Feast Day

Feast Day in Jemez Pueblo yesterday.

Huge turn-out, I’ve never seen so many dancers in the Plaza. Most of the public attending seemed to also be Native American. Not too many “Anglo” faces. Cloudy day, threatening to rain any moment.

Submission

Being temporarily without a camera I used these old(ish) images of current(ish) work to submit to a juried show -- my first swing at this process for a few years...see what happens. A selection from two series:

This one doesn't look too good, a kind of blurry image. Don't really like the piece that much either:

Slowly...

...oozing back. I posted on my Short Stories Essays blog: "Cow". Next thing to do there is to wipe out all the bad writing, and keep the few good things that I have put out.

Sun

set? rise? Perhaps I'll do a bit more of the blogging thing in days to come. See how that goes. Hold your breath.

And now for something completely different.

Back in the murk and dazzling spotlights of the "Little Theatre" in Los Alamos. Now it's J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls". First rough for the set. Lots of elements missing. Just wanted to get a general idea of how things might look -- pastel walls, bright detail (minimal in quantity), all-black (men) and very colorful (women) costumes to be set against some bland surfaces. Click below for complete image:
 

More rebar

Landscape strictly divided by upright rebar:

Below, the entire piece. In the background, the highest piece of ground on the left (the knob, as we know it) is the site of "Arc", not visible in poor resolution provided by camera. The rebar is clad in rubber tubing and painted silver.
Both this piece and the Arc need to be relocated. Also, they both need to be in a different context. Standing alone, looming over the landscape is not the assigned mission for either of them. The upright rebar could live without the bendy bit at the top and, as it now stands :) is a model for an installation of which it would be an element. More about that later. I am preparing extensive verbiage and diagrams of proposal.

Arc (Rebar 1)

Up on the knob, overlooking a vast landscape.
This is a long piece of rebar with a section of rubber hose drawn over it, sprayed silver.
My original intention was to have a tall vertical piece, made of similar materials, standing in the same location, but I did not take into account the flexibility of the material (depth of burial, width of rebar, max height, etc.). I will have to try the same project with different material on same site, perhaps replacing current installation (since the site is so great), then I'll move this piece to another location.

Issues

I'm in a posting slump.
This happens whenever I open a word processor, and start to work on my fiction. This time I have taken care to post a revision to the opening of "Islington"     (Short stories essays) >>>
I have been moving in the direction developed here. same story, sort of, but a completely different concept.
My latest installations are incomplete. I will photograph them when they develop to the point of structural stability and some interest.

If it's not one thing, it's another.

Now it is the smoke.
Inspiring statistics: largest forest fire in NM since the Ice Age. Right on our doorstep. The road to Los Alamos is closed (town evacuated), Carol and Lizzie lingering at home, I do no art when people are around.
Shy?
Lizzie is inspired: Let's hit the road. Let's go to Denver. Let's go to Las Vegas. We'll take all the cameras, you can take lots of pictures.
Yeah, right. Thanks.
The smoke comes only in the mornings; it clears before noon leaving us with a regular scorching summer day. There were signs of rain yesterday. Clouds swirled ominously overhead (or was that billowing smoke?), big blobs of water splashed down here and there, hissing and evaporating as they hit the parched ground. No relief for the few veg that dared rear their tender little stems into the arid air. Something ate the geranium, which stood outside.

I'm back!...

...and this time I'm ... whatever.
Horrible internet service provider (will not name the swines) tried to make out, during frequent "tech support-like" sessions that the fault lay in some kind of hardware or general incompetence with electronic equipment at my end. Even ended up buying a new modem, which BTW I have not even installed. Everything works just fine again...well, the phone is still "off-line", and the poor guys still climb the power poles in 100*F heat day after day.

Shards, shards, it's all shards now... ... ... but...

Installation of "Glass" in the landscape is one thing, installation of glass in a bleak, sheet-rocked indoor space is another. Sheetrock, malleable plastic floor, and a drop ceiling with a good, strong ceiling above it, is what I would like to find most of all. A place in London, of all weird locations, seems to fit the bill. Perhaps I will harass them.

Meanwhile...
Glass "C" fell in upon itself shattering into well proportioned shards.
The best thing I have ever done has become a dangerous ruin.
Glass "F" was meant to shatter into blackened fragments right away.
The charred remains of Glass "F" added to Glass "A" produces a Rococo Glass "A"+.

(but it really doesn't male much sense)

(yet)

And now look how the mighty have fallen.
Not too bad. "Glass C":

Arise!("Glass E"):

Glass 4 two

Did more work on the ground. Need to do more to the whole surrounding area.
These photographs convey more of the feeling that the piece has.

From a distance. The glass is located in the uppermost earth/rock colored area, barely visible in this photograph as in true/real life. Need to click (and then +) on image to have hope of seeing anything at all:

Not that much more visible from close-up either. It will be even less visible when I clean off the caulking on the edges, but I will allow it to matt-out over a period of time:

Tricky close-up showing bottom edge, which I might expose even more. See how it weathers:

View from above -- other side:

Foreshortened view:

Glass 4

Thank you Theodore -- just as I gave up all hope of ever getting my hands on large sheets of glass.
I need to do a lot more work on shaping the ground. For now the piece is set. I hope that it looks like it fell out of the sky. I placed it by raising it by a corner up as high as I could, way over my head, arms straightening and locking at the elbow for a brief, frightening moment, and while gaining even more altitude by rising on tiptoe, I then slammed it into the ground with its edge.
(The shovel in the top corner of the top photo is just decoration; pay no attention to it.)
I might raise the sand on the right ( as in photo below) and expose more of the glass on the left side, where the bottom edge corner hangs loose.

Install or...

...what!

I do seem to be somewhat involved in installation mania. There will be a slight delay in the next piece appearing on the mesa, since I have to drag some concrete up there. However, I am still handling glass, smaller and smaller pieces all the time, since it is fragmenting. Mirrors are becoming a serious consideration, but! one thing at a time.

Glass 3 again

Very consuming, this installation.
In the image below matte, dirty glass in a slightly muted morning light. There is a forest fire, somewhere in the Jemez, the distant ranges have a blue, fuzzy tinge to them. A distant view, the stone steps on the right are a fragment of what I have been staggering up with sheets of glass:

Closer, from the other side:

The glass is dirty, I am very cautious about cleaning and applying textures to it. view at sunrise:

I did spray some DW40 along the top (just happened to have some in my pocket), and let it trickle down without wiping:

The trickle-down effect after an extended visit to photoshop:

This is where I stand right now. I cannot tell how vulnerable to the wind this piece is. Spring (our official wind season) is nearly over, but we are expecting some severe windy weather in the next few days. The glass wobbles dramatically when the wind is strong -- I will have to get some video footage of that. I hope that I will have a chance to both affect and see affected by the elements the surfaces of this piece before it breaks. Rain would be nice...will it ever rain again.

Glass 3

Installation complete.
Comments tomorrow.

New site

My previous glass installation felt like a beginning and an end, with no further development necessary, other than perhaps size: an enormous, huge sheet dug into the sand would be welcome.
But, now I'm wavering. I have two sheets of glass sitting behind the shed. And I do have a stunning site:

Late in the day I brought some tools up, started preparing the surface. After a few deep breaths, without too much philosophizing, I grabbed one of the glass sheets (about 2 1/2' x 4'), large enough to cause problems in the fierce wind we have today, and staggered up the mesa. Tomorrow I will bring up the other one, hack into the sandstone below the sand, and install them.

Heat

Glass buried deep in soil. Kerosene sprinkled on and around it. Fire added:

Flames grow quickly:

Heat is intense enough for glass to crack:

Flames dance around their object, blackening it:

And shaping it: