After months of collecting, cutting and planning for this bottle window project, I’m am thrilled to announce …
IT. IS. DONE.
We had over 150 bottle bricks made, laid out in the design plan, set up the scaffolding, masked off the walls, hired our building contractor to help us mix the mortar properly and got to work. It was a learning curve for all of us to install the first window, but by the second, we were a machine. I love the results and how the light changes in them throughout the day. I will definitely be building other things on the property with bottle walls again, but for now, it’s time to take a break from bottles and move onto other creative projects in the studio!
Big thank yous to everyone who keep drinking and collecting bottles for me – I couldn’t have done it without you! Cheers!
It is easy to forget how far you’ve come with a project when you know there’s still so many more things that need to be done and even more things that you want to be done. I recently was scrolling through older photos of our studio build. I realized that it was only six months ago that we were still under construction, with crews showing up daily and the generator rumble and concrete mixer grinding were the soundtrack to our day. And now, we’re working on the details.
Anyways, if you needed a reminder (because I definitely did!) of how much progress you’re making on a project, take a minute to flashback. It’s amazing how much happens in just a few months with just a little push forward each day.
A million years ago, I was making a lot of insect inspired works, like this bee inspired one which bounced when you touched the metal rods. We had just moved into the redwood forest and I think I was inspired by some of the critters that made their way into our home. I made small abstract critters using a combination of clay, copper, steel and wire mesh and loved getting the heavy clay bodies to stand on tiny wire legs. (which is not dissimilar to my current medusa sculptures!)
I also remember making a small installation of abstracted bugs with wire wings that were installed to look like a small swarm in flight. I think there was maybe a dozen of them and I remember wanting to make hundreds of them but for some reason didn’t. I haven’t thought about that piece in forever and I couldn’t even find any documentation of it.
Now, living in the desert, I’m surrounded by the weirdest critters, like stick bugs, trap-door spiders and praying mantis. Just the other day, a wild bee hive on our property swarmed and I watched it throughout the day as they left the hive in controlled chaos, clustered on a nearby tree for a few hours and then in perfect timing they all took off to their new home.
Even though I hadn’t thought about that little installation in years, the bee swarm made me realize that it was time to make that installation of hundreds a reality. I’m not sure of the details, but I’m excited to make some abstract bugs that will swarm somewhere on the property. Inspiration comes from all kinds of places but somehow insects always hold a place in my heart!
We are making more and more progress on the studio each day, and right now, I’ve got extra help. Nate has been working on getting the plumbing system completely online including getting the mini-kitchen installed. And my parents came into town to visit. They are helping install the new track lighting, troubleshoot the ceiling fan and help organize things. So it’s all hands on deck right now to get all the details sorted.
Don’t worry, we are making sure they get some down time on the beach, eat good food and go on adventures too.
I get asked a lot, what are you working on in the studio? And right now, it’s not really on new work, those ideas are always there and brewing, so don’t worry, I will circle back to them soon enough. But instead, I’ve been making parts for my studio. I’m planning on gates for the entrances to our property that will have metal framed rectangular structure to them, but will incorporate pieces from my Bone Series into the open panels of the metal structure. It will look similar to the way I filled this arbor space at a past exhibit, but the gates will be broken up into smaller framed sections and it will also be slightly denser with wire cables and ceramic elements to be functional in keeping all the critters on the appropriate sides of the fence. I’ve been working on the parts for the gates, which turns out to be a lot of square footage of area to cover, so a lot of parts!
I also wanted to make custom sconces for the outdoor lights of the studio, I have three made that are in the traditional shape of Mexican clay sconce lights, but designed with my aesthetic of hole pattern carvings, these will hang on the long stretch of the patio area. I plan on making two more that will be larger circular versions for the front walls.
Right now, I’m filling up the shelves with all of these raw clay parts since my kilns can’t run on the solar system since they draw WAY too much power. Instead, they will need to be hooked up to a large generator to run properly and we are still researching the right generator for the job. But soon enough, we will have the kilns running, all the work fired up, and I’ll get these custom works installed.
While we are definitely working hard on projects to get the studio and land functional and beautiful, we are still taking time to enjoy where we are.
I ~almost~ have enough bottles to complete both bottle wall windows in the studio and I think they’re going to look great! I love the variety of shapes and shades of green in all the bottles. Each brick is made with two bottles that have been cut and taped together to make a bottle brick, so this is approximately 300 bottles that I’ve collected, cut and cleaned to make these windows. Mortaring them into place will be a whole other part of this project, but very fun to see it start to come together. Big thank you’s to all my friends who have been doing their part slugging back the contents and saving the bottles for me!
In other studio news, Nate is working away at getting our plumbing online. We needed to get a pump, pressure tank and all the piping components to get everything set up to work with our solar system and septic system. Getting all the components is a process in itself. While we have a plethora of local hardware stores, there’s no guarantee that they will have all the parts you need in the right size and quantity that you need, plus we of course need to ask for all these parts in Spanish, because most products are behind the counter here not in aisles where you can browse for what you want, so that adds another level to the search for parts. And our property is about 20 minutes from the nearest store, so missing something off your list can take a few hours out of your workday. The lesson here is to slow down, be patient and eventually your project will come together.
The studio is designed to double as a guest space as needed, so we included a full shower in our bathroom set up. We will be adding a solar water heater into the system soon too. I still haven’t quite figured out how I want to design the sink/counter area, so that’s still on hold, but we’re slowly collecting the rugs, curtains, hooks and of course the ART to design out the space. I never thought I’d post a photo of my bathroom on my blog, and it currently doesn’t look like much, but when you go through this much work just to get indoor plumbing on an off the grid system, you’ve got to show off the milestones!
After taking months to research solar systems and different providers in our area, we finally chose a winner and we stoked to have sunshine powering the studio now! The funny thing is that we don’t really have a lot to power up yet, so until I install the new track lights and we get a water pump and refrigerator ordered, our sunshine will just be charging our devices and lighting up these little temporary lightbulbs – even still it’s pretty exciting! Next up is a functioning plumbing system…stay tuned.
In other sun related news, we are in a spot for about 95% coverage of sun for the eclipse the other day, so we put on our welding helmets/goggles and sat down to watch the show. Always an impressive phenomenon to watch the universe do it’s thing. It amazed us that even with that much coverage it didn’t get particularly dark, it did get noticeably colder but I guess we’ll have to try to catch the 100% path next time to experience the difference.
I am very thrilled to announce that I am finally be done painting the outside of the studio and I’m loving the way it looks! It took me a bit longer to do than expected since I got side tracked making my big piece for the show, the wind was very uncooperative in the past few weeks, and I also had a color matching snafu at the paint store when I went back to pick up a little more paint but that got sorted and I was underway again to finish the project. A few touch ups and clean up spots but other than that I’m done – phew!
I cut another batch of bottles up for my bottle window project. Loving all these green shades in the sunlight. I think I have enough bottles for one window to be completed, so now I’ve only got about 100 more bottles to go!
I’ve also just scheduled our solar to be installed next week – so very, very soon we are going to be powered up at the studio, which will be game changing! Lots more projects to check off the list…. poco a poco!
Excited to setup my ephemeral site specific piece on the roof of this gorgeous structure in the middle of the desert! Join us for an afternoon of art and mezcal sipping followed by panoramic views of sun set on the ocean.
When given the opportunity to create a piece for the event ABC Art Baja 24 with the Cascabel Mountain Collective, I knew that I couldn’t create a fired work. There just wasn’t the time or resources but I embraced the idea of making an ephemeral piece for the the green roof of the main house designed by Taller de Terreno Arquitectura. The house is the vision of Kevin Wickham and is a cast in place concrete structure of angles and grandeur all the while it is quietly hidden in the desert landscape. The sculpture is responding to the house’s shapes and angles while also responding to the desert landscape in which is resides.
I created a small model in clay of my sculptural form and then scaled it up in cardboard. Using the cardboard model as a template, I created large scale panels in clay that dried enough to hold their form and be attached together. Getting the clay dry enough to hold its shape and still wet enough to be modified while taking the desert climate into the equation makes for a tricky balancing act. While building this piece, I realized that it is probably the largest single item I’ve made. And the reason I’ve never attempted to make something this big is that it simply wouldn’t have fit in my kiln, so it’s kind of a why bother. But on the flip side, it’s liberating to make a piece that will be ephemeral and kiln size isn’t an issue and just to challenge my skills to see if I can actually do it. And I did.
modelcardboard mockup + modelin progressin progressfinal form
We still need to transport it from my studio, up the hill, and onto the roof. And I need to attach the rods that will move in the wind. And we will see how it degrades with wind and moisture, so there is still a lot of uncertainty but that is also what I love most about this process.
