Life is rife,
rich with smack downs for the overly enthusiastic, the ambitious, the dreamer.
A country western singer once sang "Houston is a woman who kicks you when you're down."
And Reality, she is a scowling, squat frumpy woman, waiting ready with her bludgeon.
So this morning, I inhaled my breakfeast, and before anything could snag or stall me, rode straight down to Roger's studio, eager to sew up those tires, and see this things lips get that much closer together, within reach of that much anticipated self-smooch. (God the self-sexual tension of an apprehensive, giant pubescent grub can be immense! Ah yes, we all remember those awkward teenage years.)
Well, while there might be a lot of angst and longing involved for our self actualizing friend, I on the other hand was feeling fairly blase this morning (or at least trying to convince myself) "What a luxury" I thought, "to be able to just GO, and SEW, with a clear goal in mind. So simple. I wish the rest of running this business was so simple...."
Ahh life.
But once I started clamping this new batch of tires together, before I went ahead and spent the day sewing 20-30 tires together, I had to go take another look at the worm, and see just how far this was going to get me..
And it seemed, looking again, that ONCE AGAIN!, my eyes had decieved me! How pernacious, the wishful eyes!
For re-estimating how many I would need, it now seemed more like 75-100 than 30-50! (I'm trying to be more conservative in my guesses now). OW!
So, Mater Reality has regained her grip.
Lucky for me, I am quick on my feat.
Time to restrategize again. And fortunately, now I have a 50 foot length of tire worm to 'play'; with.
In some sense, this is where the 'fun', and perhaps free associative 'art' begins...
OPTIONS
1) SEGMENTED KNOT
All though I have stubbornly returned to the knot several times now, when I probably should have just left it be, one option for the knot still remains.
That is to break the worm into its three Tyrius-sized segments, give each a head and a butt, and wrap these around each other, in a segmented version of the knot, something I have actually never done before...Conceptually this could work pretty well. The symbol for Recycling, which I was planning to reference in the piece, is actually, as the organizer of the conference has reminded me, not for just recycling or Reuse, but for 3- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. So each of the different worms would then represent a different prong of that trident. A little bit didactic for my tastes, but it might be cool looking, in a designy, or perhaps redeemingly MC Escher sort of way, plus it would be kind of cool to see a big worm orgy of Reuse, which you could say this conference/expo is.
Technically, this is slightly complicated. I would have to build 5 new worm butts/snouts (tyrius's butt is toast), and figure out how to attach them to one another. However, the idea of 3 equal sized segments, which I balance around each other, and attach, say with a simple carribeaner, has its own certain grace and appeal to MY mind...
2) OCHO- Figure 8
So, I allowed myself the chance to play with this now long, snaky meandering tube, and there is actually some potential therein, beyond 'the knot'.
The first obvious move, would be to just loop it into a big donut. Stick a stem on the top, light it up, and you've got a pumpkin, just in time for halloween. Well, while I have always wanted to do that for halloween, as the form really does own its own grace and mystery, as I finally got to see in my installation at Roger's 233 last 3rd Friday, and it IS right on time...I want to take it a little further than that..
So then, the next obvious move was to try wrapping this long snake in a long curling S. Got to say, this is pretty Sexy... (I caught myself thinking of the Ocho's in Tango Dancing, how marvelously Tyrius performs this step..)
So then I took Tyrius non existant butt (we must be related!), which is now just a giant gaping tube opening(...?) and propped it up on the edge of his back. And then I took his head, and propped it up on the other side of his back, so he is looking into the tube.
Ok, now at this point, I am begining to sound a like a favorite Aunt of mine, from Wisconsin, who had particularly dark and twisted sense of humor (not unusual for the region). Or perhaps a very immature artist..
And this begs the question, is it appropriate to show a sculpture of a worm peering into its own ass, at a
Reuse conference in the foyer of a fancy hotel in Raleigh?..I don't want to embarrass anyone, but..
Well, YES! It is!!!
Let me see if I can convince us both...
Well, lets dig deep here, and start at the foundation, I mean, like it or not, this conference is about Reuse, and the very nature of reuse addresses the tail end of the waste stream. Am I wrong? Need I say more?
So we have here this worm, who we could say represents our consumeristic society, and he is pearing into the CORNUCOPIA of his own waste stream, which all of us in the reuse industry know, IS none but such! The tube, with its glowing ribs, actually IS very remeniscent of the cornucopia, the horn of life, that neolithic symbol of the bounty of life. Why not?
(Interestingly, the cornucopia is a theme that has occured in my work before, back in 2000, Always a marvel, how ideas come back around...)
This Neo Pagan scultpure would no doubt have Jesse Helms rollicking in his grave, a holy ghost tent revival all his own. Well, with all due respect, Jesse, you and your worms have your revival, and we'll have ours.
