This new space is referred to as "the market" at the sculpture park. It is a small building off of the public parking lot and its one of the first buildings you see as you drive onto the property off of HWY 95. It is a bright open airy space that I like very much. I think this little building was originally a fruit and vegetable retail space. You can see on the exterior image below that I have placed the hand-made FOR SALE sign we made at the previous space on the front of this building. This building is not for sale so it will be interesting to see what happens! Will the realtor get called? Will people generate rumors about the whole property being for sale? Will anyone notice at all?
Mary and Kate cut Felicia's hair after dinner at the big house at the sculpture park. It turned out really great!
Last night's panel was pretty great. Mike, Michael, LaMoine and I really enjoyed it and so did the audience, it seemed. Lots of thought provoking dialogue, questions, comments and ideas were exchanged. Then we all walked through town and had a reception at the museum and headed over to karaoke across the street at the St. Croix Tavern where Mike belted out "A Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zep) which made a very serious biker dude come up to him and say: "I gotta shake your hand, man, that was so real...". I think there might have even been a tear in his eye! Mike, I think you might want to consider joining a Led Zep cover band; I think I could find you a nice wig?
Paul's tool, he brought it in to the Museum, or actually the Museum came to Paul this time. Have you ever known a Museum to make a house call? Well, this one does...it was the very first tool that he bought exclusively for use in sculpture so its pretty special to him- he is an incredibly talented young sculptor interning at the Park right now. He has helped me with this project.
Neighbor Karen brought in her grandson, Jarid. Her grandkids are most precious to her. It was great to sit and chat with them and to take this picture of them. I am finding that the most preciousness and value around here are usually the people in peoples lives and you know, I have to agree, this is very true! While this young man is technically not a "material" object, its up to the individuals who come through to decide for themselves.
This is Phoenix and she lives upstairs with her mom. She is a really good sweeper. We had a lot of silty sand all over our sidewalk on our block (from the flood) so we swept it really well all morning long. It was a real blast and our neighbors were pleased so everyone won. We talked about all sorts of things like environmental issues, moving alot, manners and etiquette and lemonade. We ate popcorn.
Here is the township of Franconia. Its like a little museum village on the St. Croix River. It is perfect in every way and this makes me a little uncomfortable because its very Stepford/Norman Rockwell. I swam in river water the color of watered down blood. It is so different to swim in Lake Michigan/Superior, The Baltic Sea, the Pacific/Atlantic Ocean and now this river- the variety is shocking, all of them fascinating.
Dead town! But I got a lot of drawing done from the accessions from yesterday and they are looking good. I had to miss the Franconia 4th of July parade because of work. This is a great parade because no one stands on the side to watch; everyone is IN the parade!! There is an incredible potluck of food afterwards, too. The unincorporated village of Franconia is now practically a museum village of carefully restored homes right on the St. Croix River. I will include some pictures sometime when I go down there to swim. I keep asking myself: Where is the ocean? Its got to be around here somewhere...I will need to head east to find the closest one (for real gsb, I will be picking u up along the way although we will need to stop to do the motorcycle and meet the bunny thing or can we take the bunny on the motorcycle to the ocean?!).
I often like to work in reversals and took this opportunity here to do so, as well. I have a logo, a "name", but to put it up on the large sign at the front top of the whole entrance was too predictable. To simply make a sign and install it was not very interesting to me, as an artist. I chose to cover the frame with a single piece of fabric rendering it a minimalist shape, instead. A reversal is to do the opposite of what might be expected/anticipated. To NOT put a sign up where the sign "should" go is a reversal. Thanks to KcKeever and Jamie for their installation expertise.
This man has been very helpful in addition to being highly entertaining. Not only is he a Hardware Hero, he is also a photographer.
Its summer in rural Minnesota and its so perfect today. Kate is sitting outside working on a costume, its cool and everyone has worked and played hard.
This is my project logo adapted from my previous project. Terri Wada designed this logo and refashioned it. Poster and handbills coming soon via Woody McBride. Interior painting is finished, next its time to deal with the big exterior sign with the help of Jamie and McKeever. I am going to order chocolate cupcakes from the St. Croix Cafe for the July 17th project panel discussion/town hall meeting, I think. Cupcakes, coffee, lemonade, speakers, discussion, a little history of community-based rural arts initiatives in Wisconsin, etc. More on that shortly.
Here are Betsy and Nung Hsin, superstar interns from Franconia Sculpture Park. Nung Hsin continues to work on signs (and replicas of signs!) and Betsy can solve any problem large or small from changing smoke detector batteries to creatively making window screens with whatever she could find like scrap cloth and old wire fake christmas greenery. We talked about how interesting it is to be able to "make do" with any materials you have instead of needing to go buy new. Also, how this keeps clutter down, incorporates recycling, saves gas and money! Sometimes its great to have strict material limitations as a structure for showcasing one's creativity. I found a hand made 1940's child's shirt in a thrift store today and the inside plackets and shoulder linings were made from old sugar sack cloth as interfacing. I thought it was such a beautiful and loving use of recycled materials.
