watercolor drawings in Soft Tissue

Here are some samples of the drawings in the show, in case you visit here for all-in-one service!

"Crab," 11"X15", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Squid," 11"X15", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Clam ii,"13"X13", watercolor and ink on paper.

"Autonomic nerve system," 55"x22", watercolor on paper

"Choroid coat of eyeball," 30"x30", watercolor on paper

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 5

May 14, 2010

Last day in Fort Wayne. I still have little touch up I want to accomplish today.

Docent tour guide came in at 10am to hear the artist talk. They had shown much appreciation of me being here and interests in the works themselves. Answered lots of questions, had a good time.

Finished working on the sculpture labels. Signage lady came and put up the title. It is huge... talking about ego boosting.

This piece is titled "Fort Wayne." I shipped the vessel here empty and plan on looking for local inspiration to fill it. Original idea as of Tuesday was to take a photo of everyone working with me and create a miniature scene inside. But while walking along the river Wednesday evening, I found tons of these fallen Maple seedpods. They have wings and fly like badminton. First I thought they were worms:) So here they are, because southern Californians like us don't have these falling from our maple trees.

My favorite piece "What if I fall?" air dry porcelain clay in artist designed glass vessel. John Burchetta in NC hand blown these pieces according to my maquettes. This one is modeled after pitfall traps, a kind of carnivorous plant; around the holes engraved: "what if i fall?" "what if no one catches me?" "what if i fail?" "when will the parachute open?" Now you know what I was thinking of when I work on shows...haha

this piece is a keeper, rather decorative, titled "Black Noise." Black glue on container with red beads strand inside. Jesse and I both love it so much that this will be the Only piece of mine hung in our home. I very seldom hang my own works in my living/working space because I am moving forward all the time, finished works hinder me. 

 

5pm, finished some little vine silhouette design at the bottom of the wall to interact with sculpture shadow. Sarah is walking us out of the door while Joe is still finishing up the last few sculpture labels. We have become friends with these diligent workers and lovely people, will miss them sooo much when we leave.

The show looks great. Wish I can stay another week to play and attend the big opening of mine, Cara and Smithsonian's show. But there are two more deadline to meet, got to get back to studio. Jesse has to go back to work, too.

 

Joe caught up on us, perfect opportunity to take a picture. Sun broke out to warm us up! Our smiles only tell half the quality of good time I had working with these nice, awesome people~

Can't wait to go back in August when we deinstall the show.

Special thanks to Durfee Foundation for granting me ARC grant so I can fly to Fort Wayne, stay a week, install the show and best of all, work with cool people. And more thanks to Sarah Aubrey (curator at FWMoA) and Charles A. Shepard III (executive director of FWMoA), who believe in me and gave me a show. A catalougue will be published soon for this exhibition, stay on the mailing list so I can tell you about it!

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 3-4

May 12, 2010

Spent all day hanging glass vessels. Jesse on the condor while I on the floor directing where they go. He ties monofilaments one by one onto hardware cloth. No time for pictures today.

May 13, 2010

Stomach protests this morning from too much outside food and tosses out all last night's dinner. I'm weak in the morning, plan on fasting all day. By 2pm, I'm already feeling better. A few pieces left to hang. Glad Jesse is here to help. I must have done lots of good deeds to deserve such a husband!

Twinkle twinkle glass vessels! Rush out of home and forgot to grab the camera battery charger... duh.

My stretchy rubber octopus resting in the globe, telling a poem I wrote if you approaches it.

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 2

May 11, 2010
Put on my ski suits, headed out to work. It might pour rain today.

Joe is measuring the space for a wood bar to go up on the wall. With 2 eye hook crews in it, we can stretch the steel cables tight and straight enough to hold the hanging sculptures. I'm still feeling fortunate that he has a good brain so I can remain cloudy.

This condor scissor lift became our best (machinery) friends and irreplaceable tool in the next 3 days. Meanwhile, I and Jesse cut up the hardware cloth squares to accommodate the hanging clusters of glass vessels. 

Joe knows of a way to split airplane cables and reweave them in so we can avoid using the costly ferrules to make a loop. Here Jesse is learning the eye splice and having fun. I lay on the chair and watch them making "Molly Hogan" come true. Conserve energy so I can perform when my time comes!

Curator Sarah and technical director Brian working on Cara Lee Wade's show next door. I took some spying pictures of them working together. Before I know it, all the photographs were hung. Brian is a speedy installer with 23 years of experience. I later learned that he has a military museum of his own. Cool~

Labels for the drawings came in. Ignorant me have never seen professional labels like these before, not paper nor mounted on foam core, they are hefty solid card stock themselves. I'm fascinated by the way museums make labels and how much emphasis they put on the artist. I guess when the price tag is let go, true value shows through. The question of who makes art is interesting. Some consider artists make the art, some consider the market price makes the art.

Historical moment came, Joe and Jesse each hold one steel cable, straightening the pre-woven-in hardware cloth. They pull the cables as tight as they can so the eye splits can go on to the eye hook screws (which was open at this point). Final steps is to close and twist the eye hook screws in order to tighten the cables even more. At least this is how I remembered it. Of course there are lots of details in between that my leaky brain forgoes... I had to focus on where which sculpture goes, so no distraction to what guys are doing up there:)

   

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 1

May 9, 2010

Arrived at Fort Wayne, Indiana at 9:30pm, from Los Angeles.

May 10, 2010

10:30am: Short walk to Fort Wayne Museum of Art, weather is cool and breezy. We were greeted by the registrar Leah Reeder at the museum.

Met curatorial assistant, Joe Rohrer, who had finished painting the walls in space I'll be in. Mr. Joe will be helping us get things done in the following week. He is a brilliant artist and thinker himself. If I were a wealthy artist, he will be instantly hired with good pay to be my studio director, not studio assistant, "Studio Director" :-)
I love the color curator Sarah Aubrey chose for me. Originally I had wanted it all black, but this dark charcoal works out better. Glad I did not end up with black:)

In the mean time, I realized that the space is taller than I imagined. It is huge and my brain went blank.

 Leah took us to bring the works out from vault. Drawings arrived 10 days ago, sculptures arrived last Wednesday. It is unrealistic to see them here, 2,160 miles away. Two weeks ago, some of them were still laying around in the studio like daily objects, now they are all wrapped up nicely in cozy boxes guarded by security alarms.

My curator Sarah came in, we talked about the logistics of hanging glass sculptures. Joe came up with the idea of using airplane cables instead of I and Jesse's old "hardware cloth stretched over wood frames." It will look so much more professional. "We are in a Museum," I have to constantly remind myself. What's better is that Joe will make the structure and all we need to do is to hang the pieces. Oh, I am so lucky! 

While Joe went to get the materials needed, I continue unpacking the works and start sorting the clusters. Jesse went on to tour the permanent collection exhibitions in the museum.