Looking Ahead

Today is August 1 and a very good day for taking stock. I'm in a post meltdown state, which means I am back in the zone. The month of August stretches ahead, each of its thirty days as long as a month. Artists are at work and Modelle and I are making the exhibition space ready. At this point, it is taking a lot of coordination and money. Modelle is helping with the coordination and I am still raising money. Another grant application will be submitted toward the end of next week. I have an appointment on Tuesday afternoon with yet another potential underwriter and I still need to round up a couple of stragglers so that their names can appear on the postcard invite.
What I realized when I talked through my latest application verbiage and budget with a friend is that Second Seating is a production. I've always called it an installation, but now that Irma's is not the 'finished space' we'd anticipated eight months ago, a 'production' is required to make the most of that metal building. In other words, it needs to be transformed.
An installation is a setting into which we enter and move about. An installation requires place making, ambiance and lighting. Those items require money and sound like a production to me. So I'm on it during these days in August. And in between the production moments, I'll be making art and collaborating with the other participating artists so we deliver a coherent mass of work. It'll be quite a trip.
I've been drawing on glassware again and baking it in the oven. These beveled glass strips are from a salvaged chandelier.
Gonzo247 is spraying the structure on which they hang Chinese red. I've written and drawn on all twenty of the strips of glass. I'll reassemble and see if it sings, or not. If it doesn't, I'll add more color and more stuff. My kitchen table is covered with dishes that still need to be drawn and written on. I am hoping that Mercedes will work with me on these so we have a true bilingual wall of plates. I did bake a dozen with phrases in Spanish, but more is better.
Found three more of those red glass compotes at Value Village last Thursday. Scooped them up to go with the two from at The Guild Shop that I bought months ago.
I'll add metallic glass paint to the three new compotes and bake them. I am wondering just what I will put in these vintage vessels. What sort of fruit? Or should they hold vegetables? What kind? Or should they be piled with objects? What objects? Christmas tree balls? Rocks, stones, shells? Should each compote hold something different? Yet each related to the others? So many options, nuances, relationships. This is the kind of stuff that filters through my head all day long and I love it. There is always something interesting to think about.
So, this morning I've had steel cut oats with yogurt and fresh sliced peaches for breakfast, am contemplating a cup of black breakfast tea and then I will head to the studio to make a wide ruffle for the base of this fabric covered chandelier. It needs to be finished this weekend and carted off to hang in the Harrisburg studio with those chandeliers made with filigreed Clorox bottles, Houston Dynamo balls and Valero oil pipe fittings.
I think another good job for this weekend will be to begin the making of dozens of hang tags that will hold text and bits of images. Text draws folks in emotionally, offers additional layers of meaning. Text can make folks sad or make them laugh. Random phrases, words that conjure up feelings. I love text.
I love Second Seating. I thank heaven that Second Seating appeared in my mind and that I can see this vision of what can be. Today, I am thanking heaven that the project needs a lot of work and attention because it's fun to do this work so others can see this panorama of chandeliers and dinner table too. I love the work. Most of the time. This morning.