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"Afterburner:" Extended and Augmented

5/26/2017

I'm happy to announce that my solo sculpture exhibit at Tapp's Arts Center has been extended through June 23, 2017. There will be a "re-opening" on June 1 at 6:00, hopefully without the severe weather that accompanied the first opening in May. Here is the event on Facebook if you're interested and in the area.

Since the semester ended (I'm on a 9-month contract with the University), I've had the luxury of taking a step back from the day-to-day grind of the academic world and spending more time in my garage. The results of that are that: (a) I'm in a better mood; and (b) I've finished several new pieces that will be added to the show. Some of the new stuff will be for sale and some will not. There are few pictures of some of the new pieces in my last blog post. Here are a few more:

"Diamond."

"The Last of the V8 Interceptors."

"Grace" being hoisted. I wanted to make sure I could use my crane to lift her 3' off the ground so we could get her into the bed of a pickup.

My short-term plan has been to "use down" my stock of material so that I have an excuse to finally visit the local scrap yard (there are several particular things I want that I'll probably never find on the curb). While all of my recent work has used up a lot of stuff, however, I keep accumulating. I'm at a point where what I'm making is significantly affected by what I'm hauling home on a day-to-day basis -- it's fun, but I'm afraid it isn't making much of a dent in the amount of stuff I have on hand. Grace and several other pieces still have to stay out of the weather until I decide what, if anything, I want to put on them to protect them, so it's getting pretty cozy in there. Someday, perhaps, I'll have a larger space and I'll fondly remember the time I spent sweating my ass off in a tiny garage trying to find a horizontal surface on which to set my beer on that wasn't covered in scrap metal or rat crap.

There are several days until I deliver the new pieces to Tapp's. I'm going to have some flexibility during that time. I may produce a few more things, or I may just sleep a lot. Maybe I'll manage to do both.

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The News from Andyland: I'm On Staycation

5/18/2017

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With the Spring 2017 semester in the books, I have developed an allergy to firing up my laptop. I apologize if you wrote me an email and I didn't answer.

Anyway, I've got all sorts of things worth writing about but very little desire to actually spend time writing about them. So I'll just post some highlight blurbs and photos.

38FA608: What's in the Basement?

I spent last week with several student volunteers (I named them Deep Team 11) excavating a unit in the "downstairs" portion of 38FA608 (the site of the Broad River Archaeological Field School). The goal of the excavation was to learn something about what lies beneath the deposits exposed in the deep profile. If you followed along with my weekly blog posts during field school, you know that we made two attempts to excavate units (Units 7 and 10) below the wall. The area near the wall is artificially low and the matrix is soft sand: water that collected during two heavy rains significantly damaged both units and I gave up trying to excavate there on a one-day-per-week schedule.

Deep Team 11 in action.

Our new unit (Unit 11) was a 2 x 1.5 m unit that articulated with the previously damaged unit. We had four straight days without rain and managed to get down about 80 cm below the existing surface. We hit an interesting sediment change beneath the lamellae, getting into a zone with more clay and very distinct grey/orange mottles that (I presume) were likely associated with seasonally-shifting wet/dry conditions. Right at that transition, we encountered a scatter of large rocks and several pieces of angular quartz in a relatively thin horizontal zone. On first look in the field, none of these items appeared to be unequivocally modified by humans, but I have yet to think of a better explanation for how they got there. We'll see once we get everything washed up. I'm considering pulling the trigger to date a piece of charcoal from the lowest sediment zone, which would at least help nail down the early end of the top 3 m of deposits in the levee.

Some of the rocks exposed in level 7 of Unit 11. Above and below this relatively constrained zone that contained large rocks and small pieces of angular quartz, the sediments were largely devoid of any material.

The north wall profile of Unit 11. The rocks/quartz zone was at the interface of the brown sand and the redder sediment beneath (at about the depth of the "38 FA 608" text on the photoboard).

R.I.P., Chris Cornell

I don't usually get too emotional about celebrities passing away, but this morning's announcement of the death of Chris Cornell was like getting punched in the gut. To me, he was a rare bird with an amazing combination of technical ability, vision, creativity, ferocity, and nuance. Badmotorfinger (1991) is on the short list of albums that really changed how I felt about music and art: it was on heavy rotation for many years of my life. My friend and former bandmate Nadine commented on Facebook this morning that Cornell was "one of my best teachers." I would echo that. He went for it, all the time. He pushed, he explored. Sometimes you "miss" when you're out on the edge, but that's what happens when you're out on the edge. And being out there is part of being an artist. He was only 52 and had tornadoes of good music left in him. I've been playing his music all morning with a lump in my throat.

Like Water, Sculptures Fill Empty Space

My wife has been out of town this week, so I've been holding down the home front on my own. I've used almost every scrap of time in the 4-5 between when I get the kids to school in the morning and when I have to switch gears to pick them back up again to work in my garage. I've been indulging myself, and I've been making a lot of stuff. I'd rather spend the time making things then writing about them, so here are a few pictures of what I've been working on.

"Grace" (right) is done, "Beauty" (left) remains a collection of parts.

Close-up of Grace's head. It ended up being closest to Titanoceratops, for what that's worth.

I made a koala.

"Bullet."

Yesterday I started on a vulture. I'm going to work on it today as soon as I get done with this blog post.

I'll Drink to That

Like much of the free world, I breathed a sigh of relief at the news that Robert Mueller had been appointed Special Counsel to head the Russia/Trump investigation. My understanding is that things will probably go dark for a while as he takes over and does his job. I had a choice of two bottles of wine to open last night. Guess which one I picked.

Brood VI . . . Tip of the Spear

Yesterday as I was working outside I heard my first cicada of the season. This is supposed to be an emergence year for Brood VI of the 17-year cicada. I don't really know what to expect other than it could be deafening. The regular annual cicadas were louder than crap our last two summers here. I'll keep you posted.

Century Plant About to Bloom

In other local wildlife news, there is a century plant a few blocks from my house that is about to bloom. The kids and I have been watching it for weeks as it sent its giant, asparagus-like shoot into the sky. I can report that there are lots of buds up there. I've never seen one of these things blooming in person before. I'll take a picture when the blessed event occurs. Hopefully no-one will run the thing over before then.

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The "Afterburner" Opening Went Well (I Think)

5/5/2017

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So . . . that was fun!

My show at Tapp's Arts Center opened last night during a heavy rain. Being as this is my first show and this was my first time being downtown on First Thursday, I have no points of comparison in terms of the number of people who walked through the door. I'm told it was a low turnout in general but a good turnout for a rainy night.

I talked to a lot of interesting people (several of whom I had "met" online but never spoken with in person) and two of the sculptures sold (the heron and the cockfight are spoken for; the triceratops head, tyrannosaurus, rabbit, pachycephalosaurus, and stegosaurus are still available). I stayed up a few hours too late and had one glass of wine too many, but your first art show only happens once, so I give myself a pass.

I'm kicking myself a bit because I took very few photos during the show. It would be nice to have some images of people looking at stuff, and a picture or two with me in it. If you took any good pictures and you'd like to share them, please send me an email at andy.white.zpm@gmail.com.

Two "preview" pieces came out on Wednesday if you're interested. This one by August Krickel ran in the Free Times. This one by Brad Dountz appeared in Jasper Project blog.

Here are a few photos showing how Tapp's set things up. I thought it worked very nicely, and I appreciate all the hard work that Caitlin Bright, Shigeharu Kobayashi, and others put into the effort. Thank you!

The view as you come into the exhibit from outside. This photo was taken while Caitlin and Shiggy were finishing getting things set up on Thursday afternoon.

I found this artist's rendition of the design for the show. I completely identify with this kind of planning.

Caitlin and Shiggy hard at work.

Shiggy placing labels.

Cait Maloney (http://caitmaloney.com/) enjoys a close encounter with the tyrannosaur.

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"Afterburner:" May the Fourth (Be With You?)

5/2/2017

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The opening of my show "Afterburner" is this coming Thursday evening at Tapp's Arts Center. The opening is timed to coincide with First Thursday, a monthly confluence of stuff that happens on Main Street in Columbia. I've never had an art show, and I've never been to First Thursday, so I really have no idea what to expect. I think there will be wine involved, for which I will be grateful.

The Tapp's crew and I moved the big sculptures from my back yard early last week in two pickup truck loads. I took the smaller stuff myself later on. It's strange to have an empty yard and and empty house.

The Tyrannosaurus arrives at Tapp's. I braced it for the trip using lumber from a deteriorating playset.

It's not a load of junk -- it's art!

Getting the roosters ready to move.

The Tyrannosaurs wouldn't fit through the door of the storage area. Pay no attention to the dinosaur under the sheet.

I'll be spending part of my morning at Tapp's putting things back together and helping to get things in place.

I think moving all of these things away from home for a bit has been good for me. I'm putting price tags on about half of the pieces, with the other half not for sale. It will be hard for me to let go of any of them, but I know that there is always something new coming. During an interview with Jasper Magazine yesterday, I was asked which piece was my favorite. I realized that it's the one I'm currently working on. As long as that stays true I'll be fine.

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"Afterburner:" Extended and Augmented

The News from Andyland: I'm On Staycation

The "Afterburner" Opening Went Well (I Think)

"Afterburner:" May the Fourth (Be With You?)

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