great source) this week over the concrete floor to add a bit of insulation and to ease the standing-on-concrete effect. 

Carpet tiles turn out to be pretty easy to install...

Carpet tiles turn out to be pretty easy to install...

Simply place the things down and do some trimming on the last two edges of the room. Ready to move furniture around.

Simply place the things down and do some trimming on the last two edges of the room. Ready to move furniture around.

I've also been playing around with how to lay out the space to use it (and my acquired work surfaces) in the most efficient way-- without dragging everything all over the space. I will confess to being overly nerdy and not totally averse to technology. So I've been using SketchUp to virtually plan out the room-- I drew up simple furniture stand-ins so I could move them around. So. Dang. Satisfying. I can see through walls and defy gravity, too. We'll see how it translates to the Real World.

Google SketchUp rendering of my space, sort of.

Google SketchUp rendering of my space, sort of.

Moving and Growing: Establishing a new studio space for large-scale artmaking

One of the first big challenges prompted by my InTouch project has been my search for a workspace that would accommodate my needs for more room for artmaking, finished art, supplies, and helpers. The solution came at a price-- my dear friends moved out of their large studio to relocate out of state, and offered it to me. It fits the bill perfectly. Located only 20 minutes from my home, the 1,000-square-foot space is part of a complex of artists called The Alameda ArtWorks. The long main room measures 17.5 feet wide by 42 feet long, with a partial wall dividing it into work room/storage room. Another room separated by a door and with its own entrance will be a future photography space/storage space for the work as I finish it, but for now I'm renting it out to another artist. 

Last week I moved out of my space at the School of Visual Philosophy studio where I'd been renting for three years. The dance to move out of one space and into another as its former occupants orchestrated their move out was tricky but successful. But in typical me fashion, I agreed to participate in a studio-complex-wide Open Studios event this weekend, only a week after actually taking possession of the space, which meant all my preparation and set-up would be compressed into an exhaustingly short span of time. I wanted to clean and paint before arranging and unpacking, so I had to call in some kid-friend favors to get a bit more time to get things done. I'm writing this on Thursday night; tomorrow I will unpack the actual artwork and do all the last-minute little things required before Open Studios on Saturday. Below are some photos of the space so far.

The view from the doorway showing the storage area in the back, and main work area.

The view from the doorway showing the storage area in the back, and main work area.

View back towards the main entry doors. Multi-pane door to the left leads into the smaller studio space I'm renting out 

View back towards the main entry doors. Multi-pane door to the left leads into the smaller studio space I'm renting out 

Walls painted.

Walls painted.

View from the doorway towards storage area.

View from the doorway towards storage area.

Set up, save for the tiny issue of actually unpacking and displaying artwork.

Set up, save for the tiny issue of actually unpacking and displaying artwork.