counting down to Norman, counting down to a finished studio

the u of O exhibition postcard design, courtesy of jonathan hils’ facebook page.

some doodles on the wall of what I am thinking about the oklahoma piece.
Although I never follow a preconceived site plan too closely, I still like to make them in order to filter out any first impulses that might not suit the site I will be working in. such is the case with the norman piece. I fly out tuesday and by wednesday morning I should be on site and getting down to the business of making the piece for the u of oklahoma.
In the three months since finishing the city gallery piece I have seen a tremendous amount of upheaval and change in my personal life but not so much in my studio practice. the reason for this is because I am moving forward with the next half dozen or so installations and the couple of odd sculpture projects as well whether or not i have a formal studio situation fully resolved. Beginning the day after the city gallery piece opened i moved out of my charleston studio and into a nice transitional space(read spare bedroom for indoor work/carport for outdoor work) building up to working in my as yet unfinished columbia studio(which I have christened “the adorned shack studio” as a statement of what it is and a reference to a popular critique of modernist architecture).

one of the first things I did in the adorned shack studio, which is still in need of complete sheetrock, and at the point this photo was taken complete lighting, was finish crating some woven panels for the norman oklahoma show. I have since these photos were taken finished the lighting and begun hanging sheetrock, but I can work anywhere and once the walls and the electrical were in it was good enough for me.
My approach to the norman piece is similar to my approach for the city gallery piece. I have made some woven panels ahead of time, but this time i had to ship them rather than deliver them myself. In a cool bit of unexpected symmetry these panels are also comprised of some of the sticks from the city gallery piece that were returned to me after the closing. Although the crowd at the closing reception made short order of the piece and took home many souvenirs I was left with enough boxes of “used” sticks that I was able to re-weave about ten 4footx7foot panels, which will give me enough “oh shit” material that I should be able to work comfortably over the next nine days in norman.

the panels have been sandwiched lovingly between layers of 4mil plastic sheeting then closed snuggly within a beautiful travel crate of my own design and making. The theory holds that as long as no one drives a fork lift through the crate they will get there in a usable fashion. If someone does drive a forklift through the crate then I will have one heck of a collaborative sculpture between myself and the fork lift driver.