If you are an asiduouse
reader of this blahg, you might recall that, in November of 2010, when I dropped of my 3 ‘pilgrims’ at
the Hermitage Museum, in Norfolk VA, for the Spiritual Visions Exhibition,
Executive Director Melanie Mathews, and Public Programs Coordinator, Melissa
Ball ushered me into a small, dark meeting room in the 'far reaches' of the
museum, where they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse…
What they had in mind was a
two man-exhibition.
And what they wanted to call
it was “RECLAMATION”…
There were no lead filled
hoses involved.
BUT, I thought they had a
pretty place there, and I had really enjoyed working with Ms. Ball, and
so I decided to make a go of it of my own free will.
I knew that I was going to
have a busy year; that, in many ways, I needed to turn my attention to my home
fires. And that is what I have done. However, I also knew that opportunities
like this do not come along everyday..not only was this a Very unique place, in
the bigger picture, I also saw this as an opportunity to take a step in an
interesting new direction, that I’ve been eying of late..that of
visition/Artist in Residence. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to dip my
toes in the surf, and get my feet a little wet.
For the Hermitage’s part, I
think they are trying to reach out to a younger audience with the Museum, and
perhaps I can help them with this a little. All in all, they seem like
excellent partners for us both the take this brave step forward, into new
territory together with.
So after due Hemming and
Hawing, I agreed, we signed a contract, agreeing that I would supply/ create a
body of work for they show, and they even very kindly agreed/offered my a
stipend, to help with related travel expenses.
That was about 10 months ago.
In that time, I have made several trips to Hermitage, to sketch, plan, ferment,
boil up an exhibition.
While this was fine and good,
I learned something about creating for clients far and way. They are not in
your peripheral vision, and a lot of other things are!
So finally, last month, I
emailed Melissa, and asked her if
there was any way that I could and set myelf in front of my subject. She
agreed.
So now, about 10 months
later, about 1 month before the opening,
I’ve finally managed to tear myself away from my busy Siler City life,
and have brought myself here to make it happen. Thanks to Hermitage’s generous
offering of a space to work, I will be living and working ‘en situ’ (that means
‘on site’, in fancy artist language) and am hoping to give myself over 100% to
the task.
To work, I will use a space
that once was most recently the site of a summer camp (2 weeks ago). Before
that, it was a photo studio (20 years ago), and before that, it was a cow barn
(60 years ago?).
To live while I work, I have
borrowed an RV from parents.
I depotised it here about a
week ago, stuffed to the gills with Tire Sculpture and materials, taking the 5am
grey hound back to Durham.
I spent a long weekend of fretting over images of my folks RV being washed into the bay, and battared with god knows what bludgeons. They had declared a state of emergency, and mandatory evacuation.
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| "Red at night, Sailors Delight"....don't know about that |
But last night, I drove my car
up, and found the RV, having survived the wrath of Hurricane Irene, still
intact, and quite sleepable.
This morning, I awoke to an
eccentric Russian gardner, surveying the damage to the trees “Oh my babies!”,
who promptly put me to work sorting nursery pots and picking up fallen
branches. As this grounds crew had helped me to safeguard the RV, and I would no
doubt have to call on their help in the near future, to install the exhibition,
I was happy to help. Hermitage is a small Musuem, with a small tight staff, and
I am happy to help them get back on their feet from this blow as much as I can.
However, they have aptly
reminded me that my first priority is to get in the studio, and milk those
tires! (used to be a cattle barn ironically enough!).
So, today, after a grounds
cleanup crew/staff meeting, a morning of work and then a Pizza lunch, I was
shown to my ‘quarters’.
The space will do fine. It
has a stage, with some cubbies (for Summer camp), which will do very well to
hold my various tools and supplies. It also has several tables which I have
rearranged to maximum benefilt. It was really to set up shop! I think that I
will really be able to make the space work for me.
I have to remind myself, that
for all of us, in many ways this is an excercize. For me, it is great to see
before me: This is it- This is what I need to create Tire Art. This is my
‘mobile response unit’.
And response is what I am
here for. To respond, and to be responded to.
