Return from ReuseConex: Victorious!

Holy Shit.... That was Amazing.
I don't even know where to begin.
But one thing I think I can fairly say about my involvement, is that, with all due modesty,
'Tiny' Tyrius "TURNED THAT MUTHA OUT!"

Heres a list of SOME of the people I met, or saw there.
Reena
Leslie
Bob
Ruth
MaryEllen Liked that Tyrius crawled around the space over time.
Annie
Jessica
The Scrap Exchange Gang
Nice Teacher Woman from New York. Socrates?
Building
Kemi
Nail Kicker
My Mom
Leslie from Asheville/Shakori
Doctor "Better Homes and Garbage"
Erica Pittsburgh Reuse
William Photographer
Duke Students- Eddy?
Sandy
Meeting.
Gustavo, great guy, say story of Siler City
Nathan Connecting.
Fashion Show Revamp,  Buffy, colaboration
Atom- Latex Allergies
Moise- Reuse Connections?
Cleaning up afterwards with Congolese.
Garth
Fiber Artist NC STATE
Jan Ru NC STATE

OK, Its almost 2:30 am, And I KONKED out. In fact I am littarally half alseep....!
But Get off tihis thing...

Returning to the treadknot (as I tend to do)

Well,
  I have turned my attention for the past week or so back towards my booth.
MaryEllen, the Director of the Reuse Alliance, recently sent us the layout of the exhibit hall, and it looks like aside from my fellow Reclaimed Artists, I am going to be in excellent company with the other exhibitors too.
In fact right next to me is going to be none other than Eco Art Ware, a web-based gallery of art and crafts made from Reclaimed Materials. You can check them out at
http://www.eco-artware.com/index.php

I also see that, to my renewed delight, Atom Cianfariani, Reue Artist/Fashion Designer All Star WILL BE SPEAKING AT THE EVENT! Holy shit. I feel like a school girl about to wet her pants, and I mean that...
Want a taste? Check it!:::
http://atomsdream.weebly.com/rubber-textiles.html
If you take a gander, you will see that Atom does a whole more than this two. I am interested to hear her speak.

So, this has been a pleasurable turn for me, inwards towards my homies, my locus, the treadknot.
I made a hearty batch of the little guys, the change purses over the course of the last two days, and it was such a pleasure to work that form again.
   I also found that I seem to have honed my skills, and the design seems to be refining itself, as it should...
I think that I may decide to up the price on them just a little, here at the festival, but also in general.
Why?
Well, I have always felt that the treadknot is a sort of sacred form, and at times I have wondered if it is a tad bit sacriligious to enslave them with task of handling 'filthy lucre'. I think I've gotten over that, for the time being, I mean, if we Jewish "God's Chosen" are the financiers of the world, maybe a treadknot will make a great change purse, who am I to say? (and it does).
  However, that issue aside,  I do feel that, with the increased attention to detail that I give each one, that they are becoming works of art in themselves.
So I think I might up them from $16.50 to $18, and some more intensive ones even on up to $20 or $25, which is the price a seasoned craftsman once suggested to me.

So I am putting most of my focus right now on merchandizing these slick little buggers. 6 years down, and I still think these things are the hottest thing since...hottentots...
I FINALLY wrote up a sheet to go with them today, including a 'how to care for' sheet. It was fun doing it. It makes it alot easier to send these guys out into the world, when I take the oppurtunity to explain what makes them so special, and how to keep them that way.

And Thanks to my wonderful friend Stacye Leanza, I now have a gawgeus hangtag to dangle from their chains. Stacye was kind enough to respond to my plea for help (in return for a lot of free help on murals in the past two years, I think) and update my logo design a little bit, for this new application. She was super to work with, and I am REALLY pleased with the result. As she would say She should be a Graphic Designa! Heres a peak:

(sorry, won't let me load it) Basically, she added my website at the bottom, and configured the tag line (with my direction), to make it much more readable. She must have done SOMETHING for the resolution too, cause it looks Much better than I ever remember seeing it. Damn that looks good Stacye!

In other news, I have secured another van, God Bless Diane! Diane Swan, a good fairy sister of Chatham County, who we are all blessed to have in our midst. She uses the van to instal the gorgeous cabinets that she installs in the special and lucky homes hidden around this county. If you are interested, please check out what beautiful touches of trees she brings to a home's cabinetry: http://www.facebook.com/diane.swan.galleries

Diane warns me that the van has no working windows, no AC, no radio. Pshaw.
My options? Suffice to say, None of them a running van!
The Diesel Van, well, its a long story. Not this time, sorry buddy.

OK, better hit the hay. Feel a headache on the way, and I'll be needing that noggin for the next day.

Life is Rife

Ahh life.
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.

 

Trying to find my tires

Well, after a great, life replenishing band practice in Pittsboro, with my fabulous bandmates of Zambamboogie, I hauled ass into Durham to try to peel a few tires and some rims from the knuckles of my old friends at the Durham Bicycle Co-op. But no such luck, when I arrived, the place was deserted.
So, this morning I stopped by the Scrap to cancel my encrusting party, and learned the DBC had moved their operations to a spot by a railroad tressle which I know well.  As they are only open on Sunday's (and thursday's too now) I just took a peak, and then went along on my round.

First was the Bicycle Chain in Durham. Those guys are my number 1 supplier,- they have been heros during this process, even attempting to get some of the other stores involved in the effort. These guys, Jeff, Brian, Geof, Carlisle, have really been coming through for me. And true to form, they had a fat stack for me. One big pile in the back seat.

So then off I drove to Chapel Hill, where I stopped first by Performance Bicycles, where I spoke to Scott the repair shop manager, who was happy to help, (I will bring them a basket to set out back), and then Franklin Street cycles, where Linkon was also were very helpful, and gave me two heaping armfulls, probably n part thanks to Bryan's representation.

Then I stopped at a favorite tire pot in these parts, the tire pile behind Back Alley Bicycles. Jason has always been very supportive, and has given me free, wide open picking privilages from their pile out back. And, miraculously, their pile had magically swelled since my last visit, only a couple weeks ago. This struck me as most bountiful luck indeed.

And then to top off, a great big 'tattude' dude pulled up and introduced himself as the new manager of The Recyclery. I instantly got a good vide from this guy. He told me I could take any of the rims in their pile outside the tent, and was very enthusiatic to contribute to the project. (This was great news, as I was a little nervous about having missed the Co-op in Durham.)

A nicer more generous guy I couldn't have found. I think that between he and Jason of Back Alley Bikes, I might have found some formidable Allies in the Carrboro area. As I picked through the pile, and did a little tidying of the pile in return, I thought to myself, "you know Travis, it is time to lay down your old (deeply rooted) prejudices about Chapel Hill (and Raleigh), because with in the walls of these cities, are at least a few fine people."

So I STUFFED the back of my little carrolla with nappy tires and rusty rims, dropped in to thank the crew, and headed off back to Chatham, about 20 blessed mountain bike tires closer to bringing this sculpture end to end...


Before I go, I would like to send a salute out to Geoff, of the Bicycle Chain in Durham. Geoff just recently retired from his post there at the shop, and this appears to conclude many years I have had the pleasure to work with Geoff, as an informal supplier of tires for Reptire Designs. Geoff has always been willing, not only to help me collect the cast away tires from their shop, but also helping me connect with other shops in the chain, and give me advice and in sites into tires. He is also the first person to commission a Hell-o-Holster, which I custom made for him and his ride.
Geoff has just been an all around great guy to work with, and I wish him a GREAT next chapter.

SPIRITUAL VISIONS EXHIBITION THIS DECEMBER IN NORFOLK, VA

Holy Mamoli!

I just received confirmation that my submission to the Spiritual Visions Exhibition at the Hermitage Museum and Gardens, in Norfolk, VA has been accepted!

In fact, 3 of my 4 artworks submitted were accepted into the show!!!..

Wow.

Have to go work on that giant knot some more, but I'll try to get back to describe this special opportunity, and what it means to me and my art, in more detail, tonight.

OK I'm back.
Well before I get all voodoo on you, I got to brag a sec.
This here show is Inter-nation-al yo!!!

They were taking submissions from all over the World peeps! All over the world. Now what does that mean for me? I don't even know.

Workin on that Worm

Well, today was a big day for Tyrius The Only Tire Worm in the World, that he knows of.

Today, Tyrius became not only a brother, but also grew about 3 times in length.

It was also a big day for me, a kind of turn around.

Yesterday was utterly depressing, actually the last 6 days have been.
Not only did someone break into my car Saturday night, and steal, of ALL FRICKIN THINGS!!!!-
the section of 10 tires sewn together that I had brought to show the organizers....
On Wednesday night (two nights ago), someone else broke into my van and ransacked it, stealing a couple semi valuable items (to me). I stayed up into the early morning working with the police officer to find usable prints, and then the next day, I went in, and realized that wow,
maybe this is just not going to work. Do I really have enough tires to do this? I was about ready to through in the towel to tell you the truth.

I had started off trying to give an honest effort. I 'Reclaimed' the cone from Atomic IceCream,(which had in fact been borrowed from Tyrius, when he was trying to shed a few pounds for the puppet show. And to this I added a few more sections that I'd made, canibalizing my stash of good mountain used bike tires (that's ok, the mountain bikers of the world will make more). Here goes a cool shot of 'tha toob'.

Tyrius expressing his
'Inner Tuba'

Finally I had 'fashioned' a Nu Toob, boob, that was almost as long as old Tyrius himself, a new playmate. So I drug it out on the floor, and layed end to end. Then it was surgery time. First I bebutted Tyrius, yes, cut off his butt, which wasn't fun, but it also wasn't a great butt anyways, had been maligned by those puppeteers, don't know what they were doing to the poor guy..
I'll spare you the gruesome pictures.
And then It really was surgery time.

The site of Surgery

t

Tyrius, under the knife.

Healed! A succuessful grafting

Thus Tyrius had grown two fold. He will tell you it was eating his Wheaties, up and down, but you know the truth.

Now came the depressing part. I had figure that I needed to make 2 more Tyriuses, and probably 'a Little' more,  to pull this thing off. But when I tried to tie him into a knot, well, I didn't get very far...


Hey, thats pretty sexy big guy, but that's not gonna get us into ReuseConex!




Oh god, I'm sunk.

That is what I thought. I suppose the dispair of the last week was finally catching up to me.
I've gotten all of these people excited about this thing, invested their time and energy, read about it in the paper, and I've got half a knot to show!
The way it looks I will need another 2 Tyriuses, ontop of these two!

It was time to restrategize, and my options didn't look too hot.
I went home and took a nap.




But today, I went in, and just decided to sew what ever tires I had, and see where I landed. I could guesstimate all I wanted, but as I have never built a sculpture quite like this one, I wouldn't really know where I stood until I had exhausted my supply.
So I just went at it, all day, and added every tire to it that I could. I sewed up the segments that my good friends had assembled for me. I had hoped to save this pleasure for them, I really did want to, but  I had to remind myself that they came and did this to help me, and this is what I needed to do at that moment.

So, I just sewed and sewed.
And I finally hit my stride,

reaching for the bulls eye, to sew every tire I have for the project.

Finally, I had a whole Nother Tyrius, his 2nd cousin. So I attached him too.
And what I came up with is not there yet, but it did seem 'with in reach' which is really what this is going to become.

I'd love to have to big pairs of lips on each one, reaching towards one another, yearning for self love.

As he stands though, pretty cute!  Check Tyrius out, peeking out of his womb of self actualization!

WE CAN DO IT MAN!

Now I just have to find 50 more mountain bike tires...no problem!

Visit to Exhibition space for Reuse Conex, at N. Raleigh Hilton

Last Wednesday, I finally got a chance to check out the space we 10 SouthEastern Reclaimed Materials Artists will be showing at, for ReuseConex, our nation's first conference and expo of Reuse!

 I had tried to go out and meet with the organizer and check out the space about 2 months ago, but had mysteriously woken up with a porkchop face, and so had had to go to the ER instead.

I'm glad the organizer MaryEllen, was willing to give us a look. So I drove on out to Raleigh (I hate driving to Raleigh), and brought along some samples. This was to be my chance to 'sell' this sculpture to the organizer, so I brought along a maquette (model), and also a sample section of tireworm, just in case she'd never seen any.

So I stumbled in through the back door, to what turned out to be a very swanky hotel lobby, shouldering a giant jiggling tube of tire, and drainage pipe tied in a knot. I felt like Indiana Jones stumbling in on a jewel laden cavern, and there found MaryEllen Ettiene, the very classy Director of the Reuse Alliance.

There was another Artist there, who turned out to be a real hoot, and who makes awesome belt buckles, and much more, I hear, from found objects. I am very excited to be working with both 
of these people.

So then a few other Artists came, including Ruth Warren, a friend and Hero of the Scrap Exchange, and we embarked to the convention area, to check our digs...

Here's a veiw from the entrance to this convention wing of the hotel, with the registration desk on the right (MaryEllen, the organizer, was very excited about this desk, which looks a lot more excitement-worthy than this photo shows).

Pretty Shwanky, what do you say?

I have to say, while it is not the cool, polished granite kind of environment that I had pictured for some reason, as far as Hilton Hotel Lobbies go, this one is warm and a little funky!  Dig this rug- Knotty Tread!

This is the spot where I am Hoping I can show Tiny Tyrius, Tied:

This would be a sweet spot no doubt, and the organizer seemed to think it would make a good entry way piece, so here's hoping. However, there is an electric socket in the floor down the hall, so if I decide to light him up, I might opt to go down there, as it will be darker also (away from the light of the door).

Lighting the knot up is such a tempting, but forboding option. This piece really is Meant to be lit.

It is meant to Glow. However, lighting it from the inside presents one potent risk.

And that, my friends, is fire...Can you imagine what a disaster it would be if this thing caught on fire?

Mitigating this risk is going to be a major project in itself...If I decide to light it. LED's is a possible solution, but getting my hands enough of these seems unlikely. I could also just unplug the lamps while people are in the conference, allowing them to cool between the 3 viewings per day.

After we all said our goodbyes and left, I decided to double back, and do a more technical survey.

Specifically, I was looking for things to suspend another sculpture from (Atomic Ice Cream). As MaryEllen pointed out though, there is really not much if anything in this environment to use. Just immaculate cielings, with an occasional vent grill....

On the way out, I managed to get a number for the Hotel's engineer, no small task. Would it be nice if I could hang from those vent grills. I am begining to realize that I am maybe a more stubborn person than I knew.

Afterwards, I went to the Scrap Exchange in Durham, for the 1st ever meeting of the brand new NC Chapter of the Reuse Alliance. It was a lively, and intimate group of people, and it was neat to hear what had brought all of us together around this issue, or Reuse. For many of those in my parents' 'Baby Boomer' generation, it was growing up with Their parents, who had lived through the Great Depression. One woman described how her parents' basement had been full of jars, of say nails that her father had pulled from old boards. Many people nodded in recognition. I thought of my own grandparents house, and this did not seem out of line from my own grandpa, from whom I probably enherited some of this thriftiness, through my mother (as my own parents' garage is something like this too). Curious. For them and for her, it was just a way of life, as it probably is for much of the world. Its so easy to forget that in our disposible society, we are the exceptions, not the rule.

Somewhat suprisingly, this was kind of a special meeting. It gave me some fresh perspective on what we are doing here at this conference.

I also had the chance to 'sell' my idea to the Scrap Exchange. They very graciously agreed to let me host a work party there next Tuesday, and to donate the materials to 'encrust' the big guy.
This seemed like a major victory to, and it was nice to get their vote and commitment of support for the project!

However, several people, including the organizer, voted that they liked the sculpture as is, 'without the crust'.   hmmm. Just a matter of taste, or do they have a point? I am still deciding...as Tuesday approaches rapidly.

You know, sometimes less is more. And something that also comes to mind is something Bob Druhan, a very wise CFS science teacher once told me:

"Its takes two people to paint a picture. One to paint it, and another to shoot the painter before he ruins it." Perhaps I should count myself lucky to have merely gotten an shared opinion... (and I do, this was actually valuable feedback).

Also at stake, is that it will be a giant pain in the ass to encrust this thing, and it will be a giant pain in the ass to handle, and reasemble this thing once it is encrusted, and it will be a giant pain in the ass to care for this thing once it is encrusted. Artistic integrity aside, the sleek simplicity of this naked beast becomes more and more appealing....