Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Franconia Artists poured iron at St. Kate’s during their Mother’s Day iron pour, Carissa made her mom a sculpture, Sophie made some small fruits/veg for her family, Jesse made a mould for some hands for his larger sculpture, Liz was in iron mode, Josh is working towards a spire, dance party after the last 3D symposium, my poetry studio has more walls up upstairs, Alex is combining stumps and springs, Ryan has his prisms out and they are reflecting the MN sky!, we hung out on my sculptures upper platform and sang songs, there was a barrel bonfire pizza party, what a beautiful weekend (I got three full days in finally no rain), CCLC picked up their student built sculpture (complete with tiled benches and lots of circles), some of Franconia’s board members made the rounds and so SO sO much more.

Art-a-Whirl: Franconia @ Casket- Exhibition & reception @ our new city site Friday May 18th from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. Please come celebrate the new Franconia City Sculpture Park and the exhibiting artists:  Amy Toscani, Aaron Dysart, Andrew MacGuffie, Bridget Beck, and Peyton. Saturday May 19th from 12 noon to 4pm, we will have a Spin-Art Workshop, Face Painting, a BBQ, and music at the Casket Building.  On Sunday, May 20^th there will be Steamroller Printmaking for kids and adults.  Create your own original steamroller print with the team from ArtOrg!  This event is always a lot of fun.  Come visit Franconia in the city and make sure you say hello and give a high five to all our staff members- Jonas Lindberg, Carissa Samaniego, Liz Helfer, Mindy Breva, Robin Wilburn, Loretta Draths and John Hock.  Art-a-Whirl dates are: May 18th: 5pm-10pm, May 19th: 12 noon -8pm, May 20th: 12 noon -5pm.  Art-a-Whirl is organized by NEMAA

A Conversation about Sentimentality- The actor Tom Wilkinson said during and interview that “Sentimentality is the enemy of art…. art is judged on its own terms and not on its packaging.”   This started me thinking about sentimentality and art.  My first thoughts were- Does decoration package art? How to you add lots of detail without it being decorative or sentimental? Is it a conscious decision to be sentimental or is it a reflex of wanting something to be more than it is?  A few of my friends (via facebook) got in on the discussion.  Matt Bauman, a writer and professor at Black Hills State University, wrote-  “I think decoration intentionally draws attention to itself out of hubris, whereas detail adds complexity, which decoration doesn’t. And sentimentality, I think, draws on common and predictable *feelings* rather than provoking complex *emotions.*” Then, I admitted, “I just think that I sometimes lean toward sentimentality in my sculpture because I go overboard and say too much with my materials… I get to fancy when I don’t need to I get caught up in feelings and have a hard time saying less to say more.”   Melanie VanHouten, director and co-founder of Josephine Sculpture Park in KY, recommended that I  “… trust your instincts, they know what is right and others will often ‘hear’ one thing, when we ‘meant’ something else… but that is ok by me, if they get what they need out of it, whatever it has said to them…then I am satisfied.”  And Robert Gardner, artist and owner of Chinese Shao-Lin Kung Fu of Phoenix, urged me to remember “that your audience is made up of the same kind of emotion-riddled humans as the one making the work. Don’t disavow all sentiment and emotion because it somehow seems less important than cold observation. Speak with your emotions; make from them. Just do it unabashedly, and then edit like any good writer. I think the power will come from your work saying one thing at a time rather than all at once.”  Thanks for your input Matt, Melanie and Robert!!  I thought about this conversation while I was working on my sculpture all weekend.  What do you think about sentimentality in art?

-aRe Verse.  The first poem is written by Jesse Bercowetz.  The second is mine.   The third poem is from Jesse Blumenthal.

Scheduling for a Locomotive: I have almost finished scheduling 16 art workshops at the nursing/care centers in the month of July.  That was trickier than I thought.  And woah… that’s a lot of workshops to prepare for.  But, I’ll get it done.  The 8 events are also almost scheduled for the end of August.  These will be open to the public so when I get the final confirmation I’ll share them with you so you can join us if you want!!

Thanks for reading.  Check out this cool interactive new media piece out of Manchester- http://www.idhideyou.com/.  One of the project masterminds, Tyler Stefanich from Minneapolis, is headed to UCLA as well this Fall.  And, look at this fun idea for ‘Shareable Playborhoods’- http://www.shareable.net/blog/playborhoods-placemaking-for-kids.  I’m headed to the desert for a bit so next week’s blog post will be from Liz and Carissa that answers the question– What can kids build?  Check it out next week.

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild and we are preparing to Whirl.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/

It is true that there have been deep cuts to arts education in recent years, and arts education has suffered and while a increasingly available online college courses <http://www.onlineschools.org/>are picking up some of the slack, artistic technique is hard to learn remotely. In March, 2011, the Department of Education’s $40 million Arts Education Program was on chopping block, as part of a Band-Aid to avoid a government shutdown <http://artsactionfund.org/news/entry/arts-education-funding-cut-in-two-week-budget-fix>.  School districts around the country have cut their Arts programs, as well; in Los Angeles, the Arts budget has been cut by 85% in the past three years. In part, the Arts have been getting the short end of the stick because No Child Left Behind encourages achievement in math, reading, and other subjects that can be easily tested.
 
It is clear that we are devaluing art despite its cultural and historical importance. Sculpture has helped civilizations tell their most important stories. It is an ancient art form, dating to pre-Christian civilizations. Early sculpture, typically materializing deities were made 24,000 years ago, well before mathematics.  Mesopotamia, the Far East, Egypt, and ancient India all produced sculpture. In the Dynastic Period, from 2900 to 2350 B.C., Mesopotamians made sculptures of themselves as worshippers of the gods, which supposedly were presented to the gods after their souls began the journey from this world to the next. Similarly, much of Egyptian sculpture was made for the tomb, or beyond. “Colossal” statues were built for display, to glorify kings and deities.
 
The Greeks and Romans made sculpture to suit similar purposes. Their craftsmen carved portraits of emperors and mythological sculptures. These could either represent the gods, such as the famous and now limbless Venus di Milo. They also used stone to tell stories of the gods, which they accomplished on “reliefs” that were inscribed onto the facade of buildings. A number of frames depicted crucial moments in famous stories, a tactic that comic books and graphic novels still employ.
 
In the twentieth century, sculpture and expanded to include historical figures and even abstract concepts. Examples of the first category can be found at Mt. Rushmore and Washington D.C., where figures of great individuals will stand for centuries. Many of these sculptures commemorate American heritage and history; you need only think of the new Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington, DC, or the impressionistic rendition of Albert Einstein. Other examples of contemporary sculpture can be even more imaginative.
 
With this significant heritage and the fact that art is a creative outlet, it is no wonder that the Arts keep kids interested in school, and help them with their overall development. When Arts programs thrive, more kids go to college. There is good news, though. The National Endowment for the Arts <http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/artsed.html> still gives grants to teachers for Arts education. Free programs like Inner-City Arts <http://www.good.is/post/thanks-to-one-los-angeles-nonprofit-budget-cuts-haven-t-killed-off-art-class/> in Los Angeles teach art to kids who can’t get it in school. And the Obama administration announced Turnaround Arts in April, a program geared toward low-achieving kids in eight public schools. Further, the growth of online communities and mobile applications is allowing students to get involved with art outside of class and virtually connect with other aspiring artists around the world.
 
However, some schools are standing their ground. There is a program in Belleville, Illinois called “High School Sculpture in the City <http://artonthesquare.com/high-school-sculpture-in-the-city>.” Students from the arts and welding departments of the local high school have accepted the challenge of designing a piece of public art, which will be displayed at Art on the Square on May 18th. So, while some areas of the country have almost lost their Arts programs, in some places, the Arts thrive, and there are lots of people who want to keep it that way.

Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Nam finished his sculpture and installed it near the front entrance- congrats!, Carissa and I ordered mega supplies for GLOWaBOUT, a couple people have been caught by a sick bug, an entire school visited on Friday, Jesse’s sculpture is off the gantry and in the process of being split, Alex has been slowly working on the inside of his boat, Sophie got some metal sheet and is talking about concrete pillars, Josh has a triangular base piece made, we talked sculpture @ Casket on Thursday- Dougie did a fair share of that- it was great, Ryan had Jonas out on the tractor and his triangular installation is going to be gigantic, I pulled my stairway roof sections to the stairway frame and added the upper cable roof system (thanks for the help MH), some artists went to St. Kate’s to break iron for the Mother’s Day iron pour, rain rain go away, a couple young gentlemen in hats (one with a bit of resemblance to John Hock) tried to pull a sneak attack on Saturday and SO so SO so much more.

Calendar Check- Do you have all these events  on your calendar?  Tomorrow night Ryan Turley and Sophie Fishel will be presenting their work during one of our lively evenings of  free dialogue and interchange of ideas between artists and everyone interested in art of three dimensions. Franconia Sculpture Park artists and alumni converge at the park twice a month, from June through October, for Three Dimensional Thursday Symposiums. The evenings’ events will include dinner with Franconia resident artists ($10 donation for dinner), examples of alumni and/or resident artists’ current artwork and a freewheeling discussion between artists, critics, philosophers, poets, and you!.
Please RSVP or for more information, please call 651-257-6668 or e-mail info@franconia.org.

aRe Verse- The first poem is by Raina Wirta.  The second poem is written by Jesse Bercowetz.  The third is mine.

Locomotive Sculpture- I can’t wait to start working on my Locomotive Sculpture Project dedicated in part to my grandparents the Becks and the Sathers.  As community members grow older and find themselves in nursing facilities they deal with aging and loss on a daily basis and sometimes find that their mobility is limited. This sculpture brings a bit of adventure to the usual routine (May- early Sept), weekly Locomotive Sculpture updates during the sculpture construction and the opportunity for hundreds of individuals to contribute to a large scale traveling sculpture that will visit and connect to the larger community.  I have established a creative partnership with 8 nursing/care center facilities in Minnesota.  Each facility will have two workshops with residents and their caregivers where they will be able to contribute significantly to the Locomotive Sculpture.  They will be able to access my locomotive sculpture blog  and facebook page  with weekly Locomotive Sculpture updates and caregivers and staff will have a bulletin board at the nursing facility that will also track the Locomotive Sculpture weekly as its construction progresses.  After the workshops and final construction of the locomotive structure is finished, there will be 8 community events where the locomotive sculpture will be driven to the nursing facilities and invite residents and their caregivers to interact with and gather on the sculpture they helped create.   

The facilities have been selected and the Minnesota facilities are: Ecumen Parmly LifePointes- Chisago City, Golden Living Center- St. Louis Park, Good Samaritan Center Heritage Place-Roseville, Good Samaritan Center- Invergrove Heights, Good Samaritan Center University Specialties- Minneapolis, Ramsey County Care Center- St. Paul and Texas Terrace- St. Louis Park.  I will begin in the next couple of weeks.  I’m waiting for the official go-ahead and funding from The Minnesota State Arts Board.  My first step will be finding a suitable and heavy duty vehicle.  One that can hold up a sculptural locomotive. ………………  This activity is made possible in part by an Artist Initiative grant to me in 2012 from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

GLOWaBOUT is at MCAD this year next to the Minnesota Institute of Arts (MIA).  Carissa and I meet at MCAD this week to sort out all of the details.  This is going to be an energizing experience to say the least.  We also ordered supplies which include LED glowing orbs, lots of garbage can lids, 1000s of glow accessories, cords, blenders and some pretty snazzy shirts for our 8 ½ staff members.  For more details on all the free Northern Spark activities on the night of June 9th and more on GLOWaBOUT check out this link –   http://2012.northernspark.org/project/beck-samaniego!

Risky- What does it mean for an artist to make art that risks something?  At Casket last Thursday this came up in the conversation…  it isn’t that great art has to be dangerous in the sense that it is full of knives and fear…. but don’t you think it is important to push and pull at edges.  Can you tell the difference between a work of art that tips norms and pushes its creator from a work that is made knowing it will be sucessful because previous like minded peices were? 

I am going to be painting my sculpture all day Friday if it doesn’t rain.  Come say hello.  Thanks for reading. How do you determine if you are a successful artist? What questions do you have about Franconia Sculpture Park?  Let me know and I’ll post an answer next week.  It is getting busy at the park.  Oh yeah!

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild and artists make friendships that are formed for life.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com

“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”~ Joan Miro

Some Sculpture Park Scoop: Nam is finishing up his sculpture before he heads to another residency on Sunday, Carissa and Liz are building a sculpture with some students (more on this in the next blog post), Jesse is adding to his frame, Josh has been drilling and assembling, Sophie is busy wrapping and bending steel, I gave a presentation to the National Association of Museum Exhibition on Tuesday about Franconia Sculpture Park and we built the strongest poetry sculpture ever, Alex has a ship!!! to shape up, Ryan is almost ready to put the prisms outdoors, my poetry studio sculpture has a front bench, GLOWaBOUT is going to be at MCAD near the MIA this year and SO so SO so much more!!!!

Janet Echelman’s Nets- When you look at Janet Echelman’s sculpture installations lit up at night they seem to float and some look similar to photographs of astronomical wonders or geometric renditions of the northern lights.  They’re made of nets.  I think this is very humorous because the catch the light and look incredible light and floaty.  They remind me nothing of fish or the sea.  What do you think of Echelman’s work? 

Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Deadlines- Click this link to find all the MRAC deadlines for all sorts of programs from Arts Activities to Management Training http://www.mrac.org/grants/pdf/FY13GrantDeadlines.pdf

Museum Exhibits- is Franconia a Museum and does it have Exhibits?  I gave a presentation about Franconia to the National Association of Museum Exhibitions (NAME) this week where I talked about the way in which our sculptures are exhibited.  A museum is defined as a building or institution where objects of artistic, historical, or scientific importance and value are kept, studied, and put on display.  Franconia differs from typical museum in several ways but also shares some similarities.  The sculpture park is not a building housing objects of artistic significant.  It doesn’t amass a gigantic collection of all the sculpture ever shown there… imagine the size of the collection area if that were the case!  If the 615 emerging and established; regional, national and international artists that the park has hosted in the last 15 years kept their sculptures at the park permanently, we’d need MANY more acres of land.  Instead the sculptures rotate yearly and the sculptures that come out of the park are returned to the sculptor’s care or placed in a different location.  This also gives new sculptors the chance to build on a large scale every single year.  Like a museum, we encourage the community to come and study or see our display of artwork.  The sculptures at the park are of varying styles and promote the public education of three-dimensional art much like a museum.  An exhibit is something, especially a work of art, in a public place such as a museum or gallery.  Franconia’s art exhibits are unique because they include not just the physical sculpture but the sculpture’s creation.  The artists build their sculptures on site before they are installed into the park.  On any given day a visitor will see sculptures in all stages of development.

Afghan Poets Risking Death- This New York Times article describes at length the drive and perils associated with women writing personal poetry in Afghanistan.  After reading it… I’d love to be able to bring my Poetry Studio Sculpture and leave it cloaked in invisibility for Mirman Baheer, Afghanistan’s largest women’s literary society.  I’ve imagined all sort of poets writing from atop my new sculpture not even considering that to do so they might be killed?!  The author Eliza Griswold writes after meeting up secretly with a young female poet, “I wanted to give her something, but I feared that a book of my own poems might endanger her. If her brothers found it, how would she explain where this American’s poems had come from? Having nothing else, I tugged a scarf from my neck. She reached into her purse and handed me a rhinestone butterfly comb. Then she tugged the burqa’s soft grille back over her face, took her chaperon by the hand and disappeared into the crowd.”  How can you give a gift (like a poetry studio sculpture) to an individual forbidden from expressing herself?  And how do you accept a gift from someone like this brave young poet who has risked her life to share her poetry-? 

-aRe Verse.  The first poem is Raina Wirta’s, the second is a poem is mine.  Then, the following poems are some of the many wonderful poems created at the NAME conference during my poetry sculpture activity!  And, I hear whispers that Jesse Blumenthal might have some free verse to share with you soon.

Personal Branding- I attended a session about personal branding before giving the presentation I noted above.  I thought that it might give me some insight in how I present myself and my sculpture.  The presenter had us go through and figure out what our top three “unique selling points” were and then come up with a sort of pseudo slogan for ourselves.  It was strange to see the enthusiasm people were putting in as they shared their “unique selling points” with the rest of the room.  It was almost as if everyone couldn’t wait to let their neighbor know how they had just sloganized themselves.  Most of the people in the room were museum professionals looking for ways to move up the ladder… in which case personal branding might help out I admit. Our instructor told us that we had to be consistent with this message and that every last detail of our lives should match this personal brand- our car, our clothes, our demeanor, etc.  He told us his own personal brand several times along with “make sure you give me a great review when you fill out the survey for this session.”  After the hour concluded, I folded the blank survey into a square without filling it out, put it in my bag and left very content in knowing that I would not be branding myself into a slogan anytime soon.  I am very happy as myself and I’ll stick with my own name.

Thanks for reading.  I really enjoy writing this blog.  Come to the 3D symposium @ Casket this Thursday night from 7-10pm.  This weekend I hope to get some cable up for my roof, fill in the other side of my stairway and work on the upper levels floor.  Stop by and say hello if you make it up for a visit.  Do you think I might get three days of sun?  Oh this rainy spring weather….

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild and we don’t let the size of a building determine the way we build.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/

“My body of work often features some variety of humour and is essentially an exploration into the human condition. Humour lacks the confinements of social expectations and in my opinion laughing is one of the most liberal, infectious and impulsive actions a human being can take. My work explores an eclectic range of media and encompasses broad preoccupations ranging from characterisation, consumerism, death, to subtle and sinister observations of everyday life. According to artist John Isaac the way we live is ‘modern, fast-track, hi-flying, giga-byted, money-making, stock-inflating, a broadway-boogie-woogie world that is also a fast-food guzzling, consumer- driven, resource-eating, air-polluting, earth-poisoning, a prozac-popping monster that has run out of control.’ My aim of coming to Franconia Sculpture Park was to decide where my work fits in with this statement, to learn new skills and be able to wholly devote my time to making new sculpture.

This Sunday will mark my first full month spent at Franconia and in America itself; which has been an absolute pleasure, a fantastic learning curb and has also consisted of many trips to Menards and Walmart! In these first few weeks of my Internship I have been focusing on improving my Arc Welding skills so I created two steel pieces of fruit, a pineapple and a slice of watermelon, currently titled ‘Getting Fresh’. It was something special to see children enjoying it as a climbing frame, as a giant snack; perhaps the fruit may even sway some future dietary choices….  The fruit is a working progress as the two may not stay as a pair, and instead become incorporated into my next piece that I have initially started working on this week, loosely based on a giant magical, tropical goddess. This piece will be the largest and the first outdoor sculpture I have ever made. This presents new challenges and considerations which I have not been exposed to in the past such as the changeable weather, the safety aspect if members of the public choose to climb on it, the natural light and back-drop. The sculptures currently at Franconia Sculpture Park are all extremely impressive, and of a grand scale that I have never had the luxury to aspire to work with before, and therefore my biggest concern has been how to incorporate my own practice into the context of this new unlimited world of grandeur and imagination. However, being able to work in such a supportive environment and with such a diverse range of artist’s here I am extremely excited to complete the second half of my stay here and to go back to London with a new body of work, new friends and a larger range of practical skills.’”

Some Sculpture Park Scoop:  Nam’s sculpture is moving in different directions, Jesse is beating out volumes, Josh’s sculpture has made its first un-supported vertical stand, Sophie is placing color and making ‘head’ way, Carissa is headed to Albany in the fall!, trees are being moved, I have some beautiful red cable (thanks Tory!!!), the poetry studio has another cantilever- it’s periwinkle…. and the stairway got some slats, John and Nam moved stones with the crane, Alex has a ship headed to the park (seriously), the fire pit has been burning brightly, Ryan is working inside on prisms (more info below), there was an alligator sighting in a taxidermy shop while Alex was checking in about ground squirrels, rainy adventures took some of the artists on a very fishy trip down by the river and SO so SO so much more!!!

Ryan Turley is Bending Light- Jerome Fellowship artist Ryan Turley is hard at work in the inside studio up at the sculpture park.  His sculpture is unlike anything that we have had up at the park before.  He describes his future sculpture: “As you approach the field you will notice in the distance atop one of the many lush green lawns an explosion of coloured light. Make your way closer to this spectral mirage and you will notice that you are entering a large field of triangular prisms the size of grave markers.  There are hundreds of these glowing prisms lined up like soldiers in marching formation.” He continues, “The hard-edged prisms projecting these intertwining rainbows are expressing sombreness, as they appear to be acting as memorial markers yet they are celebratory with brilliant light.” I can only imagine contrasting images when it is installed.  Ryan’s prisms are made of clear resin and are lined with holographic diffraction film which will be lit with natural sunlight by day. Ryan says that “It is important for viewers to encounter this installation in the outdoors as one would a cemetery or as you would experience a rainbow in nature.  My goal is to inspire wonder and excitement while emoting a serious tone of memorial and mourning.  I aim to provide access to difficult subject matter through elements of beauty and familiarity.  This piece for me furthers my need to explore ideas that relate to sexuality, death, and dualities like good versus evil and happy and sad.”  This is going to be exciting to see.  He plans on finishing up around mid May.  After he finishes installing his piece in the park, you’ll have to come and experience it for yourself. 

A National Secretary of the Arts?  Should the United States have a national Secretary of the Arts like several other countries?  I read Jennifer Rivera’s blog post about Arts in America and her answer to this question is- “YES!! Of course we need a Secretary of Culture or a Secretary of Arts or even an Undersecretary of Anti Reality TV! We need somebody to run naked, wearing nothing but a hat made out of ketchup bottles, up and down the aisles of the televised Grammy awards screaming, ‘WE NEED MORE CULTURE IN THIS COUNTRY -AND I DON’T MEAN NICKI MINAJ DRESSING IN RELIGIOUS ROBES AND PRETENDING TO LEVITIATE!!!’ (If you don’t know what I’m talking about check YouTube — it totally freaked me out, and made me feel about 150 years old when I saw it on TV). But realistically, are we ever going to get one? And the answer to that, I fear, is, probably not.”  What do you think?  Do you think that art and artists should become better ambassadors of their own work?  Thomas Vannatter recently shared this article about how taxpayers are willing to bail out Wall Street but ‘creatives’ continue to struggle to make ends meet.  Scott Timberg writes, “More typical than a celebrity artist feasting on enormous grants, he says, is someone like Morton Lauridsen, who is now one of the most performed living composers – after decades of scraping by, teaching and writing choral works. Or a writer like Kay Ryan, who, until becoming U.S. poet laureate in 2008 was known to only a small few. ‘She never applied for a grant, never taught writing,’ Gioia says. ‘She taught remedial reading at a community college.’  I often create art without the hope of being able to be fairly compensated for my time.  Should I?  If my artwork is of a nature that it isn’t easily marketable should I?   I often find myself creating art out of other people’s generosity which supplements my work income.  I encourage feedback from you about this topic… I’d like to know what your take is.

-aRe Verse:  The first poem is mine.  The second is written by Raina Wirta.  The third poem is by Jesse Bercowetz.  Thanks Jesse! and Raina!

The Creative Class-  A few years ago I worked for a store that ‘catered to the creative class.’  What does that mean?  Apparently the creative class can be subdivided into two groups and these are…  From Wikipedia:  the  Super- Creative Core and the Creative Professionals.  The social scientist Richard Florida finds that the Super-Creative Core are creative innovative problem finders and solvers.  He describes Creative Professionals as people who draw on academics to solve more specific problems.  Do you fit into either of these groups?

The poetry studio is getting more and more colorful.  I think it is humorous when someone says “did you just add that” after I have painted something that has been there forever.  Color changes the way you see things.  I hope to put some cable up for my roof this coming weekend.   I need to stop and get a load of cable clamps.   This has been a busy week for me.  Argh.  Friday is so soon.  When I consider a life lacking all art- I see a world without me in it.

What was your favorite storybook when you were growing up?  I loved it when my parents read to me.  I think that is one of the reasons my imagination is so … shall we say… developed?!  I encourage you to read to your kids.  I remember very fondly of when my dad read me The Hobbit.  I can hear him saying in his very best Gollum voice, “my… precious s s.”

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild and we supersede catering to the creative class.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/

Some Sculpture Park Scoop:  Alex has arrived and is talking about making an army of ground squirrels, John and the intern artists used the crane to move the gantry out from over my sculpture, Josh has started assembling triangular pieces of stainless, Jesse is bending metal leaves, Tamsie checked in on the iron pour supplies, Nam is cutting up and welding pipe pieces, Sophie has primed her first piece and is ready to paint the fruits of her labor- next up she is talking about puppet/potato heads… ,  I got help painting for a morning and I have added ice-cream colors to separate the inside from the bright yellows of the outside of the poetry studio,  I also added some swoop to the back of the staircase (and a place to eventually add just one more cantilever), the bicycle built for two got some action,  it was supposed to rain for the past three days- but it didn’t, Liz has a great start on the garden (can’t wait to start picking snap peas and having fresh lettuce for salads), the intern artists added their first impressions of the sculpture park to the blog (check it out below this post), and SO so so so much more~!!

Resume Lines- When is an opportunity a line on your artistic resume and when is it more than a bullet point on a list?  To really take an artistic opportunity for what it is worth… I’d wager that you have to think of the experience as more than just a line on a page to show other people.  A great resume is important but if the quality of your artwork doesn’t match the lines on your resume- do those lines matter as much?  Building up a great resume is important.  Navigating and prospering from your experience as an artist is difficult and every bit helps.  But, shouldn’t the artwork and time and people you meet matter more?  Franconia Sculpture Park is an opportunity for artists to challenge themselves and grow.  It is so much more than one line on a resume.  Franconia is one of the few places in this country that champions artists to create their wildest sculptural feats on a large scale.

More Colors – I added some more colors to my poetry studio sculpture to start creating an inside and outside space.  I’ve been trying to keep up with all the painting that will need to be done before my sculpture is finished for the Poetry Celebration on June 23^rd.  Of the three days that I am up at the park working on my sculpture, Friday through Sunday, I paint one day a week.  Saturday, Sophie helped me add the brand and brave new colors of Mint and Butterscotch to the upper deck of my sculpture.  It took a little bit to get used to the subdued colors in contrast to the yellow already painted.  The inside is going to be a bit calmer so the poets can write in a more relaxed environment.  Ice-creamy pastels on in the inside and sunshine on the outside… that’s the plan.  I think I need to add some bits of pink and maybe French vanilla.  I also might need a few dark and moody writers block colors to make it feel more real. 

-aRe Verse.  The first poem was written by Raina Wirta.  The second is written by Jesse Bercowetz.  The third is mine.

Looking Up- I came across this article and found myself thinking about the usually unnoticed perspectives of architecture.  These images of gothic cathedral vaults are striking and super structural  (the definition of structure is a system or organization made up of interrelated parts functioning as a whole).  When you view the photographs of the structure in this ArtInfo article, from what appears to be flat on your back, you are seeing the cathedral’s organizational system differently than you would if you were sitting or walking through it.    Is there a way to build a sculpture that changes a person’s perspective of its structure like these photographs do (perspective is defined as a particular evaluation of a situation or facts, especially from one person’s point of view)?  How could you do something like that without changing your viewers sitting or standing location? Is that even possible…..

Locomotive Sculpture- Yes, I still want to get my hands on a real locomotive but in the mean time I am fortunate to have gotten a Minnesota State Arts board grant to build one and travel with it to several nursing facilities in state.  I will begin this new project in May (along with finishing the poetry studio) and I will have a separate blog that tracks its progress so stay tuned for more details!  Can you imagine a colorful locomotive driving down the highway?  Oh yeah! 

The prospect of rain got me a little frustrated this weekend but it didn’t materialize and I got lots done.  When I came up last Friday with hopes there would be time to move the gantry above my sculpture- I found it was already moved (Thanks! All).  Without the gantry acting like a frame around my sculpture I am able to see it differently.  It snowed on Monday- weird.  Most of all- Take care!  Make something even if you worry it might not turn out…. And! See you at the park.

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, deuces are wild and the art cannot NOT beat a mention on a list.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/

“My drive through the day, into the night, and then into the morning probably had some effect on my initial impression of this place. Perhaps it was my fatigue, but actually arriving at the park came as a shock. After miles of farmland, suddenly I was driving past sculpture, not empty fields. I didn’t come here with any expectations. I read the warning in the artist’s handbook to bring tools, and so I did, that’s as far as my expectations went. My plans are still changing, but so far I’ve built a shack and collected some metal. I’m still not used to working outdoors but I’m learning.”

   Name: Sophie Fishel Hometown: London, England

“As I’d never been to America before I was both pretty excited and aprehensive. I expected everything to be massive; the vehicles, the sculpture park, the people. This is all mainly true, except for the people actually at the park. The sculpture at the park is all insanely huge to me, being using to slightly pretentious, gallery orientated sculpture. I already love it here because it seems like the real thing.”

  Name: Alex Russo Hometown: Bethlehem, Pa via Middlebury, VT 

“This white farmhouse reminds me of the Weybridge House – a rickety old building in Middlebury, Vermont where I lived for a year and a few months crammed under a weathered roof with seventeen other students. We lived off of communal meals fueled by 100% local foods. The kitchen was always bustling with activity, nonstop cooking and not quite enough cleaning – eventually the buckets of compost would overflow and pandemonium ensued. The well-worn floors are cleaner here at Franconia and there isn’t a resident living-room-dweller hogging the couch either, but still, I know this place. When I first opened the door last night and four friendly faces with welcoming eyes met my haggard gaze, I knew this place and the people. I smiled. After weeks of stumbling around my house like a dopey dog with my tail between my legs and a blank stare upon my face, I finally felt at home. I had been questioning where I needed to be in the world and now I had found my destination – a small plot of land in Minnesota with a white farmhouse, a kooky cast of resident artists, and a field full of sculpture. Home sweet home.”

  Name: Jesse Blumenthal Hometown: Montreal, CAN via Crested Butte, CO

“All-night disco still ringing in my ears/I try to shower off the dragging feeling of the journey ahead/The scalding water only manages to get me to my car door./ It’s 4:30 AM at 10,000’/I toss my suitcase full of raddy work pants and Sunday t-shirts into the back seat/My little MIG sits shotgun/… …/Anticipation/And Nicotine/Now Im high on the nerves/I know very little of this sculpture park except the promise of opportunity, assistance, and space/A lot must be invested to gain so much/And after 20 hours of straight endlessness the road begins to roll and lakes dot the road side/Then bursts of color from nothing/Fresh Pavement/Tolerant/ Minnesota nice drivers/COLOR!/LINE!/METAL!!!/And in that moment initial nerves dispersed/I felt rewarded for my journey.”

Some Sculpture Park Scoop:  Lot of activity out on the work pad!!!, Sophie is starting with a colorful  ‘get fresh’ pineapple tangerine duo, Josh is going scrappy for stainless steel, Jesse is making foliage and has created an anvil out of an I-beam, Nam is intricately exploding pipe ends and talking about painting scaled gradients, I need to get that gantry out of the way and I added some musical cords to my upper deck- thanks for the threads Mike, Francoina @ Casket’s Los Cuatro Ases show was packed and great—need I mention the huge bonfire,  Robin fired up the forklift, Amy’s show at the Soo Galary was complete with a giant cut out, ginger seems to be one of the condiments of choice, the Easter Bunny came- I think Liz might know more about that, the artists have gotten a quick start (keep it going all the way to June!),  big decisions are all around, and SO so so much more!

“I” speaking for the “we.”  This article from Hyperallergic speaks to the artist Stanley Whitney’s struggle in the early 70’s to the late 80’s in creating work that was individually his own along with being a “representative of Black culture.”   I think it is common to want not to be alone but still unique.  Do you find yourself representing a group?  How can you proudly be part of a larger entity and still maintain uniqueness? 

The Age of Insight-  Eric Kandel’s new book (The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, And Brain From Vienna 1900 to the Present) focuses on art and its connection with the science of how our brains respond to what we can’t explain.  He studies the beholder of art, not the artist, to understand the science in how people percieve art.  He finds that through ‘top down processing’ people compare and contrast old experiences with the new experiences before they consciously respond.  He describes how artwork evokes a unconcious reaction because of its representation of ambiguity.  And, that a ‘beholder’ or viewer of art reacts differently to different works of art because we have all had different experiences.  I would love to meet neurologist and Columbia professor Eric Kandel someday. 

Choosing Art-  Often, the experience of creating work at Franconia Sculpture Park leads emerging artists down paths they hadn’t thought they’d take (be that an MFA program… a trip to another country… or even an MPP).  After I graduated from college, I applied to two MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) programs and neither accepted me.  I was 21years old, almost 22, and absolutely crushed.  I felt like that was a sign that I wasn’t good enough.  In order for me to carry on creating work and feeling like I had something to contribute,,, I decided that “I don’t need grad school to be a great sculptor!”  I’ve been making art ever since (with a supportive and helpful hand from Franconia).  I lived with that mentality for years and years and when my friends and artists colleges went to their respective MFA programs I celebrated their new adventure and wished them well.  But, I did feel a sense of longing to know just what creating sculpture in that environment could be like.  I could only imagine creating sculpture on a daily basis without working full time.  I did not reapply.  I did not open myself to being shut out again until just recently.  To be honest,,, the work I was creating right out of undergrad was lacking a lot.  I had the work ethic then but I had no idea what I could say, what I wanted to say or what artistically was worth saying.  I’ve been building my safety net and my artistic practice in the mean time.  I just got fantastic and generous offers from several MFA programs this year and I am excited to be going to UCLA in the fall!  This has been a long time coming. Go Bruins?! I’m not sure I even know what a Bruin looks like.  I better get on that.

aRe Verse- The first poem was written by Jesse Bercowetz and the second is one of mine.

Open 365 days a year. How many places do you know that are open 365 days a year from dawn til dusk and are interesting and free?  That means if it is Christmas Day and your hankering for a solo morning stroll surrounded by sculpture- Franconia Sculpture Park.  That means that if you have company coming and you want a fun place to visit but you don’t know what’s open and need to accommodate kids, parents, and also need to walk the dog- Franconia Sculpture Park.  That means if you want to get your kids outside away from the video games on an evening during the middle of the week- Franconia Sculpture Park.  That means if you are looking to take your sweet heart on a memorable date but don’t have a lot of extra funds- Franconia Sculpture Park.  Yep 365 dawn til dusk.  Free.  We are there for you.

Worth noting- I love this list from the poet Vera Pavlova.  What is in your notebook/sketchbook?  And what do you consider noteworthy?

I’ve included some photos from the Casket show and also from Amy Toscani’s opening.  I hope to move the gantry with the crane on Friday morning with a little help from John Hock.  I can’t wait for the next weekend to keep making progress on my sculpture.  And, will we see you at the park soon?  I hope so! Cheers to living with passion and having time fly away because of it.   Thanks for reading.

Fraconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, dueces are wild and the artists work like the wind.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/

Some Sculpture Park Scoop:  Sophie flew from London to MN and hopes her internal time clock gets adjusted, Liz arrived and started sorting house stuff out right away, Robin made some tasty pizza full of foraged goodness, Russ came for a visit (Bobby’s brother) and played us some trombone tunes, Carissa was doing double takes on account of our visitor,  I am preparing my sculpture for overhead cables and did some painting, Jesse came from Colorado and got all his tools settled in, the cooking schedule is up and running, the sun came out on Sunday (finally!), I can’t wait to see what the new sculptors start creating, and so so so SO much more!

Franconia Sculpture Park is now accepting applications for our 2012 iron artists. Deadline is April 16^th.

Los Cuatro Ases -Sculpture and Paintings by Four Local Latino Artists.  On April 7, 2012, Latino visual arts group Grupo Soap del Corazón will open the 12th year of its exhibitions with a show at the new Franconia in the City @ Casket Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. “Los Cuatro Ases” (The Four Aces) will feature two- and three-dimensional art by four well known international artists: Alonso Sierralta (Chile), Peter Martín Morales (Guatemala), Douglas Padilla (Minnesota), and Xavier Tavera (Mexico). For the show Padilla, who is primarily a painter, and Tavera, who is primarily a photographer, will join Morales and Sierralta, both primarily sculptors, in creating two- and three-dimensional art.  Come join us in Minneapolis for the opening April 7 from 7-10 pm.

Being Bould..er-  This boulder is making its way … it has taken five years of planning and “about a million permits.”  What lengths would you go to to finish a project?  Have you had any feats five years in the making?  In order to stay focused and see a large project to completion it better be something you REALLY want to do.  Are you in the middle of creating an artwork and it is taking a long time?  Are people wondering… “are you done yet?”  

Art Making Under Instinct.  What is instinct and are artists really under it when they make art?  Instinct is defined as a powerful impulse that feels natural rather than reasoned.  It also describes innate animal behavior- like sea turtles being born and swimming toward a sea they’ve never seen.  There have been many books written about this subject.  Most of them go into the ideas of instinct, reason and intuition.  If I over think, over reason or overdo when I am building sculpture something usually ends up looking very contrived.  I often create parts of my sculpture without over thinking. Then after I’m done, I stand back and look at the sculpture as a whole… and ask myself, “yes ,,,or,,, no?”  If the answer is yes, I leave it.  If it is no, I cut it off or move the piece I’ve made.  Thinking of the whole sculpture from multiple angles is too much.  Do you ever let the larger picture go for the sake of the larger picture?   

aRe Verse- The first poem is mine and the second is from the artist Jesse Bercowetz.

GLOWaBOUT all night long June 9th-10th!   This free event is going to be so much fun.  Carissa Sameniego (Franconia Education Coordinator) and I are bringing back this event to Loring Park.  The night begins with fortress building in the heart of Minneapolis with teams glow yellow and glow blue. After the encampments are nailed, hammered, and spray painted, get ready for a wild ceremony and processional with lots of garbage-can lid drums and homemade instruments. Then, let the games begin! Teams will take the field in Loring Park and play several rounds of Capture the Glowing Orb. Don’t know how to play? No problem—we will teach you. If you need to catch your breath between rounds or if you have come to cheer on participants, we provide the perfect place to hang out near our barrel bonfires… more info at http://2012.northernspark.org/project/beck-samaniego.   A couple photos from last year are below. See you there!

More Voices on the Blog Coming Soon- Along with my photos and take on the sculpture park, you will soon get to hear more voices from Franconia.  With the new redesign of the website (grand unveiling in approx. a month) there will be a live feed on the bottom of the home page for the newest blog postings so that web viewers can stay more connected to what is happening at the park.  If you want to see a sneak peak of the newly redesigned website by Twin Cities EE during the The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge  just click here. 

“Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature. But he is a thinking reed.” ~Pascal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal)

Thanks for reading! See you at the park.  Amy Toscani (http://franconia.org/artistpages/toscani/index.html) is having a sculpture opening at the Soo Gallary April 7th at 6-9pm.  So, you should add that to your list of things to do this Saturday.  

Franconia Sculpture Park- where sculpture meets sky, dueces are wild and we show you sculptures in progress.

Start Seeing Sculpture- over and out

Bridget Beck

http://bridgetbecksculpture.com/