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Propolis at the Orlando Mini Maker Faire 2012
The Orlando Mini Maker Faire was quite the success! It was much larger and better attended than I could have hoped for and many people, kids especially, seemed to enjoy Propolis. We were placed in the dark room next to the R2 Builders and I had a blast meeting and talking to other makers and makers in the making.
The first ever Orlando Mini Maker Faire is coming up May 26th at the Central Florida Fairgrounds. I am really excited to be a Featured Maker and to have the opportunity to show Propolis again. I am also looking forward to meeting other Makers in the area – the Faire has been more popular than expected and they have had to move to a larger venue. Orlando is certainly not known for it’s art/maker community but it is there and much more vibrant than I expected. Come check it out if you are in the area!
Despite my previous assertion that David and would not be attending Burning Man this year, we are of course going. I am going back to the Bay area for a week to help out the Flux Foundation with their piece, Zoa. I’m excited to get back in the shop and get dirty again and I can’t wait for the crappy San Francisco summer weather – I need a break from this heat! I will also be attending the Bay Area Maker Faire and I am looking forward to a weekend of amazing people and inspiration.
Setting up Propolis at Beyond Wonderland
Back in April, USC Events here in Seattle contacted me to see if I wanted to show Propolis at Beyond Wonderland, a rave in downtown Seattle. While it was admittedly a pain in the patootie for a one night event, I had a lot of fun. There was a lot of good music and people were excited to see art, apparently a new thing at these events in Seattle.
Propolis at Crtical Massive 2011
This summer I received a Refurbish Grant from Ignition Northwest to make a platform for Propolis and to show it at Critical Massive July 18-24 in Mt. Vernon, WA. Propolis was originally built with the Burning Man playa in mind, meaning I buried much of the wiring underground. I clearly can not hide the wiring in the same way in other circumstances so I built a platform to hide it.
This was my first year at Critical Massive and I had a blast – while it was certainly smaller than Burning Man there was a lot of fantastic art, great people, and a nice community feel. I enjoyed meeting a lot of other local artists. It rained for the first couple of days and I was a little nervous about short-circuits, so for the first two days Propolis was sequestered under a canopy. While that clearly is not what I had in mind, I ended up kind of liking it as the canopy created a nice cozy and intimate environment. The only problem is people did not know they were welcome to enter the space and most people just peeked in from the outside. Thankfully the rain cleared up and Propolis was freed from its canopy for the last two days of the event.
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.
Photo by Neil Girling
I’m back from the Burn and it was everything I envisioned and more. Bringing a piece of art enhanced the experience in so many ways and I felt a lot more connected to everything. It was, not surprisingly, more work than I had expected (the rain on Monday night DID NOT help me out in any way), but it was completely worth it. We frantically installed the lighting in the two days prior to leaving and only saw it complete for the first time on Tuesday night. That moment was such a relief and an overflow of excitement. It was more beautiful than I had imagined. Throughout the week I got a lot of great feedback from people and enjoyed hearing different interpretations of the piece and its meaning.
I was determined to take a break and decompress but I’m already finding myself taking note of the lessons I learned from this and brainstorming ideas for next year. Creating is addicting.
Installing Covers
We leave for Burning Man in five days and it looks like this is all going to come together. The frame is done, the plastic is all cut out, I’ve drilled the million and three holes, and while the lighting will be done a little last minute I have a feeling it will all work out just fine. Speaking of which, I should really thank my friends Rachel and Brian for helping me out so much with the lighting. They are both professional lighting designers in New York City and they volunteered to help me out (as in do all the work) with the lighting. It has been a bit of a logistical pain in the butt to collaborate long-distance, and I have to admit to a few hysterical freak-outs, but I think it will all come together.
I just have a couple of small things to complete before we leave – shellac one one of the pieces, drill a couple more holes (drilling seems like a never-ending task), and finish up the stakes – but thankfully I’m no longer in ‘oh holy crap I have to work 16 hour days or this will never get finished’ mode. I’ve got some time to think about packing and I have even already brainstormed about ideas for next year (but then and realize that that is completely insane and make myself stop).
Propolis Frame Completed
I’m officially done with the first stage of my piece. The frame is complete and now I’ve just got a million other things to get done. The next step is to make plastic coverings for the hexagons that will have lights in them. I’m anticipating that this step will somewhat short and sweet but the next step, installing them, will be quite time consuming. Thank goodness I’ve got a lot of time (in theory at least – it’s amazing how time flies when you’re immersed so completely in something).
I finished my forge building class last week but I’ve still got some work to do on it. We worked on the gas and air supply but now I’ve got to install some ceramic insulation and put it all together. It shouldn’t be too much work, I just need to take time away from Propolis to complete the forge and I have a hard time doing that. I’ll happen.
I also need to submit my piece to Burning Man this weekend so that it’s placed on the map and in all the literature. At that point I’ll be all official and really have to complete this thing (though I’m sure there are quite a few projects that never quite make it to the playa despite the best of intentions).