I'm on my way

Yup, I booked the tickets tonight!  I'm going to New York and see the exhibition for myself!

Ellis Island

I've got a place to stay, and a list of museums a mile long to fill up all my waking hours.  The trip will be brief, and there's so much to see! Let's see, there's the Whitney Biennial,  The Museum of Arts and Design exhibition Slash: Paper Under the Knife, MOMA, The Met . . .

Broadway . . . 

Ellis Island is UP!

We've heard from the folks at the Basque Museum that Hidden in Plain Sight - the Basque exhibition at Ellis Island is up and it looks great.   Here's a link to the exhibition website.  An abbreviated version of our traveling exhibition Immigrant Shadows is a small part of this extensive exhibition,  and Earle and I are thrilled to be participating.   We've been told it looks wonderful and I can't begin to tell you how excited we are! The exhibition runs from February 6 through May 9, 2010

So Long Lewiston

Earle and I met in Lewiston yesterday to tear down the show. Gallery Director, Ellen Vieth was one step ahead of us in getting things started.  Poor Ellen was feeling  really crummy, but thanks to her we finished tearing down the show really quickly.  Later that evening, the Swope family and Kirk and I enjoyed a great meal at Tomato Brothers where the food was good, the wine was fine and we had a great time!

The drive home from Lewiston was easy and the drive through the Salmon River canyon was beautiful!

Now, aside from the new panels and castings that should be on their way to Ellis Island, Immigrant Shadows is taking a much needed vacation.

Unbelievable!

Got up early today to meet Michael at the Basque Museum to take down my portion of Immigrant Shadows and load it in the crate.  Earle de-installed his castings yesterday and the crate will soon be on it's way.  It's legit!  ImmShads is on its way to New York City!  New York City? Uhhuh, NYC!  It's all part of a very important exhibition about Basque Immigration at Ellis Island and Earle and I are beyond thrilled to be a part of this.  The exhibition, Hidden in Plain Sight: The Basques opens  February 6, 2010 and I'd give anything to join the Boise contingent.   There will be a delegation from the Basque Government along with a huge delegation from Boise including  Basque music, Basque dancers - a real celebration.

And just between you and me - I think Tom Trusky will be there in spirit.  He, bless his heart, was the BSU professor that brought the story of the arborglyph to both Earle's and my attention in his Book Arts class.   He was also one of our biggest cheerleaders and champions.
Actually, we've had incredible support along the way:  Garth Claassen, Tom Trusky,  John Bieter, Boise City Arts and History Commission, Idaho Commission on the Arts, Amy Jo Popa,  Jody Ochoa, Ann Schorzman, Ellen Vieth, the Basque Museum, and many, many, many more.
We are well aware  and so grateful for all of our good fortune and wonderful support!

Who Knew?

We opened tonight at Boise's Basque Museum as a brief part of  the exhibit that will be at the Ellis Island National Monument in New York City from February to May.   It will travel to Ellis Island for the three month exhibition, which means Immigrant Shadows is going to New York!  It's barely been a year since we opened at the Rosenthal Gallery at College of Idaho and we have had the tremendous good fortune to show in Idaho, Nevada, Michigan and now New York. 

The "L" on the Hill Must Stand for Laughter!

We had such a great time in Lewiston.  Ellen Vieth is the most fun I've had in a long time.  It was so great getting to know her and watch the energy that just exudes from her very being!

I've been watching her from afar on facebook, but in real life it's dazzling and so is she!  In all of our photos we're cracking up and having a wonderful time.  The reception was super and we had an amazing crowd and wonderful food from La Boheme.   Ellen also hooked me up with some Potlatch Paper and those of you in the know, know what I'm talking about, right? Well, maybe not.  It's overruns of great clay coated paper that I'll have fun experimenting with.

Ellen has a penchant for shoes and so do I, so we got a shot of our shoes - Earle's too!  Can you figure out who's are whose?

Lewiston marks our final run for 2009 with Immigrant Shadows and will run through January 15, 2010.   It's really been a great ride and Earle and I have learned so much and had a terrific time.

It was a long drive home and we ran into snow in Riggins and nearly all the way home.  It's beginning to look a lot like winter around Idaho.  In fact, on the way back to the Red Lion last night, I was startled to see all the trees in a little park down the hill from the hotel all lit up.  It was Lewiston Aglow!

Sorry it's a bit blurry; April was driving and we were moving when I took the shot. The colors were magnificent and were a great finale to a wonderful day.

So, it looks like the holidays are on their way!  Everybody have a safe and thankful TG!

Lovin' Lewiston

Found a great bakery/restaurant/cafe today.   It was recommended by gallery director and new friend  Ellen Vieth for my luncheon date with Moscow Installation artist Gerri Sayler.    Gerri drove down from Moscow today to see Immigrant Shadows at the Lewiston Center for Arts and History and met Earle and me at the Gallery where she gave us some great feedback on our work and asked so many insightful questions!   

It was barely over a year ago when I first saw Gerri at work hanging her Ad Infinitum BAM exhibition.   I remember being so in awe of her work and being way too shy to interrupt her and  introduce myself.  And it wasn't long after that when Earle and I bumped in to each other at BAM when we agreed to combine our work and become co-collaborators on Immigrant Shadows.

Gerri and I had  a wonderful conversation about our work, and our thoughts on women artists, returning to school to study art, risk-taking and reinventing ourselves.  Gerri, of course, has been prolific since earning her degree and has presented many installations at significant venues throughout the Northwest.

My camera batteries are charging so I can get some photos at CAH tonight!  My dear friend April is driving up as I write and it will be wonderful to have such a fabulous day of female support.

Thank you Ellen, Gerri and April!

A Garden in our Grove

Here's a photo from New Holland Brewery with artist Pamela Krikke's glass and copper gardens in the foreground.  Pamela arranged for the venue and Ric did the install.  This time the trees and castings are suspended from a second story ceiling and are several feet above the floor.  According to Pamela there are skylights that allow the natural light to shine through the filagree of the  trees and canopies on the castings, panels and floor.   Pamela has taken Immigrant Shadows to new heights and Earle and I are both very grateful to her for her vision and this opportunity to collaborate.

Earle and I leave Thursday for Lewiston to install another show.  Earle's driving his motor home and we should arrive late and be ready to hang it all on Friday.   The last time I was in Lewiston was for the kick-off for the Lewis and Clark centennial several years ago.

Look out, Lewiston!  Here we come.

Yup, It's Up

And I'll soon have the pictures to prove it.  But not without a few little glitches.  The ceilings at New Holland Brewing are really, really high - 23 feet to be exact and apparently the brick masonry was not conducive to hanging.

But Ric prevailed and we  now have a reason to go back to Michigan.  Not that I needed a reason, I loved it there.  So did my daughter Jessica.  And we made new friends  and I can find my way around Grand Rapids plus I still have to see the Frederic Meijer Sculpture Gardens.
But in the meantime, here's one for Ric Carroll - the guy that helped us make it all happen.  According to my translation guide, Proost is popular, but Gezunheid is proper.

To your health, Ric!

On its Way Up Again

Immigrant Shadows is on its way up again.  It will be an abbreviated version as we sold some of the pieces and donated others while we were at ArtPrize.   All the same, it will still be a good representation of trees, canopies and castings.   Our new collaborator, Pamela Krikke, will be doing an installation of her work within our installation in Holland, Michigan.   She left a message early this morning that she and Ric, our "go to guy" installer, de-installer, agent, landlord, you name it is on his way to help install the work.

Pamela will be taking photos today.   I'm anxious to see her work and how it all comes together. She's been doing a lot of behind the scenes work in getting the location, transportation, press releases and completing her own work for the project.

Our work seems to gravitate toward food and drink in Michigan.  At ArtPrize it hung in the entry at San Chez Bistro, a popular, upscale tapas restaurant.  Now it will be displayed in a space within a popular brewery called New Holland Brewing Company.  Although I hate the word juxtaposition, it seems to fit when imagining the isolated grove Earle and I created  suddenly front and center where people come to celebrate, dine and enjoy one another.   Perhaps that's what the immigrant sheepherders dreamed about in their silent isolation.

I can sure imagine myself with friends enjoying ourselves at a table near the window in this charming Michigan town.

From out of Nowhere!

No, I know those aren't aspens, they're tulips. 

And I thought we were  pretty much done. I'm really ready to rest, move on to something new.  We've been back in Boize-wah for over two weeks, the show closed at ISU and it's still a month till we take it to Lewiston and meet Ellen Vieth and her crew at Lewis and Clark College.  I never would've believed in a million years after Garth Claassen's generosity at C of I in January,  we would have the great fortune to take Immigrant Shadows on tour, of all things!


I mean, really, can you even fathom how lucky we are?   And now, suddenly, from out of nowhere, we have another one in Holland. (No not Europe, Michigan!) Which means we don't have to figure out how to get it packed and shipped 1800 miles in a crate that no longer exists!  At least for a while, anyway, and that's  a HUGE relief. The line, "It ain't over till the fat lady sings," has always pissed me off, but being built for comfort (not speed) and not being able to even carry a note in my new suitcase, does give a bit of superstitious credibility to that obnoxious little quip.  Read: I don't and I won't sing. Ever. Okay, I might hum a little bit, but that's it, and only in the car - alone - at night.

Grand Rapids On Its Side!

The ArtPrize logo will always be the signifier of a great learning experience, new friends, fabulous art and an opportunity to experience multiple versions of serendipity.   Everything really fell together to make the event happen for us and Immigrant Shadows when Earle and I first took notice of the logo and the call to artists.

I loved the bold red logo when I first saw it, and imagined it to be a stylized version of a thick stroke of luscious red paint.  And when  they posted all the artist's badges on line, I have to admit I was really excited!

Then arriving in Grand Rapids and seeing this modification on all the documents in our artist packet embedded the organic red swirl in my brain forever.

But that's what branding is all about.

What I didn't know, and Earle explained to me later in our journey, was this curious red shape is highly identifiable to anyone in Grand Rapids.    For forty years Grand Rapids has been the proud owner of a Calder Sculpture, La Grande Vitesse, that sits in the center of the city's plaza.    As I understand it, Grand Rapids was the first city to receive a NEA grant to acquire public art and this masterpiece was the result.  Not surprisingly, it created quite a storm of controversy when it first appeared.  But today the city is full of well-deserved pride for having the courage to take that risk 40 years ago. What a legacy! And only months ago Grand Rapids decided to turn itself inside out, upside down and on its side to "reboot the art conversation" and invite the world to notice they are a city that cares about art, cares about artists and cares about keeping the conversation alive for its citizens and visitors.   I wonder what  Alexander Calder would have to say about that?

Good night, Mr. Calder, wherever you are!

Sweet ISU!

Boy, if you ever get a chance to exhibit at ISU, you'll feel like you died and went to heaven!  We were treated so well and had such a good time.   Earle was out of town when I went down two days before ArtPrize to hang the show, but it was really a snap with all the help of the grad students and  Gallery Director, Amy Jo Popa.

Then Earle left this Thursday afternoon for the closing and was there bright and early on Friday to have a chance to chat with art students about our collaborative  process and our growing exhibition schedule.  He had a great time meeting the grad students in their studios and sharing the triumphs and perils of organizing a collaborative exhibition, applying for grants and taking the exhibition a few thousand miles away to ArtPrize.

I left right after teaching on Friday afternoon and arrived just minutes before the beginning of our closing reception -  with just enough time to change out of my dusty pastel covered jeans and black tee to put on something a bit more suitable for the reception.   I then was ready  to meet more of the ISU Art Department faculty and grad students and we enjoyed a great meal and fun before Earle,  his wife Beth and I each tumbled into our suites in the ISU SUB.

The show came down in record time this morning and Earle managed to pack it all in my Honda and his Hyundai - quite a feat since the poster is 40" x 60," the actual arborglyph is 4' tall and weighs in over a 100 pounds, and  there were  10 rolls of all my panels, one medium size box full of bubblewrapped castings   and another box of his castings that is easily 6' x 1' x 1'.  This long, handmade carton  went in through the passenger window of my Civic  and rode shotgun AND backseat driver  the entire 250 miles back to Boise.

Here's a few shots of the Pocatello Show.

I really love how the shadows of a nearby panel create a shadow of a tree on this panel and the light also  casts a shadow from the cut panel on the wall behind.

This one has a little bit of everything and I snapped it just before we pulled the show down.  I can see now that some of the tree panels needed a bit of adjusting, but the photo includes some vertical and horizontal panels with the requisite shadows -  and Earle's castings are all facing forward like someone told them all to look at the camera and say "cheese!"

Next week I should be wrapping up ArtPrize and this blog.  But, I've been busy creating a  new blog now that I've got this one under by belt.  Blogging hasn't been nearly as painful as I anticipated and to be honest, I've really enjoyed it.

See you sometime next week - and I hope I'll be just full of good news!

Yippee Skippee!

So, the good news is we really did sell our work.  Ric will be giving us the final count early next week.  The other  really good news is I received a call from an artist/designer who is interested in taking the remaining work on consignment.  She has been very encouraging, likes our work and  has some great ideas about finding new homes for our castings, trees and canopies.

If it works, it will be a great solution  - like, for one,  not having to pay to ship everything home to Boize-wah- and not having to find a new shipping container.  But, best of all,  it will help us get our art out in the market - which means we probably  won't be taking early retirement, but we  can recover some costs of participating in ArtPrize and the hours we've spent making the work.

Selling art  is tough - and having a champion and agent will be a dream come true.  We'll be working out the details in the next few days.

Meanwhile, we're on our way to ISU this week-end for our closing reception and tear down of the exhibition.  It'll seem so easy to wrap it up and just pack it in our cars for the four hour drive home.

So long Grand Rapids, Pocatello here we come.  The show will have a four week rest and then it's off to Lewis and Clark.  Guess this all means I'm an artist!!!!  Hey, I've still got my ArtPrize bracelet to prove it . . .

These guys wear theirs on their left wrists, too!

Leave Everything as You Found It!

We did our best to do just that.  Here's some befores and afters:

Earle and I returned to Boiz-wah, and Ric put the place back exactly the way we found it when we arrived at San Chez.  Ric made sure the trees, castings and canopies were all taken down and packaged up -  and he filled all the holes so not even a trace remained of "Immigrant Shadows."  Remember, we had decided the work was not  going home in that free BAM garage sale crate.  We bought some sale tags, assigned all 70 pieces a number and we hung that number from every tree, casting and canopy.  And then we made a drastic move. Someone once told me: "Desperate people do desperate things!"  We decided to offer a screamin' deal on all those trees, canopies and castings so we wouldn't have to take out more loans to cover return shipping costs.  And we decided to donate some pieces to a well-deserved non-profit we had contacted prior to our trip to Grand Rapids. But! What we didn't do was create any documents or contracts to negotiate the details of those transactions.  Details!  Didn't I mention them in an earlier post?  Either God or the Devil is in the details!  Well, we excluded both.   Because our  donations soon took on a life of their own and grew and grew and grew to outpace the sales.   People began confusing us with wealthy philanthropists not starving artists.  We even  neglected to document what piece had what number and a number of other important facts.   And then the burden was on the clueless in Boise or our Grand Rapids' pal, Ric.

Here's just a small example:  One of the trees that sold attracted another buyer.  But of course I had no way of knowing what No. 17 looked like because we had always treated the work as a complete exhibition and we had willy-nilly hung tags on each piece..  (There would be no way to perfectly reproduce an exact reproduction anyway because they are all hand cut and I don't keep a pattern of each tree.) So when customer X called to order No. 17 and wasn't able to send a digital photo, she offered to  sketch the tree so I could have some frame of reference for making a similar panel.  If her sketching is like mine, I'm in bucoo dodoo!

Live and Learn!

There is some good news coming, but I'll hold on to that until another post.

Meanwhile, here's a shot of the ArtPrize signage for the entry to San Chez.  Imagine walking around Boise and spotting over 150 of these in a three mile radius?  Makes your eyes tear up, doesn't it?

It seems like yesterday!

But it was well over a week ago.  Earle and I are both back home and we were, of course,  immediately thrown back into our real lives.  You know, father and fireman, grandma, teacher and student.  But there's still a lot to tell.  And that is:  WE LEARNED A LOT!  The hard way.

Well, I don't mean to suggest we have regrets.  But we did learn that although we had months to plan ahead and two full weeks in Grand Rapids, there were a few things we just hadn't prepared ourselves for.

Well, we knew we were going to have to hire someone to take down our exhibition and ship it back to us because we  had hired our new friend, Ric to help with the install deadline as well as to help with the tricky ladder work.  And boy are we glad we did!   But after spending money on registrations fees, airplane tickets, installation kits,  promotional materials, hardware for installing, car rental, parking, parking, parking, parking, food, fuel, three nights in a hotel, souvenirs, a guest book, photocopies, color printing, complimentary appetizers and supplies for our "Community tree" night,  (and I"m sure Earle could add at least a dozen more expenses), we came up with a PLAN.

Here's how it went:  We knew we were going to offer our hosts each a tree, a canopy and a casting for their extreme generosity and hospitality.  We also knew it was gonna be a devil of a time getting someone to reassemble the wooden crate that was taken apart at San Chez before we arrived.   We know why they had to do it.  Take the crate apart, that is.   San Chez is the busiest (and best)  restaurant in Grand Rapids.   They have to store all the fresh ingredients they use, and all their supplies and the space that was available in the cellar, by way of a small freight elevator, is downright miniscule.  So, it meant reassembly of the 5' x 5' x 5' crate  would take a magician and be complicated and cramped, at best.

So, after reviewing all of our spending, spending, spending, we came up with the idea to sell individual pieces of the work to help with the  return shipping and to maybe recover some of the "bukoo" (my own spelling)  bucks  it cost to get us and Immigrant Shadows to Grand Rapids.

Stay tuned!  The plot thickens - and this way you won't be able to read ahead till I have more time to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth!

And the winner is . . .

. . .. surfer, motorcyclist and oil painter Ran Ortner, for Open Water No. 24!  T'was my fave of the top ten bunch!  And it won $250,000.  I understand the artist was ecstatic - and who wouldn't be ecstatic?

Second place went to the mosaic mural on the Children's Museum.  The children of Grand Rapids are huge winners - not only for the stellar mosaic, but the fact that the artist's  donated this piece to their museum.  And the children were also  winners because many of  their parents considered the event important enough  to include them on all the art walks.   And the mosiac  artists were winners, because they received a check for $1 with five zeros standing straight and  tall right next to that big dollar sign and one.


The push pin portraits came in third. With a prize of $50,000.  According to his artist statement, that means Mr.  Eric Daigh received $1 for every push pin he placed in those three portraits. Not bad, Eric, not bad at all.

The remaining seven  artists all received $7,000, which is nothing to sneeze at, since Earle and I probably easily spent that much  on our  ArtPrize adventure.

But, to tell the truth  the real winners were all the artists and all the good people of Grand Rapids.  I heard that yesterday there were at least 20 people at every street corner rushing to see the entries, and especially the top ten.

When I polled many of you last week, when the top ten were announced, Jason Hackenwerth's  balloons received the most votes.  That artist landed ninth place, but I did heard something quite wonderful about him.   The Grand Rapids Arts Council organized a high school day for students to visit ArtPrize and also arranged for many of the students to meet some of the popular artists.  (By the way, benefactor Rick DeVos donated $10,000 to provide this  rich opportunity to 22 area high schools to cover the expenses of  buses and pay for substitute teachers to allow instructors to attend this event.)   Wouldn't that just be too cool to be able to do??? Anyway, when balloonmaster Jason Hacknewerth addressed the kids, he  engaged them in a great conversation and then asked them to name their favorite artist.  Very few were able to respond and raise their hand.  But, I can bet, after meeting Jason and witnessing this spectacular event, there wasn't a kid in the crowd that didn't know the name of at last one ArtPrize artist by the end of the day.

Good News for Young Kim

The wonderful artist that did the salt and earth prints was just awarded a $5,000 curator's award.  Pretty darn exciting news - since nobody knew until just now there was such a thing.
The idea behind ArtPrize was to let the public choose the best work.  The other idea was to "reboot the conversation about art" and that it did.   Lips were flapping and people were texting, chatting, emailing, voice mailing, writing,  blogging, you name it, to voice their opinions.

I think they exceeded  their expectations in getting people talking.   If art is indeed a conversation, the project worked because few remained silent.  And that's a good thing.

But  now suddenly there's a curator's award.  Oh well!  The good new is that the recipient is Young Kim and he won't have to walk away without a nod for his wonderful work.

One award that wasn't a surprise was the sustainability award.  We were secretly hoping that two of the San Chez artists would win, but the award went to Scott Hessels.  If you're interested in seeing his work, check him out: http://www.artprize.org/artist/id/2517

Five minutes till the final announcement.   5, 4, 3, 3, 1!

Class Act!

If you read my personal top ten post the other day, then you will remember the piece For Such a Time as This:  Remembering Vietnam by Adrienne Noelle Werge.


The artist apparently read my post, too and can you believe this?  She wrote me a thank you note! I feel compelled to share it, because it provides so much more insight to her piece.   Here's her note:


Hi Amy! Thank you for your nice words about my work. I am sorry I did not get a chance to see yours while in Grand Rapids. In my opinion, Young Kim's work was the strongest in the pool and I am a great supporter of his work as you are.
I thought you might be interested in knowing a few details about my installation, such as how each helmet (there are 239 rice helmets in this iteration) symbolizes a child who was with me in the orphanage in Vung Tau in 1972. There were 240 originally installed, and one helmet has been "adopted" so this installation includes the remaining 239. The rice bed in the Old Federal space (which is 1600 square feet in total) is 16' x 12' and there are five Super-8 clips projected on it--the footage was a gift from the people who ran the orphanage where I lived in '72, and I received it nearly 20 years later. For me, the helmets also stand in for soldiers--and the rice itself represents the life/death cycle.
I hope you enjoyed your ArtPrize experience. Safe journey!
adrienne 



I'm going to give you a link to her website because there is much to learn and her photos are far better than my point and shoot version:

In just a bit less than 24 hours the winner of ArtPrize will be announced at a huge bash in Grand Rapids.  I'd give anything to be there  to witness the outcome.  Stay tuned!

The Leader of the Pack!

Was reviewing all my ArtPrize photos last night and had forgotten about these two. There were very few pieces in Grand Rapids where I took the time to get a photo of the details.   But this is one of them.   Some say God is in the details, some say the devil is in the details, but  there's no doubt this artist recognized Dick Cheney in the details -  and unfortunately, the world will long be suffering as a result.


Here's the full size image - about 5' x 7' as I remember it:

We'll never forget him -  the leader of the pack. Look out, look out, look out, look out! 

Check out the bottom of his shoes and his throne!  What, like we weren't going to notice?