I had some great opportunities this week to take in a lot of Taiwanese culture. The museum hosted a tea ceremony in the lobby to commemorate acquiring a new tea set by a local artist, which included speeches, lots of reporters and we got to spend a few hours sipping tea out of beautiful celadon cups while sitting on tatami mats.
My work is progressing in the studio, I’m waiting to see what the next bisque firing reveals and also trying to very, very, slowly dry that big I shared with you last week. Starting to wrap my head around the technical difficulties of building these fragile pieces is feeling pretty good.
My students were also excited to move onto the glazing portion of their projects. Next week, I’ll return their finished work and we’ll assemble the group project on site at the school. I’ve really loved being able to head up into the mountains each week and play with clay with this sweet group of kiddos.
My studio mate Ruth’s cousin got married last weekend and I was invited as her +1. It was pretty incredible to be the only westerner at an event with nearly 500 guests, but everyone was so welcoming and sweet, it was a really wonderful cultural experience. I lost count after the fifth course of food came out, seriously amazing amounts of food were served! I tried new things like jellyfish and black chicken, but there was also a bunch of food I tried and I’m not exactly sure what it was – all was good though!
Over the same weekend, through a series of events , I ended up getting my hair cut. Which doesn’t seem like the sort of thing I’d blog about but when you don’t speak the language, getting your haircut becomes an event. Through translation I found out that my stylist loved my curls but then he promptly flat ironed them right out to tame my new Asian haircut. Also a head, neck & shoulder massage comes with the deal, so it’s a pretty sweet experience.
In addition to all these shenanigans, I’ve also tried to make my way around Taipei seeing the sights. The middle picture below is the impressive Sun Yat Sen Memorial. I happened to be there just at sunset and enjoyed strolling through the park as the bats starting coming out for their nightly rounds.
This week officially marks the halfway point of my residency – which is just crazy!
I worked with my students on their last wet clay project, we are making a group project of a tree with leaves made by all the students. They collected leaves from their local plants and we pressed them into the clay and cut them out. We’re working on ideas of how they will be assembled into a sculpture for their school.
I also made some progress on my own sculptures, going larger that ever before with a fairly high success rate. I’ve learned a lot about building these fragile pieces and even more about my own impatience to finish them. Sometimes, I really should be letting them set up more or just work more slowly but I push through to finish and that’s generally when it all starts to fall apart. It’s a hard lesson, but I’m starting to get it.
I also took off on a local hike last weekend and found this large temple built into the mountainside. Funny part was when I was hiking over to it, I heard singing echoing over the canyon and I thought it was possibly part of a ceremony. But as I actually approached the temple I realized it was a couple of guys in the parking garage doing karaoke. Religious experience? Maybe?? Despite the karaoke, it was a beautiful view of the valley that I’ve been living in for the past six weeks.
This week gave me a much needed break from the studio when my parents popped into town for a visit. They had been traveling throughout Australia and New Zealand and spent their final week on the road with me in Taiwan before heading back to the States. Dad & Mom hadn’t been to Taiwan in 25 and 50 years respectively, so a lot had changed! We roamed Taipei taking in the sights and the food. They also got to meet my studio mates, see where I’m living and working, and see my work in progress.
After my parents left, I spent the final days of this week contemplating the things that I’ve pulled out of the kiln – this was my second bisque firing since I’ve been here – and I’m pretty happy with the progress I’ve made. I’ve discovered a better way to build these forms and I’m getting a higher success rate with less cracking overall. I just keep trying different ways of working with these very thin pieces of porcelain and see how far I can push the forms. Once they are fired again, I’ll start the experiments of embedding them into resin. I’m hoping that will lead to some interesting results for future projects.
I also had the opportunity to assist my fellow artist-in-residence Ruth Li install her solo exhibit at the museum. Her gorgeous work of abstracted flower arrangements in cold white porcelain are delicate and graceful against the deep blue walls. Helping her build the ephemeral arrangements that will slowly dissolve under dripping water during the exhibit was a treat. Looking forward to the opening reception this weekend.
This week brought new adventures and a little bit of relaxing too!
My studio area might look a little messy, but that means I’ve got a million projects up in the air at once! I did unload the first kiln with some successes and a few failures that ended up in the shard bin – all in all, not bad for a first firing. The best thing about a residency is having the time for all those failures without the pressure of an exhibition or deadline, it is truly time to experiment and push the limits of your creative ideas, even if that means that you work all day with nothing (physical) to show for it.
My fourth grade class worked on a classic Earth Art Studio project this week, the big eyed fish, and they loved it. It’s a lesson in abstraction vs realism and they really took off with abstract ideas on their sculptures. So much fun to work with these guys!
Since I teach up in the mountains on Friday mornings in an area that is known for its hot springs and hiking, I thought I’d plan to stay for the weekend and it worked out great. My fellow artist in residence Ruth Li came with me and we tried all the amazing traditional mountain foods including rice served in bamboo and deep fried river shrimp plus an assortment of veggies that I’d never seen before. The art teacher at the school where I’m working met up with us and showed us around town including the natural hot spring pools right next to the river with beautiful mountain views. We took a long hike to explore the area and saw a Macaque monkey along the way. Adventures for the rest of the week were spent gallery hopping in Taipei and eating really good food!
This week was chock full, with a clay class up in the mountains last Friday – the kids loved making pinch pots – and an art sale at the museum over the weekend. I brought a few small items with me to display for the art sale and was able to snag some stones from the gardens, a few planks of wood from the wood kiln stock pile and a table cloth from a fellow vendor to make up my table. I was unsure how it would go and unfortunately it didn’t go well for me, I had my labels translated for patrons to read and most people speak a little English, but most were too shy to try to use it and talk with me, so it was a little hard to connect and hence make sales. Plus my prices were based on what I sell my work for in the states, so a little pricy for this market, but it was an interesting learning experience for sure. After a busy weekend, the rest of this past week was spent with long days in studio. I got some pieces into the kiln for the first time with some good, some not so good results… again more learning experiences.
With the help of the studio staff, we tested embedding one of my flat Bone Series shaped pieces into resin. This is something I’ve been thinking and sketching ideas about for over a year and its exciting to get into the first stages of trying it out. Once I pull more pieces from the kiln, I’m going to attempt to go larger with this idea and I ~hope~ that this will launch me into a whole new avenue with this series. Stay tuned on this one!
Other experiments this week included trying chicken heart and butt (yes. butt.) for the first time along with some plain ol’ fried chicken – and honestly, it was all pretty good. The last photo above is a few of my favorite sculptures that are in the Ceramic Park at the museum, feel lucky that I get to walk past these each day to and from the studio.
Tomorrow, I head up into the mountains again to work with the kids and I’ve got plans to stay there through the weekend which I’m very excited about. Hot springs, mountain hikes and waterfalls await this weekend!
This past week has been busy with concentrated studio time and lots of fun adventures too. I’m working on my very thin Bone Series pieces which I honestly haven’t worked with in a year since being in Iceland, so there was a bit of a learning curve to get back into these guys. I’ve definitely had my share of failures with them too, learning what this new clay will or won’t do and dealing with the heat drying the pieces too quickly is always tricky, but I’ve started to have a few successes. I’m hoping that I’ll get better at making them and be able to go larger and more varied in shape as I continue. The last photo above shows some dried flower heads of a ginger plant with the seeds about to burst that I found while hiking, I couldn’t help but see the similarities to my own work.
I’ve been taking a few mini adventures as well, finding some great hiking trails just outside of town, visiting the Tao or Buddhist temples that are scattered all over the area , visiting nearby towns and taking in the scene at the night markets where you can eat everything from duck tongue to fried squid on a stick – it’s definitely a feast for the eyes and mouth! Visiting the National Palace Museum was impressive with its collection of Chinese art known especially for its carved jadeite green cabbage sculpture. Tomorrow I head back up in the mountains for my first official clay class with 4th grade students and this weekend I’ll be participating in a little Art Market sale at the museum – should be fun!
I arrived in Taiwan, jet lagged but excited to be here! I landed in the evening and was taken to my apartment where I got the quick run down of everything and then crashed out for the night. The next morning I was given a tour of the extremely impressive Yingge Ceramics Museum and the ceramic park which has lawns, a water park and lots of ceramic sculptures interspersed throughout the space. The residency studios are towards the back of the park area and are in a stylized brick building with a sweeping roof structure arcing over the structures. The studios are open for the public to come in as watch as the residents work and ask questions, so our posters greet visitors at the door. I started to set up my space with the tools that I brought and also decided on which porcelain clay to work with for the duration of my time here. Jet lag caught up with me early on this first day but I managed to stay awake until about 8pm and then crashed.
I woke early my second day because I needed to meet a car and translators who would take me up into the mountains to a remote area called the Wulai District. It was a beautiful ride out of the city and up into the cooler mountain areas where they are known for waterfalls, hot springs and the indigenous people who live here. I gave a slide show talk about my art to a classroom of 4th graders who were excited to try working with clay. Despite living only about an hour from one of the ceramic capitals of the world, they had hardly any clay experience. They were especially excited to find out that I would be coming back to their classroom 6 more times to do projects with them as part of the educational out reach programs the museum is developing.
I’ve spent the rest of my time, getting my bearings walking the city, going grocery shopping, figuring out how to order food without English menus, and all the other funny things that make traveling to a foreign place so adventurous! Now, it’s really time to get into a routine (hopefully getting me on the time zone!) and get some long hours going in the studio!
This is what nearly a years worth of prepping, planning and stressing comes down to. One week. And here’s one big blog post to wrap it up…
Pre-Install Day: Due to Hurricane Dorian, our shipping crates were behind schedule for delivery. We decided it would be best to pick them up at the transfer location in Jacksonville Florida and deliver them ourselves to the University of Florida Gainesville campus. Then about a third of our way there, we received a notice that they were already out for delivery. So the crates arrived at the university just about the same time we did. A little chaotic but it all worked out. We met with the staff at the Career Connections Center who got us and our work space situated. We also met with the scaffolding company who took their measurements and made plans for install the following day. So far, despite a hurricane, we were there, the art was there and we were still on schedule…not too bad!
Day 1: The scaffolding went up, but it was easy to tell that it was a more involved job than the scaffold company had planned for, yet they rose to the occasion and made it happen. While they dragged in parts, built, unbuilt and re-built our three story jungle gym, we unpacked the crates and templates and prepped for the day ahead.
Day 2: Paper templates went up on the walls, anchor points for each of the 6 installations were finalized and then my heart pounded as the first holes were drilled into the walls. I should add that we practiced and planned a lot at the studio before we installed these anchors which needed to support a lot of weight and tension so we should of been really confident in our work, but you never know what you are going to find behind drywall AND there are two huge walls with custom wallpaper on them, so there was really no room for error. After my morning series of panic attacks, we did finally settle into a routine getting a few critical weight bearing anchors up for each piece and we got 4 of the smaller pieces up on the wall. Stressful but successful.
Day 3: We started today with a little more confidence and we got the final two largest installations hung on the wall. It was really amazing to move a 20’x 16′ modular piece with only 3 people, over, under and around three flights of scaffolding without breaking anything. There were a few moments of stress, lots of giggles and just a little bit of untangling to do as we got the piece into place. But by the end of the day, everything was up… it wasn’t finished or pretty but it was up off the floor dangling from a few upper anchors.
Day 4: The very first hole drilled this day went into a spot where there was conduit behind it blocking the hole too much to be able to use a toggle anchor- Arrg. There was no way to tell before hand but we had to abandon that hole and (luckily it was not on a wall paper wall!). A little gun-shy we moved on but by the end of the day 4 of the 6 installations were finalized and some of the paper templates had come down revealing a really nice peek of how the installations will look against the charcoal grey walls. Feeling pretty good about how the final outcome will look!
Day 5: Today was a slower day, we were definitely feeling the bodily effects of climbing all over the scaffolding for the past three days but we took it easy getting the final two installations finished up and pulling the paper templates down. I also spent some time just staring at the walls, making sure that everything flowed around the space smoothly and that there weren’t any lines or shapes that looked awkwardly placed which is kind of a hard task when the scaffolding is in the way of nearly every viewpoint. By the end of the day, I was satisfied and we were ready for the scaffolding to come down.
I had also planned for all of my shipping materials to be repurposed to art students on campus, within hours of sending out the word that my wood crates, packing foam and bubble wrap was available, it was all gone. I’m so thrilled to keep all of that out of the landfill while also helping out some students with free materials.
Day 6: The scaffolding came down (way faster than it went up!). I held my breath as each of the parts was disconnected and handed down to the lower levels, hoping that the artwork would not be touched in the process. Finally getting to see the installations fully for the first time was a little nerve-wracking, seeing as there was nothing to be done about fixing anything now that the scaffolding was gone. While there are always things to improve on and tweak here and there, I feel really good that all of my planning and staging of the work in my studio paid off and I very happy with the final results! Photos of the final installation are posted here: Bone Series : Biophilia Connections
Who is the “we” I keep mentioning here…
I always say ‘it takes a village to raise an artist’ and I know that it’s my name that goes on this project but really it would not of been possible without the skills of my husband Nate who drilled and set every anchor (possibly cursing and sweating through each one!), assisted me on the planning, prep and execution of the entire project from day one and got me a cold beer at the end of every day. In addition, we had our lifelong friend Beth roped into this adventure who is always willing to jump in regardless of the task, make us laugh in all of the stressful moments, and charm anyone who walks in the room and wonders what the hell is going on. These two did it all, on top of a million other tiny tasks that made it all appear seamless. I’m forever grateful.
Thanks for joining me on this art adventure, and if you’re ever in Gainesville, be sure to check out this installation in person! Hope you enjoyed the process and the art! Join me next time as I leave for an art residency in Taiwan in two weeks – yikes, I need to pack!
No one said installing public art on the other side of the country was going to be an easy feat, but I really didn’t expect a hurricane to play a part in my plans. And truth be told, I consider myself extremely lucky; one, we did not get caught in a hurricane, our flight arrived without drama, and despite shipping the crates out of the studio later than I planned annnd Hurricane Dorian closing the university for a few days delaying the crates delivery to the university, it all ended up working out just on time and we are officially on schedule- whew!
Today, I met onsite with the scaffold company as they got their final measurements and plan for exactly how to get me and my art 20+ feet up in the air. Scaffolding will be installed tomorrow while we unpack the crates and start to prep the templates. Can’t wait to see the art go up in the next week!
In the lead up waiting for art to arrive, I spent my time taking in the flora, fauna and culture of Florida. The above photos show an amazing black bat flower growing in my friends yard, just one of the many kilns at the Morean Center for Clay and close up encounters with gators at Gatorland before we got down to business meeting the crates of art and the scaffold installers.
As you read this I will be flying across the country to meet my crates of artwork in Gainesville Florida for their public art placement, so excited that installation time has arrived! I’ll be spending a few days in the area negotiating the last details and visiting with a friend in the area and then it all begins. I will be sure to post lots of photos of the install and the final results as we work through the process.
My husband snapped this photo of me perched on top of the ladder struggling to photograph the last and largest piece in its entirety, can’t wait to see it in it’s final location. Fingers crossed that everything arrives ok, and that all the planning and planning and planning actually work in real life! Thanks for your support on this creative journey!
