Tag: Art

For those of you that have been following along on the months long journey of making our main studio gate, I’m excited to share that the gate is up and in place! Nate did a fabulous job fabricating and now I’m starting to add on my art elements to it. Over the course of a full day, I got the majority of the parts installed but the rest of the parts are loaded in the kiln for their final glaze firing. So it will be finished up as soon as those come out of the kiln this weekend. Then we will dismantle the sticks and wire temporary fence we’ve had up for close to a year now! Things take a while to come to fruition around here – a pace that I’m slowly getting used to, and it seems to make the end results even sweeter when they finally do happen!

The ceramic work on the gate panels are from my Bone Series and are typically spaced out more with more negative space in both the ceramic elements and the steel cables that connect them. In this application, I needed the pieces and cables to be densely packed to keep my dogs from jumping through the fence. That’s given me the opportunity to explore a new way of working with a very old series. They become like a taut screen that is solid and obviously not solid at the same time. Of course these installations are all about the shadows, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they change throughout the day.

We had hoped that installing the necessary septic system for the studio wouldn’t cause too much of a scar on the desert landscape adjacent to the building, but alas, we were wrong. Instead we were left with a very large area where any thriving plant life had been completely decimated, luckily very few trees were harmed in the process – but still. What to do with such an eyesore?

We talked about replanting the space with local native species, and of course adding art but it just seemed so sparse that it was like putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. So inspired by a friend’s design in their garden, we created a sprawling 25′ wide labyrinth on the space instead. I wish that I had taken a photo of the ‘before’ because the results are pretty dramatic but since there’s no photographic proof, that just tells you how much no one really wanted to remember the ‘before’.

Hundreds of wheelbarrows of dirt later, we evened out the area, removed dead plants and hid the majority of the visible tank lid area. Then laid out the pattern which is a slightly unique labyrinth design that allows patrons to enter on one end, follow the path to the center and then exit, winding out the opposite side. Typically labyrinths have one path into the center that is then followed back out again, as a way to practice mindfulness, meditation and create balance as one walks the path.

Since our path leads literally to the septic tank lid (which will of course be covered and disguised with a very cool sculpture) a friend suggested that one should walk our labyrinth path with mindfulness and spirituality and then just get rid of our shit and keep on going. I have to say, I like this type of mindfulness and it all seems very appropriate to me. Thoughts??

The path is lined by rocks from our property but they will slowly be replaced over time with hand made ceramic rocks from my Rock Candy Series, to add color and another layer of creativity to the space. It will take awhile to replace all the rocks but that is its own journey of mindfulness and meditation. I imagine that the center sculpture will also be changed out overtime too, so that the labyrinth evolves alongside the land it is placed in, regrowing and rebuilding with time.

This was an unplanned element to add to the up and coming sculpture garden but I’m excited by it’s potential and it’s definitely a much better visual than the scar of construction, so with that, you are cordially invited to come and walk the path, leave your shit behind and enjoy the view!