Round Two of the Mirror Wing

Round two of my mirror wing went much better! Thanks to the lovely Hannah! The wing ended up a bit longer this time due to an increase in my spacing, which I like. I also took photos of the wing with my niece Alexis (who also happens to have red hair), I am still in the process of editing hers. And thinking of ways that I might combine and/or display it with the image below.

It was a bit cold during set up but I managed. I'm getting faster. And smarter. I placed the fabric on top of the tarp, laid out the larger pieces in advance, and then just pulled it out of the garage that morning. That helped. Before, I put the pieces on the tarp itself and then transferred them piece by piece onto the fabric. I won't be doing that again. This has definitely been a learning process.

The lovely Hannah was gracious enough to come a bit early to help with set up and then apparently had to sneak a few pictures of me while she waited. I was so focused on the placement of the mirrors that I didn't even notice.

As for the next step with this project...well. I'm still thinking about it, but I have a few ideas. I want to try setting it up in some kind of landscape or location this summer. When I asked my niece Alexis if she had any ideas after we were done, she surprised me when she suggested I do it on ice! Which I loved. Smart kid. Hopefully I will have some sort of method figured out by the time winter rolls around again.

Working on Things

I am excited and preparing for my first curated show, "The Fiercest Light" which is happening during the Union City Arts Festival on September 11-12. The opening reception will be Friday, September 11 from 5-9 pm. It's going to be in Afterimage Studios (still in the process of creating a sign, and yes, I named it!) and it will be the first show in the artist studio as part of my residency. Already have a few submissions and can't wait to see more. Deadline to submit is August 24!

I'm the boss and you're my bitch by Hannah Backer

"The Fiercest Light" will also feature video projections around town Friday evening, thanks to the help of my lovely video professor Maura Jasper. I'm hoping to do one as well if I can manage it. We shall see.

 In the meantime, here are a few images from my job as a lab tech at the Union City Wastewater Treatment Plant:

There's a snake in the one on the right above, can you see it?

I'm taking pictures of what I do (and lots of spider webs) and posting them to Instagram as a challenge to see if I can make art about a sewage treatment plant. Already have a few ideas involving specimen bottles now (I blame Jacinda's influence).

After the rain...

I'm still going through the photos (and making notes for the next time), but I thought I would share my favorite of what I've edited so far with Hannah. This is after it rained and the wind swept petals across the mirrors.

Hopefully something interesting like the petals will happen for the next time (and when I have a wider lens for my nice camera). I would love to do this during winter too, but that would be slightly more difficult. Hannah has already offered to lay in the snow. Sometimes I think she's crazier than I am. Maybe it will happen. I'll just have to buy her lots of hot chocolate.

Round One of the Mirror Wing

So the lovely Hannah came to visit and it was a very productive weekend full of photographing, seeing art, and eating good food. Her company is always welcome. The first test run of the broken mirror wing (still thinking about a title) began Friday and was taken down the next afternoon. (Special thank you to Blake for bringing his brother to open the garage door!)

Needless to say, it was a learning experience and I have plans to do it at least once more. It also felt like a performance piece for the entire neighborhood. Probably not something they see everyday. Here was my lovely setup (taken on Saturday):

The weather was perfect, surprisingly. Friday was nice and sunny and the next day it rained and the wind swept petals across the mirrors. Strange because I had been thinking I needed to do something with the petals for a photograph and then this happened.

I can only hope the weather will be like that again for the next round. Here's a shot on Friday from the ladder:

Now to edit the images with Hannah in them. Hopefully I'll be able to post them in the near future.