Snowflakes, after

Snowflakes

We're struggling to find ways to thank everyone who has participated in making this project with us, and this post will probably become a repository, roll call, and trial version for any and all images of people making the snowflakes that we will be using next weekend. The top images are culled from the many snowflake-making parties that Jana Wennstrom (at the head of the table in the image third from the bottom) organized at TAM (Michelle Kinney is seated between Jana and Shannon). 

The lower two images  are from Thanksgiving at the Miller compound. Pictured is Olga (who seems to have an almost preternatural gift for snowflake making), Annie, Cindy, Steve, and Joe. Although Joe is pictured here working on his iphone, it should be noted that he did make some significant snowflake contributions, and is trying--at these moments--to find out some pressing (really, it felt pressing at the time) facts on Dan Fogelberg, at our behest.

And any mention of snowflake making cannot be made without sending out props to Jessica Bender who has made this all possible by working with Shannon every week. Check out her Etsy store link, cabinet713.

Snow Job

As we are partnering with Tacoma Goodwill Industries, we will be updating this posting periodically with new images and information on the donation. Likely, I'll also have new postings at the top of the blog that will complement the images shown here.

Besides being one of my favorite songs on Ritual de lo Habitual, three days is roughly the amount of time that it took us to place and install these sweaters. Oddly, we haven't actually counted how many went onto the wave, but the wall label describes it as "more than 600". The third image here was taken last night, just before we stopped working for the evening. As it became darker, it was more and more difficult to read the interior spaces of the museum; we kept seeing fleeting glimpses of people walking on what seemed or felt like multiple levels all at once, reflected everywhere. Inside and outside overlapped. And it seemed like Leroy was always over our shoulder, circling around us.

Special thanks goes out to Jordan Tart at Pure Clothing for helping us in gathering all the sweaters used in this project. Pure is also where we go to buy our belts and most (or all, in my case) of our Rock-n-Roll t-shirts. Thanks Jordan, you are awesome.

Snow Job

Tacoma Art Museum Snowbound here

Here's what we're thinking, the project (three components) is titled Snow Job,

1. Installation covering Richard Rhodes' untitled "stone wave" or, Stone Garden:

Second-hand sweaters, quilts, and blankets sourced from Tacoma will be placed over the 650 stones in the 1,650 square-foot enclosure, creating a dense collage (or quilt) of patterns and textures. Each of the stones measures approximately 24 inches square and will be individually covered with its own sweater or blanket, creating a temporary covering; softening the environment, providing a warm, comforting space in the heart of the museum. Assembled at random, the work is designed to address our community; how we share, take care of one another, and protect ourselves.

Rather than cutting or destroying the garments, we intend to fold the clothing articles to mimic the shape of the stones; temporarily altering their shapes to fit the pavers, without destroying their history or compromising the initial function of the clothing. In part, this work is designed to draw attention to not only the space, but to the materials being used and community in which they exist. We will purchase the majority of these items (some will be donated, some will be ours), financially supporting our community on one level, but what of the materials and their place in the world after this installation? What responsibilities (as artists) do we have to working in sustainable ways, supporting people in need, and how do we draw these tenuous connections? Virginia Woolf has written, "For fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible…But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in mid-air by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to grossly material things, like health and money, and the houses we live in". (Woolf, A Room of One's Own, pp. 41-42.)

At the conclusion of the installation, we propose to donate the garments to local shelters, in effect allowing the work to expand and reach (back) into the community. Pieces of this work will have had lives previous to this intervention, and we hope to give them lives afterwards.

2. Installation/performance in The Murray Family Event Space:

We propose to bring the snow inside, conceptualizing the Murray Family Event Space as an improvised Snow Globe. Utilizing recycled paper (ideally, we would be recycling the paper from Tacoma Art Museum as well as businesses and institutions that we are affiliated with currently), and working in conjunction with a donor-based project in the Open Art Studio (as well as additional snowflakes being added to the installation the day of the performance), we will be cutting and gluing individual paper snowflakes that will be initially sited in a corner of the Event Space, much like a snowdrift (we're from Ohio, and this image is very clear in both of our minds).

At scheduled times throughout the day, we propose to activate the snowflakes with electric-powered leaf blowers (doubling as "snow" blowers here), pushing the paper cutouts up and out, into another area in the room. Since moving to downtown Tacoma in 2004, we have been haunted by leaf blowers. We have seen countless mornings (6:00 am is the earliest incident that we recall specifically) broken by the grinding and whirring of the motorized blowers navigating along our sidewalks and gutters.

3. Welcome back Shreddy.

Tacoma is for Lovers

Versus Verses

This is a project we designed for King's Books Auction on November 12. The auction benefits Tacoma Public Schools, supporting the purchase of new textbooks. Information on the auction and participants is located here. As sweet pea (of King's Books) writes,

This re-envisioned book was originally A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. The artists and the author battled it out to create this wicked piece. The title is etched onto the cover. The front endpage has a forest with liberated images from the book that can be placed at will. Throughout the book, illustrations are altered, enhanced, or stolen from their places. The new book will provide endless hours of entertainment.

as the Lucky Beaver rises

Jennifur & Logan moving

These images were all taken August 30, 2008. The phrases "Jennifur" and "Logan" were installed one on top of another (Jennifur was on top).

Eastbank Esplanade Installation

Combined Sewer Overflow

As Shannon busily sews the word PIPE in 2' x 2' flags, we've been researching about the Big Pipe Project in Portland. Some background on the project (thanks to the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services) is here

and information on the reason for the pipe (along with some fantastic images) is here, Combined Sewer Overflow

Ford Building