RETURNING HOME: "To be marked..."

Returning to the stratosphere is never a simple thing. Come back in too quick, and you'll flare up like metoric hemroid, and either burn out or bust, of both.

So needless to say, this operation requires some pacing, and care.

And I tried to give it due respect.

Fortunately for, me I was treated to a graceful reentry.

Returning: In conclusion

In conclusion:

Well, I have some more reflecting to do, but in the mean time, I would like to share with you the ANTHEM that carried me through this experience:

RECLAMATION: Opening Night

The Grand Opening Reception

RECLAMATION: Hermitage Museum & Gardens, Norfolk, VA

Location: Around grounds, inside, in big tents.

My super good friend Arow, from Ghent RBC, REPRESENTED, BOOYAA!
Great to have him, and his lovely lovely there.

Tbis fine fellow, David had a rubber made out of wallet. I mean a wallet made out of rubber.
Yeah, you know us artists, thats how we roll...

I was in GREAT COMPANY, seen here with my Artist-In-Arms,
the one and only, Environmentalist/Photographer Ed Pollard

a very groovy person made a connection with Squire Knot

Awesome Ambiance (thanks to Lil!)

There was an awesome spread, of delicious treats, (Thanks again Lil)

...some drink was drunk...
...some dance was dunk...
...some merriment was had...

...the last thing I remember...

...that zebra blood, it'll get you every time...

Much Thanks to Edie, for documenting this event!

And to the Hermitage Staff 

for ALL of their hard work,

 making this memorable evening possible.

RECLAMATION: Upstairs- Virginia Lotus and Super Highway

The placing of Super Highway

RECLAMATION @ Hermitage Museum and Galleries

Location: Room two of Changing Galleries, upstairs, at Hermitage.

Upstairs, in the Changing Galleries, I mainly left these to my co-Exhibiting Artist, Ed Pollard.
Ed has amassed an incredible collection of photographs, which speak very poignantly to the notion of Reclamation (and, which, I believe, were the original progenitors of this exhibition).

So the way it turned out, was that I provided a centeral sculpture for each of the two rooms, which would be surrounded in Ed's painting, running around the walls of the room. This was curator Melissa Balls artistry at work, and I am very pleased by the way it worked out.

I chose one pre-existing piece for room 2, and that is Super Highway.

Super Highway is a personal favorite of mine, has a pretty good track record (Cultural Crossroads, Juried Regional Exhibition), and I thought would be a pretty darn good fit for the idea of "Reclamation".

It features a toy car, a dinosaur, and a rock (all found objects), sort of playing out this mortal drama of time, in the geologic sense.

It is a pity that I don't have any pictures of this piece surrounded by Ed's work, as I think they compliment one another quite nicely. (I didn't want to publish his work with out his permission, but may take some more pictures when I return, and approach him about it).


For the first room of the Changing Galleries, I wanted to make a particular center piece. This was to be in some ways, a 'Title piece", as indeed, the name of the show was mounted on the facing wall of this room, and below it was Ed Pollards stunning title image of the dockhouse that once hosted countless bands, in his time.
Below this, was to be my contribution, Virginia Lotus.

The original inspiration for this piece was the compass rose image that appears through out Hermitage's iconography, for instance in the gorgeous bas-relief friezes mid way up the stairs on the way up to the gallery, and most notably, in Hermitage's logo itself.

My thought was to make a sculptural version of this, using the vernacular tire flipping technique common to most of rural America.

These were to incorporate some of the cotton, which I found littering the road sides of Suffolk county, right after harvest, appearently, when I passed through last year, on the way to Spiritual Visions.

However, while I do think that many of the qualities of this material would have spoken boldly in the piece, in the end, it seemed a little bit, over the top, and it never made it it. I regret this a little bit.

But, I am very pleased with the piece that I did create, and place in this room.

It was not an easy birth. Or that is to say, I lost the one before it; this one actually came very, very smoothly; its excecution is virtually, flawless, albeit, owing in some measure to luck...

This piece was actually a bit of a departure for me, in terms of design of these planters.
Hence forth, my tire planters, and any other such planter I have ever seen, has had a round skirt around the bottom, cutting around the rim, about halfway up the side wall.
However, on this piece, I decided to try something new.

And that was to leave the negative space left by the petals in tact, thus using a single cut to form both the top edge and the bottom edge of the planter.

This was in fact, some what self serving, as, in the lotus-like design, there are alternating rings of petals, as well as a ring of leaves at the bottom or outer edges of the design.

But as I studied the line that I cut, more and more, it seemed devine...



And indeed, when I opened up the form, to reveal its murky innards to the light of day,
this cut also revealed to me its own graceful secrets of wisdom, absense and symmetry...

RECLAMATION: The Parlor Diorama

The Creation and Installation Of a Collection of Furnishings

RECLAMATION @ Hermitage Museum & Gardens

Location: large display case, upstairs, at end of hall, on way to Changing Galleries.

RECLAMATION: The Museum Hallway Downstairs

The Installation of Three Knots, Two Spheres, and a Mirror

RECLAMATION @ Hermitage Museum & Gardens

Location: The Hermitage Museum Hallway, downstairs

Another space that the museum generously offered me to use was a long hall in the Museum downstairs itself! What is especially special about this hall, is that it ends with a set of large windows, and a spectacular view of the Lafeyette River, which passes before the Museum, on its way out to the Sea…sigh.

And in front of this window, Melanie and Melissa (known henceforth as M & M) wanted to put my sculptures!

I had some delusions about this piece, I must admit.

I wanted to make a giant panel, to reference one of 3 exquisite friezes carved into panels along this wall, by the window, I am guessing by Rydingspar. And while I had been thinking to do this all in rubber, Museum Director and Art History Professor, Melanie Mathews, saw an even richer possibility. To build the thing on Plexiglass, and allow the light to shine through, like a true piece of gothic tire art should! But alas, as much as I would have loved to, I didn’t think I could pull this one off in the time I had left, so I had to let it go…

I hope someday, I’ll find a second chance..

But I was able to hang Rydingspar’s tiresphere in the adjacent window, beneath those very carvings, paying some tribute his gothic sensibilities shown above…

And this view / picture window view also became the glowing halo around the gargantuan knot, “Leviathan”, who made a return guest appearance (from Spiritual Visions 2010) and took this place of honor for the exhibition. (which seemed fitting to M & M, as they shared that Leviathan had infact been the spring board for bringing Ed and I together to make this show “Reclamation”.

The siting of the large knot, before this large, laced window, turned out to be a stunning combo, as M & M insisted that he be tilted up, as they done in Spiritual Visions (leaning him against the wall). With no wall to lean against here, this was to be an installation challenge. But, thankfully they relieved me of this duty, and Tom rose to the challenge, deftly employing a couple of black wedges behind him. The result was that L stood there (I would say majesticly( before the window, radiating his powerful, and stately presence, while the light from the window shown through his center, which itself became another window. A true leader, that one. And a brilliant use of this sculpture, I have to hand it to them.

Leading up to Leviathan were two smaller knots, creating a series of three sort of visual stepping stones. I felt that this was really important, and I begged and scraped and pleaded endlessly for permission to do this. (this was only the second time that they had allowed a new artist’s work in the museum itself). To me, the series of three was very important, for several reasons. For one, well, I’m big on threes, they just come up over and over again in my work.

Of course, there is the association of the holy trinity, which HAS found its place in Hermitage’s artistry. You know, when you have a series of three, something magical happens, because you have a story; a beginning, and middle, and an end. For people to be led down this path, with a glorious destination awaiting them, just seemed like too great of an opportunity to be missed, especially in a place with such spiritual underpinnings.

         And this series was in good company. The first of these knots landed smack in front of a stone Bhudda statue from the ??? century, flanked by two large, impressive, ornate, turquoise gourd-like ceramic vessels, one on each side! (I'm not allowed to publish photo's of this on the web, unfortunately).

This knot, I called “Norfolk Knot”, and was sort of my tribute to the sea, or waterway, which is a central part of Norfolk’s history.

To bring this marine element in, I used a really delicate and graceful strand of pillow trim that I had culled from the Scrap Exchange, bearing a lot of cool, aquatic tones. This I wrapped along the edge of a tredknot with its own strange history (it was once stolen from my car and later recovered…good story here, ask me sometime).

After some puzzling and reconfiguring, I was able to lay this along this edge in such a way that the lip of the tire’s edge, which I always strain to leave intact, acted as sort of a border or ledge, holding this ribbon in place (I never did need to glue the ribbon down, it just rested, nestled in place).

Visually, this provided a linier black edge, which made a strong visual impact, particularly as the three facets of the tire and ribbon converged at the knots center. The effect I find to be stunning, and I consider Norfolk Knot to be one of the finer specimens in the show.

         And of course, to present this knotted tire, with its band winding around itself, in a symbol of continuity and regeneration, before this silent, ancient statue of Sidharta, was, well, a little bit mind blowing….

         Next up we had “Queen’s Squire Knot”, which is another tribute to Charles Woodsend, the chief builder and sculptor of the house.

         For this piece, I used a knot that I had built previously, from a farm implement tire with a very peculiar tread. I’m not sure what the repeating shape is called, but it has always had the feel of some medieval crest. Very Middle Ages, this knot. To enhance this aspect, I had added a pillow trim whose various faire colored strands looked like they had been pulled straight from a medieval tapestry.

And indeed, this piece found its own perfect place in this hall, landing in between Norfolk Knot, and Leviathan, smack in front of a particular painting that Mrs. Sloane had commissioned while in Europe, showing a mideval scene of Charles Woodsend, in his frock clothe, carving away at some frieze or other, as Mrs. Sloane in her gown and Guenivere Princess hat, and her children, looked on approvingly. It is actually a really nice painting, and the colors in the painting are reflected perfectly by the colors in the knot. (unfortunately, I am not allowed to show an image of this on the internet).

Also, back up the hall on the same side, about 10 paces up, is a display of a medieval tapestry using an old technique called ‘stump work’, in which the artist uses a carved block of wood to act as an under-form onto which they model the tapestries bas-relief features.

So point being, I feel that these three knots really found their perfect place, interacting with and reflecting various aspects of  the house, its history, the permanent collection, and the environment surrounding the Sloane’s house.

To this end, with M & M’s good help, we also found a great place in this hall for a mirror that I had recently concocted for the Festival for the Eno- “Tar Pit Mirror”, featuring a poster of fossilized trees, a roofing tar inlay, and a ‘Tyranosaurus’ hybrid mountain bike tire.

As you can see, the creamy yellow tones of the mirror’s main surface matched the color of the walls in this hall perfectly, as did the browns match the hues of the particular wooden wall it was mounted on. And what’s more, they found me a spot to hang it above a couch, where the half circles carved in the head board above really harmonize with the circular mirror nicely.

Art History Professor, Virginia, who adopted Queen’s Squire Knot on the night of the opening, told me later that she thought the piece fit so well there, that they should keep it there! I’ll second that!

My hat is off to M & M for this excellent placement.

         So, in summary it was really both an honor and a thrill to have the chance to show these pieces downstairs in the museum like this. Of course, there is the ego excitement of showing my tire artworks in a museum, which is substantial. But moreover, what artist wouldn’t get off on being allowed to bring their artwork into a museum, and place the thing near an old masterpiece, sitting there in the corner, maybe looking a little bored and drowsy. What parent (of an artwork) wouldn’t love to introduce their children to a wisened, wrinkly old senior at a party, with a spark in their eye, and watch the interactions that ensue?

To watch these two generations light up in one another’s presence.

Mission Accomplished.

RECLAMATION: 2 Woodcarver's Spheres

The Installation of Three Knots, Two Spheres, and a Mirror
RECLAMATION @ Hermitage Museum & Gardens
Location: The Hermitage Museum Hallway, downstairs

Spheres.

Two pieces that I was determined to make for Reclamation were two Tirespheres, on each for the two woodcarvers, who devoted copious amounts of time, sweat and passion to enlivening every facet of the Sloanes’ house with their artistry.

SPHERE FOR WOODSEND

The first tiresphere I wanted to make for Charles Woodsend, a master woodcarver living in the area who the Sloanes had connected with, and contracted to not just ‘wittle’ the house, Woodsend actually BUILT the house! And remodeled it several times, including turning the whole thing around! THEN, of course, he proceeded to incorporate his many fine features into the architecture of the place, finally inscribing on the wall above a window (at Mrs. Sloanes direction, to be sure) something like “Art is simply about doing things the right way”

(GET ACTUAL QUOTE)

The second tiresphere was to be for Rydingspar, a Scandenavian woodcarver who came to work with on the house with Charles Woodsend. Rydinspar had a style which was more fluid and gothic than Woodsends, who, perhaps as a builder, made more rectaliniar pieces to harmonize with the house that he had built. Rydingspar added some interesting hounds and  gargoyle like figures.

 (GET RHYDINGSPAR’s FULL NAME)

To honort these two artists, I wanted to create a sphere for each of them, reflecting their own personal style.

For Woodsend, I wanted to make a sphere that reflected the man, his style and his work.

I knew that I wanted it to be somewhat rectilinear, relying on the right of angles at the joints of a tireshpere’s perbindicularly intersecting tires to help express this. I had brought with me a basic tire sphere, which I had considered using, particularly if I got caught on time. However, as the weeks wore on, I just didn’t feel good about it. It seemed somehow in sufficient. Fortunately, I was able to leave myself enough time at the end to really concentrate some attention on this piece, and when that time came, it became clear to me, that I would need to start from scratch. Otherwise, I might have the ghost of Charles Woodsend, rattling his chains at me forever more (which he had been practicing to good effect for the past 4 weeks). So I had myself another beer, and got down to it.

First, I though it should be more robust. Charles Woodsend was a big burley bear of a man from the looks of him in a painting. Kind of a John Bonham. So I selected a few ‘3-sets’ of  mountain bike tires that I had brought from NC to choose from, finally settling on a hybrid tire with a nice warm brown sidewall, with the fabrics weave showing, and a nice smooth finnish on the tread, reflecting well the smoothness and finish of Woodsend’s woodwork inside the house. This was a great start. In a way, it represented Woodsend the builder. But I knew that it needed more. After all Woodsend was not just a builder, but an artist as well. In the words of an Irish sailer I met at a bar in Norfolk, he was both ‘form and function’. So I decided that I would attempt something that I never had before, and that was to add another ‘tier’ to the sphere. An intierior sphere, in the tiresphere. For this, I selected another ‘3-set’, this time a thinner road bike tire, a nice ‘armadillo’, with a dark rich red sidewall. A set of these can make a really nice and salable sphere, and I must admit I was alittle bit weary of risking these for this experiment, as I was not at all sure that it would work… RATTLE RATTLE, Woodsend wailed away on those chains, and so further on, into the night, and into new territory in my tire craft I plodded.

And when day broke, I finally had a Tiresphere worthy of hanging in the house that this man had built with his hands.

RHYDINGSPHERE

My next task, of course was to build a sphere for Rhydinspar, the Scandenavian woodcarver, who came on work along side Woodsend at his work on the house. 

This one I thought would be fun, as, again, Rydingspar had a much more fluid, gothic approach. I had created an ‘Irisphere’ several years ago, which Melanie, the Director of the Museum, had really adored, and wanted me to include. The very organic shapes created by tying these tires together in the way that they are is very evocative of plant life to me, and I thought that it at least began to approach Rydingspar’s style, quite well actually.

        

         The only problem with including this piece, was that I had originally created it as an experiment, and it was still in somewhat of an experimental state. For instance, all of the tires were bound together with zip ties. Of course, this wasn’t acceptable for presenting in a museum. But to replace them with another fastener would have been an exacting process, as I had not been carefull  and methodical in marking the places for the connections, and then it was destined to be a bit wonky.

         So finally, I realized that the only thing left to do, was to rebuild it, from the ground up, using a new group of tires.

I searched through the pile that I had brought and amassed, and fortunately, was barely able to find 6 black tires of the same size!

 And so I was off!

It had probably been 4 years since I had made that thing, but once I dug in, I began to remember how it all worked, and what a marvelous being this sphere is.

The beautiful thing about the Irisphere is that it is actually two sets of three tires, one inside of the other, each holding the other in place. The openings between the tire are created by pulling these two sets against themselves, towards eachother, somewhat against their own will God, there has got to be some fascinating allegory of relationships in there, but I don’t know what it is yet. (Maybe an arranged marriage?) But the point is that the form is under a dynamic tension, and I decided that I wanted to bring that out and show it a little.

And so I used some left over scraps of ball chain to bind these parts together, in their unfortunate marriage. You can these two sphere, yearning to return to themselves, by the tension put on this chain, which stretches straight and alert. I found the effect to be quite a bit more telling (and visually pleasing) than those ugly zip ties. But I didn’t stop there. What, I wondered, if the inner sphere showed itself, as its own sphere, suspended in this marriage to the larger sphere? The plot thickens!

Well the end result is not meant to be any kind of comment of Rydingsphar’s family life (of which I know nothing), but it did come out to be a damned interesting form!

And while it is actually a little TOO curvy for Rydingsphar’s style, which combined these curves with points, these points can be found, interestingly, not in the actuall form, but in its appearance, when the viewer looks through the form. All in all, I would call this piece mostly successful.

These two spheres we hung in the main hallway of the museum downstairs, infront of two large windows. These windows had a nice grid of steel which I thought complimented the ‘moving’ black bands of the tires. The light shining through also added to the gothic aspect of these forms, particularly Rydingsphar’s, which sort of took on the look of stained glass, and the ornate bas reliefs that he had carved above the window.

Woodsend also built the water tower that you see on your left hen you enter the museum gate. It was here that he had his studio. One day, Colin Firth, the Interpreter of the Museum, agreed to show me the space. Unfortunately, it turned out that his tools had been removed. But Colin did show me the inside of the tower, which was structure to behold.