Post Haste, Mary Jane’s Response, Suited for a Different Song, Specific Detail, Series 2, and in Pursuit
Posted on 14 November 2011 | Comments Off
People are opportunities. The gift is in the interaction and the connection with another person, whether it lasts forever or not.~ Colleen Seifert
Some Sculpture Park Scoop:New sculptures!!, Jes has set her Kite’s out to fly in the field! Congrats Jes great work, Caroline had a dramatic installation but finished despite some intense setbacks at the last minute- wow! cheers, Chelsea is using ammunition’s shine to create walls, Carissa installed the sculpture ‘Decoy’ in KY, Nam is probably installing the most colossal modularly built exoskeleton I’ve seen as I write this!!, Jonas had a birthday and has his hands in all sorts of heaps as he whips the launch pad into stellar shape, the last group of interns is gone for the year and I miss everyone already, I am done with birdhouse building for awhile and the poetry studio will be finished in Spring of 2012, What A Year whatafabulouslybusyandwonderfulyear, the BCC/BKC (Box Car Club) is about to begin… fun, I am collaborating on an Art Shanty (with Tory Roff and co… http://www.artshantyprojects.org/artists )…. so come out to Medicine Lake and look for the ‘Giant Sit and Spin Shanty’ and say hello, Franconia’s annual Pie and Wine Soiree is Saturday Nov. 26th! Come join us (http://franconia.org/event.html), and so so so SO so so much more.
A really quick look at the art movement “Posthastism”-Hans Ulrich Obrist defines this new (posthastly formed?) movement in this article for ARTINFO byColine Milliard … “I’m interested in resisting the homogenization of time: so it’s a matter of making it faster and slower. For art, slowness has always been very important. The experience of seeing art slows us down. Joseph Grima was in Malta, and he had this sudden feeling of posthaste. Shumon and I picked up on it and we had a trialogue, which went on for a week on Blackberry messenger. Posthastism. [Reading from a sheet of paper hastily brought in by his research assistant] As Joseph said: “Periphery is the new epicenter,” ‘post-Fordism is still hastism because it’s immaterial hastism, which could lead now’s posthastism’.” The definition of posthaste is- as quickly as possible. The definition of haste is-great speed. The definition of slowness is-not fast or lengthy. In the interview he talks about exhaustion of forms like the biennial and also answers the question – Is the interview format exhaustible? I have personally never really thought about formats or about interview’s infiniteness… He responds, “ In some kind of way, the interview always goes in two directions. On the one hand it goes into depth, and on the other hand it goes into a broader reality. It goes into depth by speaking to people again and again. It can go on and on for many decades and you still have always a completely exciting, new conversation. That’s the great thing about David Sylvester talking to Francis Bacon. These in-depth conversations are more vertical. Then, obviously, there are the more horizontal conversations, which is when an artist tells me about a scientist, an architect, a composer — that’s this moment of going beyond the art world into other disciplines. When the vertical moment comes to a standstill, we make it horizontal again, it’s a push and pull between those two. I think this is kind of infinite,…..” What do you make of Hans Ulrcih Obrist’s new movement? So you think that seeing art slows us down? And if you do think that art has something to do with how time stands… is it something to try and make it faster or slower? How could you undertake making posthastism art? What does the quote “post-Fordism is still hastism because it’s immaterial hastism, which could lead now’s posthastism” have to do with the current political environment?
Mary Jane Mansfield’s responds to – David Foster Wallace attempts to answer- what is a liberal arts education for? Thanks for responding Mary Jane! I am always excited to get feedback… Mary Jane writes: “ I want to send you a few thoughts about the David Foster Wallace speech… I feel like his message is strong, however a Liberal arts education is a pretty broad and undefined set of instruction, and the variables are endless as to what type of person is interpreting the content. Maybe some students are pressured their whole lives to succeed in something they could care less about and all they got out of their liberal arts education is a time bomb waiting to erupt from their skull. “ She continues, “The really important message is to choose how you want to live. Life can get incredibly difficult. The more centered and self sufficient you are before children come along or times get tough for whatever reason the better prepared you will be to stay calm and continue to be a good example to your friends family and strangers who aren’t managing as well as you are. #1 >> Examples are the thing that count most. Many people regardless of their level of education are not prepared to cope with the stresses of life whether through upbringing, mental health issues, poverty. Education is a great thing… and we can help teach those around us by our actions and reactions (or lack thereof…). Kindness, smiles and simple acts of courtesy are uplifting and contagious. Multi Billion $ Corporations love that we don’t have the time to live simple and healthy lives… It is what makes them rich. Check out this Blog… http://www.kerismith.com/. Keri Smith is one of my favorite role models… I have seen her go from a blog to a series of books that people can’t get enough of… Time IS far more valuable than money.
This is a very important piece to remember… although I am adding my own ending… “The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head. It is about simple awareness – awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over”… If we are not consciously making choices about how to live a happy and healthy life… someone else is waiting to capitalize off of our vulnerabilities. True True… the more educated we are the better choices we can make…. but education and choices are lifelong processes… That happens from the moment we take our first breath.”
Josephine’s birds have houses to suit their songs- Carissa Samaniego generously assisted me in several community birdhouse building workshops and helped me mentor some amazing budding student artists from Franklin High School in Frankfort, Kentucky. She installed her own sculpture out there as well. This was a whirlwind of a week. Just the drive to pick up the base sculpture that I created at the Vermont Studio Center in Upstate New York (thanks bunches to Steven and Steven for having us at Fortress Studio in Detroit, and Ali and Drew for hosting us and sculpture watching) and bringing it to Kentucky was remarkable. After making the longest route from MN to KY we were warmly welcomed to Josephine Sculpture Park by Melanie and BJ (!!). I built two additional seating areas and added a birdhouses attachment turret out of metal I found on site. We planted berry baring bushes and native plants to complement the bold colors of the sculpture and laboriously dug some recycled chunks of concrete at the entrance to the double decks of the base sculpture and in front of the seating areas (thanks to some generous donations from Wilson’s Nursery). Between the community members and student artists there were 20+unique birdhouses attached to the base sculpture, seating areas, and bird house turret. The sculpture and residency were a huge success – but I am still recharging. Check out these links to find more photos and articles from Josephine’s first official residency (http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/05/1946907/artists-and-children-turn-frankfort.html?storylink=fblikebtn and http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/04/1947086/birdhouses-double-as-art.html#storylink=misearch). I hear rumblings of plans for artist residency cabins, proper sculpture building facilities, and a metal furnace area at the back of the existing barn. For a sculpture park that is three years old… I can’t wait to see what the next three years hold! Do you have a community sculpture story to share with the blog? How have you maintained the energy needed to work with the community and also had enough to build on additions and mentor teenage artists? I have to say that I could use some tips?
Individualized by specific detail- Do the details of a sculpture or poem or painting matter? Do details make works of art individualized? To give somebody an idea of something that is separate and distinct from other people or things is to give an idea that is individualized. How does this poem use specific detail? How do these monotypes use specific detail? If something has less detail does it make it less individualized? Can you create poetic space without paying attention to certain specific detail?
The power of unconscious processes- Charlie Rose has started a second Brain Series on his show (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11978)! If you missed the first series you ought to watch the back episodes online and then start the Series 2 videos with me as they come out.
aRe Verse- the first poem is mine and the second is a poem by Gertrude Stein. If you are a sculptor/poet (of any level) send me a poem to include in the blog!
The Pursuit of Happiness- It is in our Declaration of Independence… if Jefferson hadn’t changed John Locke’s: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of property … what would that mean to us today? What do sculptors and visual artists have to do with the pursuit of happiness vs. say the pursuit of property? Anything? How do artists balance art as a “pursuit of happiness” and their own happiness? I think that pursuing happiness takes a lot of energy? Or am I pursuing in the wrong way? Do you think that this pursuit is easy?
Misc Linkage: this & this & this & this & this & this & this
Thanks for reading! Read, read to your kids. If you were up at the park this weekend you know how valuable community is. A fall is sometimes a leap among others who can either watch or respond. The sculptors at Franconia really do push past many obstacles to make their sculptures eventually accessible to you. There are many new sculptures! I can’t wait for you to see them. Stop by the park today. I want to thank all the interns and artists that came up to the park. We miss ya! Plan a visit back already. I thought of a good simile today- Tootsie Rolls are to dark chocolate like Velveeta is to aged cheddar cheese. Can you think of a good one?!
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and the artistic community runs deeper.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Caroline adds to -aRe Verse, Jes Answers with Kites, Pyramid Builders, Moxie instead of Ego?, and Wallace on the Liberal Arts
Posted on 17 October 2011 | Comments Off
And with the stroke of the pen I name myself/ Master of the World/ Unlimitied man. ~Pierre Albert-Bireau
Her Secret was/ Listening to the Flowers/…../ Wear out their Color. ~ Noel Bureau
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Jes is adding wind protection (angle braces and welding bolts in place), Nam has gotten more metal and adding angles that add energy to his current symmetry and is making progress despite a steel bending setback, Caroline is putting planks on inside her space (in the 2nd blue hue), Carissa geared up for some sandblasting and better be ready for a grand adventure come Friday, Robin and Jes helped me add a stairway cantilever to my poetry studio sculpture- that was exciting and as easy as I thought it would be…., I wire brushed and primed some new parts, Thomas shared some tasty comfort food, Jonas worked on his larger drawing machine and has organized the heck out of the launch pad and material holding area, so many people up at the park this weekend… the perfect Fall weather AGAIN this weekend, Tamsie de-molded part of her cast iron/car sculpture, Chelsea & Nam & Jes gave great presentations of their past and current artwork, a few artists are headed to Alfred for an iron pour, itwasasuperwindyweekend, lots of sculpture park tours (go Chelsea go), and SO so so so much more.
-aRe Verse. Click on the poem/verse for a larger version of each. The first (Cornfeild Blues) is writing from Caroline Bugby and is about her sculpture up at the park. Thanks Caroline!! I hope we will see more writing/poetic verse from you in the near future. The second poem is from the sculptor Raina Wirta. The third is a poem byRobert Louis Stevenson and the forth poem is mine.
Caged Kites on the Move? Jes McCoy is building a sculpture out on the launch pad right next to me. I’ve been wondering why she loves boats but is building kites. This last Thursday night I found out a bit more about her sculpture’s content when she showed her slides and heralded all of my questions (thanks). She wrote about her sculpture for the blog this week: “Is it possible for an object to embody both an innocent lightness and a burdensome weight? Can a kite that metaphorically represents the freedom and grace of a simpler time also represent the crushing heaviness of guilt and worry? How can we as humans know comfort without knowing pain? Love without hate? The Ancient Chinese called it Ying and Yang, two opposites that balanced each other to create a whole. Can my kites, through material and composition express this duality? Can they be light and airy as well as be heavy with burden?” Thanks Jes. What do you think? Check out her work in progress on your next visit to the sculpture park.
How to build a pyramid? How did they do that (http://www.catchpenny.org/howbuilt.html)? Even with a manual operated gantry crane I often have to get creative on how to move and attach sculptural elements without the aid of a motorized crane or forklift. What if you want to build something large and you don’t have a gantry to help you? Well there is always building a gantry crane… or using simple machines (like these)… or building modularly (like this)… or you could make a model or drawing of the larger sculpture and wait for an opportunity or sculpture grant that makes building in a larger scale possible. This is one challenge that sculptors often face.
Letting the Artistic Ego Go? Frankly, I walk a lot taller in this blog than I do in person. I blog partly because I want to feel understood. In the last blog I wrote about how as artist we have to be willing to be misunderstood. That’s sort of a contradiction on my part- isn’t it… or should the misunderstood keep trying to be understood? I strive to be at a place where I can share my accomplishments and not look back or take tons of time wondering if you heard me say that I have accomplished something. Well, here’s to the future…. Is the ego good? What is the difference between words like moxie, bravado and ego? Moxie is defined as- courage combined with inventiveness. Bravado is defined as- a real or pretended display of courage or boldness. Ego is defined as- an exaggerated sense of self-importance and a feeling of superiority to other people. I’d like to be more moxie than ego. Would you? Can we? How do you?
David Foster Wallace attempts to answer- what is a liberal arts education for? Since a good number of artists that I know have come out of this type of background I found this interesting. The late author of many books including Infinite Jest and Broom of the System gave a graduate speech that reflects on a liberal arts education. How it prepares you for waiting in traffic instead of freaking out and just how much that matters to choosing how approach how we live and who we are… You can find the entire speech reprinted here. In the speech he writes,,, “most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her little child in the checkout line – maybe she’s not usually like this; maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of her husband who’s dying of bone cancer, or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the Motor Vehicles Dept who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a nightmarish red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible – it just depends on what you want to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important – if you want to operate on your default setting – then you, like me, will not consider possibilities that aren’t pointless and annoying. But if you’ve really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options. It will be within your power to experience a crowded, loud, slow, consumer-hell-type situation as not only meaningful but sacred, on fire with the same force that lit the stars – compassion, love, the sub-surface unity of all things.” After looking at Wallace’s speech in full through the link above what do you think? Do you have a liberal arts education? What does education do for us? Are the facts we learn more important than the people we become after all that studying? Is education more valuable than experience? Is the combination of both better than just one or the other? Does our education affect the artists we become?
Carissa and I are leaving for Josephine in a few days. We will be installing two sculptures and working with local community and some student artists. There will be landscaping, bird house building, sculpture assembly, sculptural gathering space additions and student artists signatures! I’ll put some pictures up from our trip in the next edition. What happens when you build a sculpture and let student artists and the community finish it? That remains to be seen! So exciting. .. We will also be visiting a couple graduate schools and seeing some past Franconia alums on our trip- Ali, Drew, Steven K. and Melanie. I’ll let you know what is new with them in my next post.
Misc. Linkage http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/10/03/111003sh_shouts_kaling?currentPage=all & http://www.artreview100.com/2011-artreview-power-100/ & http://www.mrac.org/grants/pdf/FY12GrantDeadlines.pdf & http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/242700 & http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2011/10/11/141216820/biophilia-bjork-visualizes-music & http://www.guggenheimcolorbyfpe.com/store/pc/home.asp
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and you can find all shades of sculptures from start to finish.
Start Seeing Sculpture-over and out
Bridget de la moxie Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Stubborn but Flexible, In Secret, Hardwork Means What?,Quotes, and Come Visit Franconia!
Posted on 10 October 2011 | Comments Off
“People like to say that women are civilizing force on men. I think equality is a civilizing force on us all.” ~ Ta-Nehisi
Flexible inside of Stone. I recently watched a conversation between Charlie Rose and Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn ( http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11927 ) were talking about technology and people like Steve Jobs (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11934 ) who have been innovators in their field. They spoke about how a person needs to be stubborn on their vision but flexible with the details… and also must have the willingness to be misunderstood. I think there is a good message here for artists. Sometimes to create ideas there needs to be flexibility. You don’t always get ideal materials or unlimited space and time. But, that doesn’t mean you have to compromise the ‘vision’. The last part- having the willingness to be misunderstood- is pretty important. As sculptors we visually push norms. After short conversations with visitors wanting to know what I am making and why I am making it, they often leave perplexed. If I gave up on my poetry studio sculpture the first time it was misunderstood I wouldn’t have begun building it. The what and why of a sculpture is something an artist often wrestles alone.
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Jes is making sure her forms fly for a long time, Caroline is painting blues, Nam is finding out how tall his gantry is as his sculpture grows, Carissa is making sure her wings will stand up in KY, I added some roof sections and there is a chair up there, Jonas wants to rope in his tractor drawing machine with a huge stone, a precious boat was found and is finding its way to the park, Robin made pitas from scratch and I had to leave before they were done …, Thomas got the sound system ready for the last 3D concert of the year, the band SQUIB played at the park ( http://www.myspace.com/squibmusic) I loved the trumpet parts, working on sculpture on the launch pd while live music is played in the park is magic, Chelsea finished painting her form and is adding attachments, dddance! and we don’t need Halloween to tell us how to make a night festive, and so so SO SO much more!
Secretive with Sculpture Opportunity Info. The great opportunities for sculpture grants and fellowships are competitive. I know a few artists that keep what they are doing and applying for secret from other artists so that they have a better chance of succeeding. I also know some artists that keep eachother straight on what art proposal deadlines are looming…. What do you make of that? Why not share that information with your artistic cohorts? Would you share the info with an artist you consider to be less skilled than you? Does this sort of thing support the artistic community that you live in? When sculptors are just starting out it can be difficult for them to know what is out there in terms of opportunities. Where do you fall on the secretive sculpture opportunity spectrum?
-aRe Verse. The first poem is from the sculptor Jesse Bercowetz. The second poem is from the sculptor Raina Wirta and the third is mine.
The verb work. Carly (a past Franconia Artist) sent me a message with Martin Creed’s writing “If you’re lonely” (http://www.martincreed.com/site/words/if-youre-lonely). What do you make of this? What does hard work accomplish? What does it mask? Can you be a great artist and push and pull and be relevant without putting in the time? When is lazy art good stuff? Can you be a serious artist without putting in serious time? How does work relate to accomplishment? Why are you driven and how do you teach that?
“Early in our careers, we all have people who are kind and considerate to us, and I learned to treasure them for two reasons: They’re rare, and their actions inspire you to pay that grace forward.”~ Kent Matlock
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” ~Steve Jobs
I added some roof sections to my sculpture and even had a few kids run to this new one… I think color plus tall plus slide plus swing plus undefinables makes runners out of people. I’m not sure I’d want the future poets writing in my poetry studio sculpture not to have a little of that. I had a great critique with John Hock this weekend. When you spend so much time with an artwork it is hard to see it yourself. It can make all the difference when you have another insightful person looking at what you’ve spent so much time looking at. I am going to make some additions and add some serious paint — that might mean this sculpture won’t be finished before the snow falls. But I’ll try.
Come visit us up at the park- keep the parking lot packed with cars. The leaves up by the St. Croix River are changing!! . We can’t wait to see you. A group of 120ish girl scouts came up the park for tours this weekend. One of the girl scouts asked me- what inspires you? Good question right? What inspires you? And thanks so much for reading.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and we are busy building.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Sides of Thought, Mentors, Heterotopias, Inside of Gray, and so many Poems
Posted on 3 October 2011 | 1 response
“Everything you can imagine is real.” ~ Pablo Picasso
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Nam is putting some serious time in as his modular shell form grows, Chelsea is stringing shells of another sort and has her octagonal shape started, Caroline has the outside wall of her sculpture almost finished and is starting on the ‘door’ and inside walls with big plans for organic steel and wood reaching skyward, Jes painted faces at the Fall Festival in St. Croix Falls and has more kites flying high, Jonas and Carissa took the world famous drawing machine to St. Croix Falls, Carissa turned golden?!, Robinson is a year wiser too, Jonas might have a lead on a boat fit for a house?, I built and am painting roof parts and need good weather for the next two weekends, our Art and Artist Celebration was so much fun!!! (did you go?), there were two organic farm parties in a row and plenty of pies to share, the parking lot was packed full and people came to the park in droves – what a beautiful weekend, and so SO SO so much more.
A Head of Left and Right. I just read the book Stroke of Insight by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor and she speaks a lot about the right and left hemispheres of the brain and how they interact. The left hemisphere is responsible for the ‘inner voice’ that we all have that weighs in and critiques. Well, the right brain and primitive brain at the base of our skull are responsible for urges and emotional feelings of bliss. Barring a stroke or a brain abnormality we use both the reasoning and the emotional parts of our brain collaboratively for everything. There might be times that you think… I am so in this moment and my emotional brain is working 100 percent. Well, that’s not true. Just visually comprehending what is in front of you is using both the right and left brain. And, when you are using the left side your inner voice or conscious is present. When building a sculpture, for me, that voice quiets down but it is still watching…. When I am overwhelmed with excitement as a new piece is attached and seems to work out- right brain. As soon as I weigh one idea against another that is the left brain. As soon as we reach out to hold a scrap of metal… left brain.
Amidst the cogs of power, prestige and leverage-what does it mean to be a mentor? Good question-right? What do you make of that section title? Do you wish you had a mentor? Can you be a mentor without having had one? Does the gender of a mentor matter? And what does one do?…… http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/documents/mentor.htm & http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov00/mentoring.aspx & http://blog-aauw.org/2009/06/17/the-importance-of-female-mentors/ & http://www.debramoorhead.com/blog/index.php/6-qualities-of-a-good-mentor/
Pirates make magic with boats underfoot. Carissa sent me this via Jonas and I think you’ll like it as much as we do. Coming from the Midwest the image of a boat often holds the vast sea. It’s from the Michel Foucault essay, ‘Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias’: “Brothels and colonies are two extreme types of heterotopia, and if we think, after all, that the boat is a floating piece of space, a place without a place, that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself and at the same time is given over to the infinity of the sea and that, from port to port, from tack to tack, from brothel to brothel, it goes as far as the colonies in search of the most precious treasures they conceal in their gardens, you will understand why the boat has not only been for our civilization, from the sixteenth century until the present, the great instrument of economic development (I have not been speaking of that today), but has been simultaneously the greatest reserve of the imagination. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates.” You could sum it up to say, “…[The ship] has been the greatest reserve of the imagination. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates.”(click on this link to find out what heterotopia means…. I didn’t know… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterotopia_(space)
In gray there is multiplicity (title taken from this great article). Mary Jane Mansfield and Jon Isherwood spoke about their work and what they have learned- what they know to be artistically true at the last 3D symposium up at Franconia Sculpture Park. Mary Jane spoke about her journey from a non-art upbringing where she was scolded as a child for trading her new sewing machine for a box of crayons. She traveled to the heart of the performance art scene in the eighties and then finally spoke about where she is at today. Mary Jane knows about color especially when it comes to difference between gray and yellow. After wearing gray for an entire year “you get to understand the color gray” Mary Jane laughed. She continued- “after wearing yellow for a couple of years… you come to understand the color yellow.” I bet you do! And how do you get to understand the color gray if you haven’t worn it yourself? Yellow,,, red… I think we all have more to understand when it comes to cloaking ourselves or our sculptures in color or dressing or undressing a sculpture in terms of its paint. Although I doubt that Jon Isherwood has worn color to the extent that Mary Jane Mansfield had… he did speak to the idea of multiplicity and the arts in terms of large connected history of art. Multiplicity is defined as the state of being multiple or varied. In physics it is defined as the number of energy levels of a molecule, atom, or nucleus that result from interactions between angular momenta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplicity_(mathematics)). “There is nothing new in art to be discovered that hasn’t already been tried in some way” Isherwood began. He went on to talk about learning and unlearning and showed some images of similar artworks with a great deal of time in between their creations. I guess there is some small part of myself that wants to say… yes but I am different, I am special, I am brand new. But, after the discussion I understood that there can be so much difference within a group. And what is one artist without community? Plus, a conversation isn’t less valuable because someone touched it thousands of years ago. I am glad to be having this artistic conversation with you even if it was a part of some dialogue long ago.
-aRe Verse. So many poems this week! Thanks to everyone who contributed. The first is a poem from the sculptor Peter Morales. The second is a poem from the sculptor Raina Wirta. The third is a poem of mine. The forth is a poem from the sculptor Jesse Bercowetz.
It has been a very intense last couple of weeks. As artists we live on the the cusps of so many things. How to do it best is beyond me. But its worth trying to do well… don’t you think?
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and sculptors can tell it like the mountains.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
FESTIVAL! on the 24th, Maiden Voyage, Hobby?, Stories Circle, and Weekend at Western Sculpture Park
Posted on 20 September 2011 | 1 response
“We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”~ Jack Gilbert
Sept. 24th is less than a week away!!! It is the 15th Annual Franconia Art & Artists Celebration- can’t wait to see you there and for more information check out this link http://franconia.org/festival2011.html!!!
Here is the full entertainment schedule:
11:00 DJ ESP, genius of ambient, minimalist electronica
12:00 Poetry reading: 100,000 Poets for Change , featuring Dee Sweet, former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, and Wang Ping, noted Chinese-American scholar and poet
1:30 Shotgun Johnson and The Mississippi Seven, colorful oldtime folk and rock band
2:30 Tony Berning , solo jump blues and boogie
3:00 Skytree , ambient electronic music
3:30 Tim Kaiser, sonic atmospheres created on acousto-electric improvised instruments
4:00 Announcements and Thanks
4:30 Magic Norm , magic and comedy for the whole family
5:00 Festival Theater of St. Croix Falls Youth Performance, excerpts from “The Hobbit”
5:30 Roe Family Singers , front-porch-style bluegrass and roots band that has a growing Twin Cities following
7:00 Communist Daughter , voted 2010 “Best Band in the Twin Cities” by Twin Cities Metro Mix
8:30 Apollo Cobra, synth-pop great for dancing
Iron Maidens at St. Kates until Oct 30th. We had paella with many of the iron artists (Simone Bizzell-Browning, Sarah Clover, Felicia Glidden, Veronica Glidden, Cynthia Handel, Kate Hobby, Dilys Jackson, Justine Johnson, Mary Johnson, Deborah LaGrasse, Coral Lambert, Alison Lochhead, Carrie Phoenix, Tamsie Ringler, Theresa Smith, Julie Ward) this past Friday night at Franconia the night before their gallery opening at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. The paella that John Hock cooked up was super delicious and the company was grand. I went to the opening show celebrated top iron artists and a truly stunning diversity of cast iron works. I recommend you stop by the art gallery at St. Kates and see this for yourself.
-aRe Verse. The first poem is by Raina Wirta and the second is a poem from Wordsworth. The third poem is mine.
Not a hobby. I appreciate questions from the public during a sculpture tour or a visit to the park. One question that sometimes comes up is “so is this a hobby of yours?” This is not only a good question but a good place to discuss art making and what sort of sculptors are creating sculptures up at the park. Often people ask if I am making sculpture full time. When I tell them that I have a job they sometimes respond with so… then it is a hobby of yours? The answer to this inquiry is,,, no,,, making sculpture is much more than a hobby. A hobby is defined as- an activity engaged in for pleasure and relaxation during spare time. I would say that while I am not able to physically creating sculpture when I am at work I want to be. Creating sculpture for many of the artists up at the park is not just for pleasure and relaxation it is often complex, taxing and is both the best and the worst. Making sculpture means taking an idea and turning it something touchable. You often don’t know what the outcome will be. With a hobby you often know what you are making from the very beginning and know what the end will reveal. I feel that a hobby is an option and that being an artist is more of a vocation. The definition of vocation is- a job that is your purpose in life or a job that you do because you feel it is your purpose in life and for which you have special skills. Sculpture for me isn’t something I can just set aside and pick up when I want to enjoy myself and relax. It is a full time non relenting impossible pursuit to communicate with others through visual art. In order for me to make sculpture and afford rent and materials- I must work another job. A hobby is something that you can pick up and put down. The sculptors up at Franconia are much more entwined with the sculptures they create. Do you tell people that you have a hobby when it is much more than that? Is your art making a hobby? Is your ‘hobby’ a hobby? Do you get a bit frustrated when someone looks at the sculpture you are killing yourself making/thinking about constantly/trying to push limits with and they assume it is something like a hobby that you have a choice to pick up or put down on a whim? At a certain point as an artist you choose the path of a life of art making and there is no going back. “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”- Chinese Proverb
A story from a circle. After the paella about 10 of us were sitting around the fire and started telling a story. You know… the kind where you trade off and the story gets more and more disjointed and absurd and clings with all its might to the space during the seconds between the tellers pass and the next person that holds the stories disjointed and absurd future. It was juggling tales. It was pretty cool. I think that when you get a large group of creative artistically minded people around a fire after a feast there will be fireworks. Or, there will be a give and take that makes the best movies look like chewed gum. Your place in the circle was crucial. I felt for Jes who had to follow John’s narrative and Bayete who came after Robin. I was in a good spot- I followed Veroncia who led the story but also followed the delicate lines the circle had already laid around the fire. After and hour we stopped and I felt that we all understood the power within a collaborative story. When you take away the rules and let people use their imagination without expectation, you have unusually strong moments.
Western Sculpture Park Festival was this past weekend. Franconia Sculpture Park is great friends with Western Sculpture Park in St. Paul. John Hock, Carissa Samaniego, and Jonas Linberg from Franconia helped make the event something you shouldn’t have missed. The drawing machine that made its way to St. Paul from the park is going to be at Franconia this weekend!!! So you can make your own bike machine drawing (with glitter!!) too. Check out some fantastic photos from the event here. Franconia alums Mary Johnson and Amy Tosconi have sculpture at Western Sculpture Park and had some great art opportunities for the community (Mary- Mike and I have the rabbit puck painting on display).
Some Sculpture Scoop: Jes has her steel frame framing multiple kites in the sky, Nam is working on steel tube joinery , Caroline has framed up her cylinder and thinking about what she will put at the top, Chelsea has begun and plotting for buckets of bullet casings, I fixed the swing and have less gaps in the stairway to the poetry platform but got a heavy dose of sickness from somewhere and had to call it on Sunday, Carissa and Jonas were a hit at Western Sculpture Parks Fest- their drawing machine was a crowd favorite, the Iron Maidens show looks amazing, John got a year older- and wiser?, Tamsie is getting close on her car mold for the iron pour, it was great to see PeterEmVeronicaMaryAmy and all the others this weekend, Peyton and Ben Janssens are painting the billboard out front, the Fall Festival is less than a week away, Bayete has stacks and stacks of boom boxes and is getting close to finishing, and SO so so much more!!!.
Thanks for those pics C. I am hoping to finish the staircase this Friday before the fest. It is Fall. Carissa and I are going to Kentucky next month with some sculpture. I could still use a locomotive… so keep your eyes open. What comes around goes around so be good jumpers. If you had a sculpture to make what would it be made of? Last Friday there were hundreds and hundreds of kids from a school group getting tours through the park. On student said she would make her sculpture of rubies and diamonds! Take care- and thanks for reading.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and we have hobbies for lunch.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la ManchA
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Hot Air Balloons, Low-Fi Fine Art?, Momentum, and Past Blogs Titles Tell All
Posted on 12 September 2011 | Comments Off
Through humor, you can soften some of/the worst blows that life delivers./And once you find laughter,/no matter how painful your situation might be,/you can survive it.- Bill Cosby
Some Sculpture Scoop: Jose finished his sculpture! the light in the night is great, Fil installed his sculptures! the new configuration looks sweet, Jes has a tall frame partly up and is making kites, Caroline has started a large cylinder and is making plans for an organic skylight, Nam has steel and is making models, Jonas and Carissa have a double-seater drawing machine ready for its debut this Saturday at Western Sculpture Park, Robin is working on repainting part of his sculpture, Thomas has finished his hand axe, Tamsie is finishing her car mold for the iron pour at the Fall Festival, Bayete has towering stacks of boomboxes and is working on getting the audio up there, Jonas built a wicked bike jump that I am excited and a little terrified to try out, the hot air balloons came so close to landing at the park, a lot of folks came out to enjoy the Juggernauts at the 3D Music Fest this past weekend, my poetry studio sculpture now has a bench swing… railing starts… a staircase framework.. and a working slide, we are experiencing July weather in Sept, the mosquitoes need to back off, and so SO SO so much more.
Hot Air Balloon Navigation. While working on the ‘launch pad’ under one of the several gantries I look up and saw- not one… or two BUT three hot air balloons coming closer and closer to a potential landing on Franconia’s lawn. I looked over at Jonas who was working on putting the floor on his bike jump and we both ran for the tandem bike and set out to track the balloons. We rode the bike out to a site near Hwy. 8 where we watched one balloon being wrestled down and then quickly rolled up. One of the passengers told us she had grabbed a hold of the top of a tree on her decent. She showed us the evergreen tree top and we both smelled the piney sap. It did smell like the top of the forest. At that moment I realized that the top of the poetry sculpture studio I am working on must have a little of that hot air balloon feel before it is finished. And, if I never get to go up in a hot air balloon at least I’ll imagine myself there. I’d love the have the poets writing atop the platform feel as if they might grab hold of the forest tops too.
Low-Fi sculpture. I got contacted last week by an individual that liked my “Low-Fi” sculpture style. Low- Fi.. Low-Fi sculpture ? What does that mean (also spelled lo-fi)- and why did I immediately like the sound of it? Low-Fi is defined as an adjective that describes something which is informal (of sound reproduction) of or giving an impression of poor quality. Is lo-fi poetic or does it just cost less to make? Check out some other artworks described this way at http://louiscarter101.wordpress.com/category/low-fi/. Can you give the impression of ‘poor quality’ while still maintaining the higher standards of fine art? Fine art is defined as a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically, painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture. Does the fact that I am less painstaking about the construction of specific details of my sculptures and use whatever materials I can get impact its aesthetics (aesthetics is defined as the branch of philosophy dealing with such notions as the beautiful, the ugly, the sublime, the comic, etc., as applicable to the fine arts, with a view to establishing the meaning and validity of critical judgments concerning works of art, and the principles underlying or justifying such judgments)? Nam and I were talking about creating sculptures that are beautiful. I mentioned that I wished my sculptures where beautiful from start to finish. But that they aren’t. He likes to have a concrete idea that is visually pleasing and then begin. Is it possible to have lo-fi fine art? Is lo-fi beautiful? Which brings me back to the old question… is art really that complicated? And then… if it isn’t that complicated why do I keep contemplating it?
Keeping momentum. When times get tough and the calendar gets busy what can you do to keep up the energy? Here are a few tips I’ve found to be valuable. Spend time on the difficult tasks early and do the fun stuff as it gets closer to the end of the day. Waking up early and starting makes all the difference. Keep the finished sculpture at the back of your mind but DO NOT think of it too much or you will be stopped in your tracks. When you get tired take a break to swing. When you have to work your at your day job plan some ideas of where you’ll start when you get back to the studio. It isn’t until I stop that I start feeling really physically drained… so I sometimes wait to take breaks until after I have finished larger tasks. Don’t be discouraged by people who don’t understand your idea. And, bowls of cereal, apples and peanut butter sandwiches are quick and easy when you get hungry. What do you do to keep up the momentum?
-aRe Verse. The first poem is mine and the second is a poem by Raina Wirta. If you have a poem to share with this blog. Let me know!
Past Blogs titles from this year- we’ve come SO far and done so much. This year so far: Poetry Space, Alligator Plans, -aRe Verse, and Universal Physical Constants, Titles, So Many Silhouettes, A+ Kids Building Sculptures, Foraging a Future, and a Music Video?, Watching and Smiling, Thanks Magid and Unimin!, What’s New Asia Ward?, Simic’s World Doesn’t End, and are Deuces Always Wild?, Double Pour, Marching Band Does Dance, Rabideau Reflects, and We Do, More than Sit, Scratching Molds, Eco-feminist, the Value in Decay, and Civility vs. Raucous- you tell me…., Fe Collaboration Wants You!, Lilt, Monochromatic, Deserved, and the Sculptor’s Are…., Jungle Juggling, Thomas Linder and Paul Howe, Sculptor Details, and Drink your H2O., Talking, Truth like Salt, For Adults By Kids, and So Many Sculptors Up In Here…!, Wonderland, Dug Manifesto, Getting Magic in Places?, Sit and Sip, and Stellar Staff, Defiant Poems/Sculpture/Artists, Kids Made It!, Hum Burds, and Staged Groups, Celebration, You Can Do IT, Un-weathered Conversation, Animal Kingdom, and Some Great Links, Placemaking, We GLOWEDa-BOUT!, Day of Install, Save the Date, and I Spied, Romanticism, a-Whirl, Unapologetic Art, and Caston’s to Canvas and Back!, Concordia Creative Learning Academy Builds a Sculpture at Franconia!, This Weekend @Casket, Real Objects Imagined, Patterns, Mother’s Day Iron, and Relative Success., An Attack, Family Fun, Advisory, Disconnection, and a Sandpiper’s Something…, Our Board!, a Franconia Story, Emergent Artists, Weekly Tours, Cambridge Comes, and let’s GLOW-a-BOUT!, Barns, Not a Dredge, Once More on Drawing, Difficult is Art?, Ego’s Ageism, and the Pedestal., About Us, Starting Up Unattractively, @ Casket, The Scoop, What is a Serra Drawing Doing?, and Sculpture in Sunsets, Artist Interns!, Ornamental Mentality, How to 2D Sculpture?, and Pack a Picnic Already…., Remembering Michael Bigger, 2011 Artists!, GLOW-a BOUT, Apollo 13′s Cousin, and a Cell Tower Sell, and B-Mine Iron Valentine, Attaching, an Outlook, and Age.
Happy… I hope you are too. The Fall Festival is the 24th. SOON! And there is going to be an iron pour this year. Come and create a scratch block and cast it out of molten iron! I can’t wait to finish the staircase on my sculpture so I don’t have to pay attention to the gaps and can start working on the roof. Next weekend the Iron Maidens are coming up to the Sculpture Park- I am excited. Did you get to enjoy the weekend? Did you stop by Franconia and see the newest additions? If you could make a sculpture what would it be? What would it be made of? Let’s be good jumpers. Thanks for reading. Check out this link from the Pioneer Press this past Sunday- http://www.twincities.com/travel/ci_18854155?source=rss.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, dueces are wild, and we can’t wait for the 24th!
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de low-fi la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Poetry Space, Alligator Plans, -aRe Verse, and Universal Physical Constants
Posted on 29 August 2011 | Comments Off
The choices you make matter. ~
The Poetics of Space. I am reading the book with the same name by Gaston Bachelard and you should pick a copy of this if you are interested creating sculptural or architectural spaces. I am about half way through the book and feel en-rapt when reading about recreating the backdrops of our daydreams. Bachelard says that “Center of boredom, centers of solitude, centers of daydream group together to constitute the oneiric house which is more lasting than the scattered memories of our birthplace.” (Side note: the definition of oneiric is dreamlike- I had to look that one up too) He continues to talk about how daydreams are filled with poetic spaces because like poetry the spaces are distilled down to what is essential. So the house of our daydreams has specific references to the places we know but also a place a person can say, like Paul Eluard, “When the peaks of our sky come together/ My house has a roof.” Memories of places capture specific fragments of where you were and where you wish to be. Rilke is referenced in this book with this beautiful description of a lost house: “I never saw this dwelling again. Indeed, as I see it now, the way it appeared to my child’s eye, it is not a building, but is quite dissolved and distributed inside me: here one room, there another, and here a bit of a corridor which, however, does not connect the two rooms, but is conserved in me in fragmentary form. Thus the whole thing is scattered about inside me, the rooms, the stairs that descended with such ceremonious slowness, others, narrow cages that mounted in a spiral movement, the darkness of which we advanced like the blood in our veins.” When making sculpture do you create place? If you do… do you draw from the spaces that play out daydreams or have pieces recalling parts of fond memories? Can anything but poetic space put the universe on rafters? When you try capturing the elusive daydream are you setting yourself up for success? What do you think of when you think of poetic space?
Detailed vs. Alligator tailed Plans? In the last blog post I wondered… should I be planning my sculpture out more before hand than I am now? Should I make small models before adding and subtracting and juggling multiple silhouettes? I added small alligator tail to the back of one of the parts of my current sculpture this past weekend. I couldn’t have planned that ahead of time and it strangely visually balances the back of one of the legs of my platform. I also read this article on Mark di Suvero were he is quoted to say- ”I don’t build small models or draw detailed plans first,” he said. “I start with a vision, a dream of what I want to do, and see where it goes.” How do you begin a sculpture? Can you plan out every vision? Can you catch an alligator by its tail?
-aRe Verse. The first is a poem for my brother Peter and my soon to be sister-in-law Kim. The second is a poem from Raina Wirta! Thanks for all the poems Raina. If you are a sculptor poet and have a poem to share… send it to me to be included in the next blog. You don’t have to be a master poet… I’m not… but I do love poetry.
Finding Constant. Universal physical constants like the speed of light in a vacuum or Newton’s gravitational constant are both universal in nature and constant in time. When life keeps changing and nothing seems to stay constant it can be difficult to walk an unwavering line or keep focus. How do you get past change and hold onto larger goals? It took Gustav Vigland twenty years to build the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo Norway. He was given a building by the city to work in. Without that… would he have been able to create his most famous work, the Monolith, which icludes 121 figures? Do you have constants in your life? Are they both universal in nature and constant in time?…. Are the constants in your life positive? Are you a positive constant in somebody else’s life? Does this impact the art you are making?
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Mike Hoyt and Jose spoke about their work at the 3D Symposium last Thursday, Bayete is now planning three towering boombox stacks front and back, Carissa and Jonas are building a bike drawing machine with some serious gears, Jose is wiring his solar panels up, Fil is entering the last stretch and wrestling with a few changes to one of his compositions, Jes created a beautiful kite shape out of multiple layers of wood, Caroline has started working with some metal pieces, Nam is making calls and planning his next sculpture moves, Mike is working inside and out of his observing sculpture, on Saturday we had a fine day for the 3D Music Fest, the tandem bike got a work out, the little blue bike got a few more touches of color, Suzanne installed her sculpture!, I attached a marigold painted canopy section and added an 18 foot cantilever for the poetry muse platform/swing, Carissa is working on cleaning up her wings, I am set to go to Josephine Sculpture Park in Kentucky at the end of October, we all sang Karaoke Saturday Night and you’d be surprised at the vocal (non metal) pipes on this sculptor bunch!!- Thanks Mike we needed that, and SO so so so ! much more.
Misc. Linkage: this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this
I meet an incredible music family this weekend. Two oboes, a base, and another instrument I can’t recall. We talked a bit about my sculpture and the sculpture park. Thanks for the great questions and conversation. When you visit the park you should consider asking the artists what they are making- you might be surprised. I will be away from the park this weekend… but you shouldn’t be. Read. Read to your kids. Thankshanzlikforthecantileverlifthelp. The weather this time of year is perfect for bringing a car load of friends and family up to the park for a picnic. I really enjoy writing this blog,,, so glad you stopped by.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild, and architects catch daydreams.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Titles, So Many Silhouettes, A+ Kids Building Sculptures, Foraging a Future, and a Music Video?
Posted on 22 August 2011 | Comments Off
We are always at the beginning, eternal apprentices, thrown back again and again into that condition. There is a complexity which demands its equivalent in words. Of course, it is impossible to do it justice. I say Yes to the impossible — therefore poetry. ~ Charles Simic
Sculpture titles to tell or to let it be told. What goes into naming a sculpture? Does it get named after its finished being made… during?… before? Should sculptures have titles? In my experience up that the park the process of titling a work of art is as individual as the artist themselves. Some artists painstakingly contemplate the name of their sculpture for days and months. Others just come up with it on the spot when they need to. There are a few typical ways to name a sculpture: No Name/Untitled (the idea that the sculpture doesn’t need a name or the artist can’t find one that is suitable), Informational (the title tell you information that you might not have otherwise of know and tell you something important about the sculpture), Simple and Direct (the title tells you what is already apparent or inherent about the work), Thought Provoking (the title encourages you to take another look or probes you to understand something deeper about a sculpture… giving you clues to a more complicated idea or narrative), or a Combination of the above (for example- the title of a sculpture can be both Direct and Thought Provoking ). John Hock just installed a sculpture in Chicago and was interviewed about the installation, how he came up with the idea for the sculpture and also its title. Take a look at this video- http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxS7TBr6g15U&h=XAQDx5c0WAQDS-mLB_QutuEymjuIRsriHRvcysjmgnNWZfA and see if you can figure out what sort of approach he took. Then you should take a look at the titles of the rest of the sculptures at Franconia and see if you can fit them into any of these categories (roll your mouse over the sculpture locations on the map to view their titles at http://franconia.org/map.html). How do you name your sculptures? If you aren’t a sculptor… imagine yourself as one… and think about what you would do? I usually go for a title that is Direct but it might also be Thought Provoking or Informational. A rose is a rose is a rose? Or a rose is a rose is marigold?
Three dimensional silhouettes. When creating a sculpture a sculptor needs to be conscious of not only what it is and but also what it appears to be. You can walk around sculptures and see them from all sides. You get multiple silhouettes against the sky. I find it difficult to juggle multiple silhouettes all at one time. I have to attach a part and then walk around it to see what the new addition does to the whole sculpture… attach, climb down, walk around, and sometimes detach, reattach, walk around -over and over and over. I often wonder how some people can visualize a sculpture and without seeing realized. How do they make it work from beginning to end without any reattaching or walking around? Some people make smaller models and work out the multiple silhouettes that way. Should I be doing that? Can you do that if you don’t know what your materials are ultimately going to be and where those materials will come from?
Kids Can! – let them be brilliant and build. Kids Make Sculpture lets kids build the most amazing things. Kids Make Sculpture is a workshop that Franconia Sculpture Park puts on several times a year. If you want to participate- you will have to wait for the dates for next year… sorry. This was the last sculpture making workshop of 2011! What is there not to love about 20-30 kids creating sculptures? Sometimes the kids come with an idea in mind and some the imagination flies after starting. I was so wrapped up in building a sculpture with my kids I hardly noticed the three hours go by or even remember to take a good look at all the other amazing creations around me. Although our sculpture making neighbors had a mouse house fit for one LUCKY mouse. I caught a glimpse of a huge figure with a top hat that had moving head and arms, a giant plane and a tiger with a mouth full of sharp teeth. I must say that the kids I worked with made a fantastic house complete with- a chimney ladder, door knobs, hinges, a chair/wall, and peek holes. I’ve worked with this brother and sister (team VIP jr) a couple times before and…. watch out for these two in the future. I’m telling you.
-aRe Verse. The first poem is mine and the second is a poem by Raina Wirta.
The Institute For a Forageable Future. Jonas Lindberg is back at the park! His thesis (which comes in the form of a free newsletter with the above title on newsprint) is chalked full of depth. I asked him if I could share some of it in the blog- and he handed me a copy this past Saturday morning. So I have been rereading it trying to figure out what to share- the boots, the turtle pens and cabbage diet, the adventure playground, the fishermen, pear mint smoothie recipe, or the honest and thoughtful way he describes how it is that he finds mushrooms and how that connects to his artwork. The way the thesis/newsletter is put together begs me to share a little of a lot of things. But, the part that really strikes me is this passage: “…I was in the middle of my second year as park manager at Franconia Sculpture Park. Becoming burnt out from assigning the interns their daily tasks, mowing the grass, keeping the thistle population at bay, changing the oil on then machines, fixing the welder plugs, picking nails out of the gravel to avoid popping another tire, picking up a tire from the tire shop, buying grass seed at Menards, helping someone flip a sculpture, watering the trees, watering the grass, fixing a leak in the toilet, mopping the floor in the basement, pruning the apple trees, disassembling an old sculpture, installing a new one, fixing a wheel on a welding car, painting a wall, picking up garbage on the lawn, moving something from here to there, doing the dishes, cleaning the golf carts, greasing a trolley, setting up scaffolding, taking scaffolding down, checking air in twenty tires, filling ten and on and on and on. During this time I had given up the need to make object-based work. I decided to focus on my role as a facilitator, helping other artists with their needs while serving as a mentor to other young artists. Part of the satisfaction of this environment of work, learning, living and facilitation came from providing and cooking foraged food for the table.” He goes on in great length and different stories to tell how it is that a forageable future can hope for play and morels. It’s getting that balance right that is quite a work of art. I’ve learned from Jonas as the Park Manager when I started my Playstation sculpture. Jonas played a big part in how ambitious the sculpture was and the attitude I built it with.
Misc Linkage: This & this & this & this & this & this & this
Some Sculpture Scoop: Welcome Caroline, Nam and Jes!, Jose has installed his frame out in the park and is awaiting solar panels, Bayete just got back as I left, Fil helped John install his sculpture in Chicago, I have a cantilever swing attached and my canopy is getting sorted out, Jonas found some coveted Black Trumpets, Carissa made pillow sculptures with the community in the Cities, Kids kids kids Made Sculpture, The Melismatics shot footage of a music video at the sculpture park yesterday http://melismatics.com/ I hear it will be ready in about a month, and so so so SO much more.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sky meets sculpture, deuces are wild, and the forageable future looks bright-ly.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Watching and Smiling, Thanks Magid and Unimin!, What’s New Asia Ward?, Simic’s World Doesn’t End, and are Deuces Always Wild?
Posted on 17 August 2011 | Comments Off
Kid’s Day at the 3D Music Fest. Magic was in the air, frogs, newts and amphibians galore were passed around, lots of kids playing, and tons of kids dancing on the mounds- It was kids kids and more kids at Franconia Sculpture Park on Saturday. I noticed that the adults who brought their kids were having a great time too. I sometimes think it is easier to have fun while facilitating fun for others (big or small). Why is this? Watching a little girl hold a newt and peering deeply into its slimy amphibious eyes or seeing a group of young buddies flail dancing limbs without care… why does this make us smile? Are we wishing for something when we smile at others doing things while smiling? Does responsibly make it harder to be the one doing and smiling instead of watching and smiling? I’d rather hold newts. I’d rather flail my limbs. I sit here writing this blog newtless and with limbs in a state of atrophy. But, I am listening to this so I feel like that compensates for half a newt at least.
Thank You to Magid and Unimin for making the 2011 Community Collaboration Iron Pour a huge success. Magid Glove and Safety helped the iron pour with top of the line welding gloves!!! Check out all their products at http://www.magidglove.com/. I am using a pair of these welding gloves and couldn’t be happier. Plus, all the sand we used to make our sand molds for the iron pour was donated to the iron pour by Unimin Corporation ( http://www.unimin.com/). To find out more about Unimin how their MN sand is impacting a natural gas extraction process called hydraulic fracturing click here.
Asia Ward is a friend and fellow Franconia Alum. She is making a lot of great artwork these days and is involved in the Learning Technologies Center at the Science Museum. Check out the some photos of her recent work above. She writes a little about what she has been creating and what exciting things are going on at the Science Museum!:
“I like to figure out the capabilities of my materials. Right now it’s electronics, microcontrollers, aluminum sheet, steel and a mig welder. I have an idea in mind and I push the material and tools to the limit. I fight them. I break the aluminum and steel! I try not to break my welder or catch anything on fire! I enjoy working with materials that can handle a lot of abuse. Natural materials like wood and clay don’t work for me because they have their own way. Whereas steel and plastic, you can bend and break, and weld it back together again.
My current work is about strong dreamscapes that have affected my life. The landscape sculptures were created to represent “scenes” of strong dreams I have had during my life. The dreamscapes are distorted perspectives of real landscapes around my parent’s house, an old school house in the country. They are also based on places I have lived where I have experienced clarity and fear. My unconscious neatly summarized everything I knew and felt at the time of my dream, and narrowed it down into a detached landscape symbolic of those events. I have often remembered the dreams during turbulent times in my life, and have used them to help me see a clear and detached perspective of current events. The dreamscapes have shaped my moods, perspectives, and choices, so I honor and remember them by the construction of these sculptures.
I work at the Learning Technologies Center at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Currently my position as a Program Specialist is to manage and coordinate the adult Making After Hours. Making After Hours is a series of art, technology, and engineering workshops for adults (18+) that take place once a month from February till August. The workshops include an introduction led by a guest artist, materials and technology you can use in your project, and a great atmosphere for “making” after work. Here’s a link to a Making After Hours video: http://vimeo.com/19989689 So far my favorite workshop has been Jennifer Davis’s “Shadow Puppet Animation.” We created cut-out silhouettes of characters, back lit them with a light box, then made stop motion animations of the characters moving. Here’s a video: http://vimeo.com/23589267I develop activities for the adult only Social Science event that takes place every three months at the Science Museum. The last one was called Solar Powered Boats. The next Social Science: Fermentational Informational is September 21th and my activity is called “Beer Can Cookie Cutters.” Guests will put on gloves, then hack away, bend, shape, and rivet beer cans into cookie cutter shapes.” Thank you so much Asia! You can see more of her artwork here.
If Charles Simic would come write a poem on my sculpture I think I would be completely happy forever. I just read Simic’s Pulitzer Prize winning book of poetry, The World Doesn’t End (a great investment for $5), and I love it (thanks Norina). The first poem in the book blew me away when I read it last night. It made me remember that no matter how often I fight to create imaginative sculptures in the midst of largely flat surroundings and often through challenging times… just a spot of color matters amidst the gray. He writes so honestly about the dark parts of life and living and the world while never forgetting about its brightness. In this New York Times article you get a better sense of who Charles Simic is and why he writes they way he does. From the article,,, Simic speaks of how his poetry developed: ”I went through enormous changes. Before the Army I had become too literary, buttoned down, in tweeds, pipe-smoking, all that. After the Army I had a much humbler view of myself. I started thinking about a remark of the painter Paul Klee, that if a young man is to accomplish something he has to find something truly his own. Well, I had a kind of minimalist urge and so I started writing poems about the simplest things. Household objects: a knife, a fork, a spoon, my shoes.” Another article interviews Simic and speaks of his In-Verse thinking. How does the idea In-Verse Thinking relate to sculpture? Can sculpture have In- Verse Thinking? I have so much respect for Charles Simic. If by chance you read this and have even the slightest inclination to see the poetry studio/sculpture I am creating… I’d be beside myself.
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Carley installed her sculpture! Clara installed her sculpture!, Ineshke installed his sculpture!, Bayete is starting to gather favorite songs for his boom box tower, Jose has roots that need to be flipped and is doing a lot of bending with the heat gun, Fil has two sculpture in progress,,, is talking about a third… and is grinding and pounding, Carissa’s wings turned out with lots of detail, Jonas and Carissa took a dip in Mary Jane’s pool, Kristen shoveled the hole back to the beginning, Amber finished her iron piece of with a dab of glowing goo on the nose of her tiny rabbit, Kate’s binoculars are fun with two people, there is a calm in the air out on the launch pad, the weather was gorgeous, I am building a staircase to the poetry studio/sculpture upper platform and trying my best to rise out of the blasted gray, and so so SO much more.
-aRe Verse. The first poem is from Raina Wirta (thanks Raina!) and the second is mine.
Misc. Linkage: this & this &this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this
New artists should be up at the park this weekend! Nice. When someone doesn’t care for your company it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. My brother is getting married so soon! Go Peter and Kim. My vote is still on the marching band. Curses on the housing bubble. Kids Make Sculpture is this weekend. What do you wonder about sculpture? What do you fear you’ve just figured out but might forget? Can the feeling of gray be built out of color? Work hard- I think it is the only way to accomplish something different. Oh locomotive.
Franconia Sculpture Park- where sky meets sculpture, deuces are wild, and half a newt is better than none.
Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out
Bridget Beck de la Mancha
http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/
Double Pour, Marching Band Does Dance, Rabideau Reflects, and We Do
Posted on 9 August 2011 | Comments Off
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” ~Mohandas K. Gandhi
The iron wasn’t the only thing that poured. I want to congratulate all the community members that came out and watched the iron pour and maybe even made their own sculptures. There were lots and lots of beautiful iron scratch block sculptures created. The band Savage Aural Hotbed played throughout the day on the bed of the crane. If you weren’t there… you missed hearing homemade instruments electrically charged played with a compelling industrial beat. The musicians dressed the part too. The junkyard jump suits they wore were terrific. I spoke to several iron artists about how the energy of the pour was elevated as soon as the band began to play. Thank you Savage Aural Hotbed! All the iron artists charged ahead despite on very brief but very intense bout of rain. Congrats to all of the fine work I saw being mined out of the sand molds on Saturday and Sunday- there were a lot of large iron pieces made this year.
Dancing is more fun than having fun without dancing. What does dancing have to do with sculpture? And why do I/you love to dance so much? And why doesn’t everybody love to dance? This Scientific American article helps to understand a little about why and how it is that “dancing combines two of our greatest pleasures: music and movement.” First of all, the idea and enjoyment that dancing brings can certainly be transferred to sculpture. Pleasures…. Movement… Music… do you know of sculptures/artworks that deal with these concepts? The way a sculpture connects to the ground and the way the viewers eye moves over a three dimensional surface has everything to do with infusing rhythm and balance into materials. After the iron pour was over and we gathered around the bonfire… some of us danced. There was a moment when Sam and Tim talked about how to get more people dancing. I went into the house to gather more troops when I ran into the troops already gathering themselves into a marching band! So I joined the loosely formed marching band (drums, frumpet, accordion harmonicas) and we marched out to the fire bleating a simple melody and rhythm. That was a highlight of the night to me. Dancing… does it mean more than moving? What moves you to move? What does movement mean to sculpture that stands still? I think that there was magic in that marching band. I was proud to bleat my heart out in those moments and dance around the fire.
-aRe Verse. The first poem is mine and the second is a poem written by Langston Hughes.
The first year I was up at Franconia I meet fellow intern Justin Rabideau ( http://justinrabideau.com/)… Well we’ve both come a long way since then. Justin has spent time working at various museums, Palm Beach State College and is now employed at Chisel 3D. Here is what Justin has been pondering recently:
“I have been thinking a lot lately about a trend that I have noticed growing over the years. A trend that I can’t necessarily back up, point to a specific catalyst, or even claim that is true. But in my mind and in my perception, it is a trend nonetheless. In the arts communities there is the notion that we are now focusing with a heightened attention on creating and sustaining the arts on a local level. Now that may seem to be an obvious statement. In truth, the value of local arts has existed for a long time but may have been lost and then rediscovered in recent years. The more I look around, I see less of a sweeping “global” art movement and more of pockets of movements focused on sustaining and discussing specific regional and community needs.
This is not to say that there is no connectivity in a national and global sense, but it is more to say that I believe now there is a greater importance placed on the regional art community. The days of the art world looking to places such as New York City for guidance are vanishing. Through the globalization of our artistic and cultural worlds, there are greater opportunities for the local communities to have a voice. The act of being involved in a local arts movement creates a true sense of pride and value. We look inward and see outward.
I believe there are many facts that have contributed to this local movement in the arts. An obvious one is the economy….sure. Look at a recent article about museums starting to focus on their own collections instead of borrowing exhibitions from other museums: Money Tight, Museums Mine Their Own Collections
It’s a great solution to a financial problem while also generating a sense of pride within the community toward their local arts organization. Idealistically, the museum-goer gets to look and see work that their museum has placed value in.
Another factor may also be the general movement of “going local” and “going green.” There is a surge of like-minded people that are realizing that the more we try to work on bolstering up our local communities, the better our lives become. There are so many wonderful organizations that are focusing their creative energies on the needs and desires of their communities. These movements recognize the importance of thinking globally by acting locally. And better yet they are getting a response. Communities of artists are forming ranks around these organizations and spreading their creativity within these communities. Places like the Gear Factory, Franconia Sculpture Park, WonderRoot, Dashboard Co-op, The UrbanArt Commission and many, many more are creating these opportunities to focus on the arts on a local level. The stronger these groups are becoming the more the artists are encouraged to stay and participate. Global exchanges amongst communities will still happen, but it will increasingly become an exchange in which the arts ask, “What can I do for you.” I personally love this notion of the arts, community and connectivity. It is my hope that this trend will continue and thrive.” Thanks so much Justin! Cheers.
Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Community Collaboration Iron Pour success despite a mid day 15 minute torrential downpour, there were lots of scratch blocks made!, Araan installed his sculpture!, Tim installed his sculpture!, Clara’s wooden frame was knocked over by torrential winds during the torrential down pour – but we all (30+ people) lifted it back up and she is back in business, Kristen poured an iron shovel to compliment her digging, Bobby is off to grad school in Arizona, Jonas is back, there are so many new iron pieces to be put in the iron gallery (come check it out), we had a huge bonfire and the pink face paint stuck around on faces longer than people thought it would, Mike H. cooked up some tasty brats at the Lizard Lounge, there are new Franconia t-shirts and they are super cool, Fil has a base to his tower, my sculpture is free standing thank goodness and it is about time, the chasers grinded their hearts out at the grinding and chasing station for the scratch blocks, accordion harmonicas made their debut (via Jonas), Carley is contemplating more shelves and has her gibbet cage made, a pig roast, and SO SO so much more!
Misc. Linkage: this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this & this
See more photos that Thomas took of the iron pour here- http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/media/set/?set=a.2205113178148.123754.1556946169&type=1! I need to get it together. And, thanks Mike Han__… for being the best. Encouragement can be more important that you might at the time realize. Franconia- thanks for your encouragement over the years. It has made all the difference for me. When things get tough- take steps anyways… even if they are small steps. Read. Read to your kids. I can’t wait to meet the new artists up at the park.
