Alexander Helps Build Shelving For Reptire Studio

The Tire Miasma

Alexander Graduates!

My bud Alexander graduated from High School this month!

To celebrate, we all went out to eat at The Blue Note Grill in Durham, and then I took Alexander and our friend Tara (visiting from Iowa) out for a night on the town in Durham.

Alexander seemed to really enjoy and appreciate this adventure.

The next day we took a tour of the Scrap Exchange!

And then, as we made our sleepy way back home from Durham to Siler City, headed down 15-501, approaching the Bynum Bridge, Alexander made one last request...

And that was to visit one of our favorite spots, below the damn there on the Haw.

We had explored this area one hot summer day several years ago, in celebration of surviving a very messy summer camp that we had both worked that summer.

I know that that memory had always stuck with Alex, as it had I, and it somehow seemed like a perfect way to finally commemorate Alex's passage.

We made a long trek down the dam that day, and I think that it will long be etched in all of our minds.

Alexander

'Lens Project' with The Hispanic Liaison

A few years ago, I did a series of projects with the Youth Group at The Hispanic Liaison, here in Siler City. As I never did share this project on the blog (which I probably started after), I thought I'd share a little bit here.

I was invited to do an art project with the youth group (10-15 latino High Schoolers) by their then Program Coordinator Carrie Fields (who was later to become my girlfriend), and Sandra Forester (title)

The three of us had previously discussed doing a mural on a wall that had been having problems with gang grafitti, on the side of a local 'tienda' in the same alley way that my studio also inhabits.

However, knowing well what an undertaking a collaborative mural is, I thought it might be best to start with something smaller..

So, after a series of discussions with Ms Fields, we agreed on a series of art projects incorporating  the medium of collage, each building off the previous, finally culminating in a group project.

I figured, if this group could prove themselves capable of undertaking this large group project, then I would consider undertaking a mural with them.

The first of our projects was what I called the Lens Project.

This utilized a collection of coffee lids that had once been donated to me by Donna Bianco, while I was  teaching the Arts & Literature summer camp, at Our Neighborhood Pizzaria/School (yes!) (now the Bella Donna).

The idea was that each of these white card board lids, each with a smooth rounded lip, would be fitted with an image(cut from magazine xeroxs), creating sort of image-tiles, that the students could then arrange, and rearrange, exploring approaches to visual story telling...

To create the images, Carrie and I poured through our collections of National Geographics, looking for interesting imagery. These pages we xeroxed, and presented as a grand pile of imagery for the students to dig through, and select.

Once they had selected an image, the student would color it in with markers, and then cut it size, to fit on the surface of the coffee cup lids.

Then the real fun began!

We would get three students to pick one 'image-tile' each, so that we had three images to work with. 

Then, I would challenge the students to create stories from the sequence of image tiles.

THEN, we would rearrange the tiles, to create a new story! It was pretty wild!

This was to be the youth group's introduction to visual story telling using collage. Later, we would expand on these ideas in our own personal projects, and even a larger group project! Perhaps I will discuss these another time.

Towards the end of our time together, I discovered a way to combine all of these circular image tiles together, in with in the frame of a bicycle tire (a favorite prop of mine).

The result that I was going for was that of a compound eye (such as that of a dragon fly), or a lens, perhaps a magnifying glass, as the tiles created a gentle bulge when fit with in the black frame of the tire. I left it to the youth group to arrange them. Here is Carrie, holding the complex of tiles, with out the bicycle tire frame. 

Though Carrie has since moved on, this collaborative artwork still hangs in the office of Sylvio, the new Coordinator of the Hispanic Liaison Youth Group, a testament of all of work together.

Wire Sculpture Artist in Residency at the Carrboro ArtsCenter

Well, we survived Wire Camp, yet again! No one got their an eye poked out, thanks to our vigilance and practice of good safety.

As I had expected, the younger after school students were a little bit too spastic to very successful.

Not that many of them did not try (and a few of those succeeded!)

But we did have some glorious accomplishments from the older group!

One obstacle that I encountered, was that wire can be hard to see. I found that it was difficult for the students to see my wire while demonstrating techniques. And also, because the tables in the Arts Center's Jane Filer Painting Studio's are so (duely) covered with paint, it becomes difficult to see what you are doing, even 2 feet in front of you. To solve these problems, I elected to use some large electric wire, coated in red plastic, which I could hold up against a clean(ish) white wall, during my demonstrations. I also coated the draped the tables with butcher paper, which made a huge difference in reducing the visual clutter, which can at a height when working with wire (even with no paint splatters on your work surface).  

Unfortunately, the younger campers especially showed such an unquenchable thirst for tearing holes in this surface, that I had to wonder a) what is it in a child that abhors clean white surfaces?.. and b) perhaps a paper destroying workshop would be more successful..

These gals got into the electric wire!

Upcoming Artist In Residency at the Carrboro ArtsCenter!: WIRE FORMING

   Coming around the bend, during the first two weeks this February, I will be sharing my secret wire-forming techniques with some young after-school students over at the Carrboro ArtsCenter.

   This came about when I recently ran into my friend Shirlette Amons, who, when she's not busy being a total Rock Star, coordinates the after-school program there; as a different kind of Rock Star. Shirlette invited me to return to the ArtsCenter, to teach these techniques again, as she found them to be a unique and successful offering when I brought them to the ArtsCenter a few years ago (to compliment the garden-related activities she was arranging at the time). 

   There we had made the dragon flies that I have since developed into pretty attractive beings, and even sold at the Festival for the Eno. As a result of my work with these techniques in my craft and product development, I will be bringing some new materials and techniques to the class. 

   I like to share wire forming techniques, because it gives young artists the chance to experience the all-important line in a new way. While I LOVE to draw lines on paper, I realize that some students (like myself actually), are more tactile, and might gain from manipulating lines in full on three dimensional space. (incidentally, this is part of the excitement that I derive from working with tires, in my Reptire Designs, as most tires contain two hoops, or 'beads', of wire running along the edge of their rubberized fabric.

   I also feel that wire forming really helps engage students in 3 dimensional creating, and accesses a different part of their brain than 2D drawing. 

In fact I had a teacher in college that once confided that she always felt down on herself as a kid, because she was ashamed of her drawing skills, which she felt were poor. She said this inhibited her artistically. Sadly I can imagine this happening. But she discovered sculpture, all of a sudden, it didn't matter that she "couldn't draw" (a falacy, but we choose our own battles). So, she found a way around the block!

CHALLENGES

In some ways this is a tricky class to teach.

   Wire can be a little bit tricky to manage. When drawing with a pen or pencil, crayon etc., your line is sort of 'stored up' in the stylus. (Its really kind of magical when you think of it). The line is then 'drawn' out that mystical tube. (the poetry of little Henry with his purple crayon, unfurled jungles and cityscapes from it, comes to me mind).

   Wire does not afford this luxury. You must first decide how long of a line you want to use, clip it off, and then keep its ends from stabbing you, while you bend it into place.

   To gaurd against this last hazard, I have a simple ritual, which I grind into place at the beginning of each and every wire-forming class I teach. "BEND THE ENDS OF WIRES WITH PLIERS" is our mantra, and we do it to every piece of wire we use. 

   However, this precaution creates its own problems, as these small hooks like to grab onto sweaters, other wires etc. Maybe I will try taping them off with electric tape this time...

It is also can be difficult for kids this age to manipulate wire. They just don't have that much hand coordination. For this reason, I always start very slowly with this camp. The kids generally want very badly to do the project. So I am sure to make sure they have mastered the prerequisite skills, before moving onto the next.

   The final challenge to this camp is that it is right after school. My experience with afterschool students (and as one myself), is that after a long day or complying with rules, staying in your seat, etc, basically you just want to go spastic. And going spastic with wires and pliers is not good.

Hmm, I might have to get these kids some goggles..