Upcoming Events

A lot has been going on recently, both professionally and personally. In April I finished up a class at Pratt called Sculpture in Motion. I worked in wood for the first time and made a piece that explores a variety of motions and in which the mechanism is part of the art. Though currently unfinished, it will be shown in the Pratt lobby with other works from the class in July 2011.

The Alley Art Project has mostly wrapped up. We installed the panels and sculpture in the alley last week and they are ready and waiting for our opening on Thursday, May 5th. Each of the interns will be displaying a work for the evening (or longer). It should be a fun party with music, food, and of course good company.

I was also recently contacted by Beyond Wonderland asking if I wanted to show Propolis for their event. Luckily I just obtained replacement circuit boards and have finished up soldering all the lights back together so we’re good to go. So, Propolis will be back up and running on May 14th for what looks like an amazing party.

This summer is shaping up to be completely insane. I’ll be traveling for much of it, going to Maker Faire for the first time as well as Burning Man (of course!), and also hopefully working with the Flaming Lotus Girls down in San Francisco.

Alley Art

So for the past few months I’ve been headed in a slightly different direction. After doing the lighting for Propolis with the help of some very talented friends I realized that I wanted to learn more about electronics. So while I’ve been fixing up Propolis’ lights (soldering, cleaning, organizing, etc.), I’ve also been teaching myself about electronics. Still a lot to learn, but it has been a lot of fun and will likely lead to lots of fun projects in the future.

Though I can never seem to get too far from metal work. I’ve got a new class coming up at Pratt, Sculpture in Motion, led by a friend of mind. Super excited to incorporate more interactivity into my art. I was also awarded an Alley Art Project Internship through Pratt. Over the next couple of months I get to work with a group of upcoming and established artists on a public art project down in Pioneer Square, Seattle. The grant money comes from Alley Art and the project is lead by an artist I greatly admire, Patrick Mahar. We meet this Friday for the first time and I’m excited to see the space as well as learn more about the project.

Pratt

Pratt Fine Arts Center is the non-profit studio where I not only learned everything I know about metal work, it’s also the studio I rent out for my personal use. It’s an incredible resource and one of the main reasons I moved to Seattle. Anyone who lives in the area and is interested in art should check it out. They offer classes in:

  • Welding
  • Forging
  • Bronze Casting
  • Stone Carving
  • Jewlery
  • Metalsmithing
  • Hot Glass
  • Warm Glass
  • Drawing
  • Painting, and
  • Printmaking

as well as numerous classes and workshops in a variety of diverse disciplines, including:

  • Bookmaking
  • Collage
  • Felt, and
  • Visiting Master Artist workshops.

The only thing they don’t have is ceramics, but that’s because there are other amazing resources in Seattle that already offer ceramics classes including Pottery Northwest.

At Pratt I have taken classes in welding, forging, and drawing and have been impressed with all of my teachers as well as the facility and tools available. Eight-week classes meet once a week and seem to cost around $300 (drawing classes being cheaper and bronze classes more expensive) but they offer both merit and need-based scholarships as well as work-study opportunities. Also, when you are in a class they offer Free Fridays where you can come in on Fridays and use the studio to your hearts content from 9am to 10pm. It’s amazing.

Having come from a classically-trained music background (which, while I love, admit that it has its snobby elements*) I was a little apprehensive about entering into another world where opinions and snobbery could run high. I was more than pleased to find that Pratt welcomes everyone with open arms. The classes are informative and challenging, but they accept everyone at their own level. There are no expectations beyond those that you place on yourself.

Once you are familiar with the studio Pratt offers a studio rental program. After passing a test to make sure you know what you’re doing you can rent the studio by the day, week, or month. It’s an incredible resource for those of us who don’t have the space or money for our own place and for those who are just getting started.

Pratt pretty much just rocks.

*Don’t get me wrong, I love me some good snobbery as you’re likely to find out should you ever ask me about cheese, chocolate, or outdoor gear.

Forge Building

I don’t take many classes at Pratt anymore, but I do keep my eye out for new class listings and workshops. One such class that caught my eye recently was a forge building class, something I could not pass up. Today was the first of two days and I’m stoked. We’re building simple 16” long tube forges. It’s a simple but useful design. The inside area has a circumference of 8” and it opens up on both ends (meaning I can heat up the middle sections of long pieces of material). Today we built a mold and cast the insulating material. These will be dried in a kiln in the next couple of days and next week we will be adding the gas hookup and fan. The only bummer about this whole thing is I don’t currently have a place to use my new forge, though I’ll make that happens someday in hopefully the not too distant future.

Burning Man's Fault

This whole thing started with Burning Man (like so many other things I’m sure). It’s Burning Man’s fault that I’ve got burns up and down my arms and hands (and oddly enough, boobs) from welding and forging. It’s Burning Man’s fault I’ve organized my life and my job so I can spend my days in the studio. And it’s Burning Man’s fault that I couldn’t be happier.

It first attended in 2006, and for those who haven’t been, simply put: it’s inspiring. The amount of time, love, hard work, dedication, and resources that people put in this event is mind-blowing. People share because they care. Or something less cheesy sounding than that.

Every year that I’ve gone I’ve been most drawn to the art. Massive, interactive, fire and LED lit sculptures dot the playa and create quite the surreal landscape. I love it, and I’ve wanted to contribute since I first saw it.

It took me awhile to get to a place where I could start – a move to a new state, a new job, and other personal whatnot got in they way for awhile. But come 2008 I was able to take my first welding class at Pratt Fine Arts Center and I loved it. I made a box, not the most exciting thing in the world, but it still sits on my shelf holding my poi. I continued to take welding and forging classes over the next couple of years. Now I primarily rent out their sculpture studio for my own personal use. I spend my days making art and answering to no one but me – it pretty much rocks.

Every year at Burning Man it seems like the Flaming Lotus Girls bring one of the most beautiful and creative pieces of the year. After last year’s piece, Soma, I decided I wanted to work with them and hopefully learn something about fire installations and the logistics of making a larger scale piece in the process. I got in contact with them and it looked like it was all going to work out until they sadly did not receive a grant from Burning Man for their piece (apparently they asked for too much money – this makes me wonder how awesomely huge and fiery their idea was). I looked into helping out some other groups both in the Bay are and here in Seattle but nothing intrigued me quite like the FLG – I like their aesthetic, the fact that it’s mostly women, and their come one, come all approach.

So, what’s a girl to do? DIY of course, as that’s sort of the whole point of Burning Man. So do it myself I did. And am doing. And still have a lot of hard work doing ahead – which is all Burning Man’s fault.