Mayor Sam approves this installation

I had a very special guest yesterday at my installation--Mayor Sam Adams who walked over from the birthday celebration for Portlandia! Perfect timing with Sabina Samiee on hand to take pictures! I will share more of her lovely photos soon.

The Beauty of Life.....it's alive!

Hey Beautiful People!

I'm pleased to officially announce that the installation is complete! Alice and I put in another 9 hour day yesterday and completed the wall work, put the carpet in place, and called it art. The one thing I needed a bit more time to contemplate before publishing the final pictures was whether I wanted the carpet at all, but my return today confirmed it. The installation is right next to the desk of David Muir, who has seen every single installation in this venue's 15 year run. David is shown here helping adjust the vining parts that extend under the rug, which he took a particular liking to. No wonder he was Spirit of Portland Employee of the Year in 2009!

I recently found out that this month is also the 25th birthday of Portland's most beloved work of art, the brobdingnagian babe Portlandia, who sits above the entrance. This Friday afternoon at 3pm there's going to be a party with cupcakes and a public ceremony, so I decided to come on down and also make it an unofficial opening for my show. Click here for more information about that event.

Thanks again to everyone who made this show possible--the labors of: Alice Mclean,Tura Sugden, Kristin Mitsu Shiga, Junko Iijima, Andrew Lorish,  and Matt McCalmott.

A huge shout out to the 96 people who supported this project by pre-purchasing pieces via Kickstarter: Locey Pfeifer, Clarke Green, Beka Amblin, Marthe Le Van, Tom Romero, Abigail Spring, Deena Preston, Donna Sutor, Sylvia Engelman, C. Robertson, Kathe Swaback, Temple Lentz, Jen Neitzel, Hal Pfeifer, Marla H Bane, Teri Thomas, Tina, Samuel Hernandez, Ann Morton, Gretchen Schutte, Cristina Ljungberg, Amber Landgraff, Kierstin Gray, Karon Flage, Jody Creasman, Arthur De Bow, Sara Flemming, Barrie Gillies, Rosmairta Kilara,

Liana Weiland, Jody Lemke, Mindy Tchieu, Heidi, Barb Stark, Mary D Reuter, Amy Ruppel, Renee Hudson, Merrian, Priscilla Nielsen, Karla Reinhardt, Husam Alghamdi, Richard Osborn, Janet Frohnmayer, Heather Shirkey, Mindful Mimi, Caryl Schiavon, Sheila Cannon, Tali Weinberg, Jololove, Heather Sabin, Phoebe Baker, Guido Stein, Kelly Cowing, Margo Thoma, Melanie Van Weelden, Julie Sabatier, , Wyvonne Colombo, Ruth Ross,

Nayla Hadchiti, Namita Wiggers, Penny Craig, Susan Ator, Brea Cali, Jordan Pfeifer, Maria Matson, Mathias Craig, Garth Johnson, Mary Rumsey Dorskind, Lisa Palmatier, Sylvia Riveland, Shir, Nancy Turner, Melissa Matson, James Gourlay, Lisa & Scott Cylinder, Brandon Shelton, Sarah Jesudason, AnnaCaroline Tod Sonier, Jennifer Menken, Patty Sgrecci, Louise Edgerton, Steve Keeble, Brigitte Martin, Lori Kobayashi, Kendel Ratley, Issy Tavares, William Craig, Tracey Waldron, and Rev. Steve Sharp.

And, of course, all the fine folks the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

After my Kickstarter backers have selected their pieces when the show concludes, I will make more of the work from Beauty of Life available. If you'd like to be notified when this happens, please join my email list by clicking here.

installation: day one

The last few days getting things together have been intense, but I've also made sure to appreciate it all--I love the thrill of seeing a big idea come together and it's only a few weeks a year that I allow myself to be completely immersed in an art installation without any other distractions. On Saturday, my friend Junko Iijima came to help out for the morning and together we put all of the pin findings in the finished pieces. Junko is a great artist herself--click here to see some of her work. Checking this off my big list gave me one last task--to finish all of the one of a kind work for the wild sections, which I have been slowly chipping away at as I did the repeat parts, but one last push Sunday made me feel like it was time to start putting the pieces up on site.

My assistant for this final push is Alice Mclean, who I met a few years ago through Art on Alberta. We spent the morning hanging the wall panels that Matt built, and mapping out where the main part of the repeat pattern will live with repositionable painter's tape.  The tape will be removed once the repeat sections are in place.

And so it began....I started with the section in the middle so that all parts could build out from that section. This will help me maintain the ideal density of the overall pattern and account for the subtle differences in size of the 32 pieces in these sections. I taped up my diagram right next to the rectangle and started placing the pieces in their corresponding spots. We only had about 3-4 hours to start filling the wall today, so tomorrow will hopefully allow us to completely finish the mammoth task. We seem to be figuring out how to be more efficient as we go along. I cannot wait to see it done--so far I'm pleased with the density because it feels as lush as William Morris' Strawberry Thief pattern. 

Beauty of Life opens next Thursday!

Hello Beautiful People!

See all those lovely black X's on my huge checklist? I'm coming down the real homestretch here with my Beauty of Life installation--late last night I finally completed all 768 of the pieces that will make up the repeating sections. Wanna see?

(Add ibuprofen and Excedrin PM to my materials list for this show!) Now I have the next five days to resolve the rest of this monsterpiece, such as attaching the pin findings, the detail work on the four wall panels, installing the work, and transporting it to its final resting place, the Portland Building. I have slightly adjusted the official opening date for this show to Thursday, October 14, 2010, so I hope that won't affect travel plans for any of you who are coming from out of town. Please note that there is no formal opening reception for this installation, but it will be on display through November 14th during the building operating hours Monday-Friday 7am-6pm. 

I have a new team member to introduce to you--Tura Sugden, who soldered all 1600 of my pin findings, plus another 50 wires for two of my smaller designs. I met Tura through Velvet da Vinci initially, and she really came through for me in getting this massive part of the project done. (This picture is of Tura processing the hundreds of pounds of honey from her father's bees last year!!) 

x12 (redux)