The last few days have been an art school experience worth mentioning. Last week some time, we got an assignment in screen-printing to print a repeat of our own design, covering an eight-yard piece of fabric. We would do this in self-chosen groups of three in an allotted period of time, to give other groups time to use the tables (we have two eight-yard long printing tables with four groups that need to print). Sarah, Susan and I formed a group. It took us several days to settle on and create our design. At the beginning of our last day, we hadn't even shot our screens yet. Susan and I met at 10am on Wednesday to start the process. Sarah would arrive later in the day after her class. It was a long process with many mishaps. We had to shoot some of the screens several times before they were correct. The building closes at 2 am. A security guard comes by to kick out all of the undergraduates while the graduates are allowed to stay. When the guard came by, Sarah came up with a beautiful line "All three of us are graduates." And damn if it didn't work. I guess he wasn't in the checking mood or maybe we just don't seem like troublemakers but we were allowed to stay. We were in it for the long haul. At 8:30am our second screen's emulsion was in the process of drying. We decided it was time to go down to the sentient being and have breakfast. We got to tell the server that we hadn't gone to bed when she asked what we were doing around there so early. We got the most amazing egg and cheese bagels and sat down to talk and take a rest for a while. By the time we got back, our professor had already shown up for her early class. We discussed our project with her and she decided to let us drop down to a two-color registration from the assigned three colors. The other group had only shot there screens and quit early the night before with out printing at all. That made us look better. Ana appreciated our dedication to stay there all night and was very encouraging of us going home and going to bed. By the time we left, I had put in nearly 23 hours of work in a 29-hour period. Sarah and Susan had very similar numbers. We had all at least been there for the last 18 hours. It was a wonderful time. Sarah and Susan are wonderful people to have as group members. No one really got mad at anyone else. We all kept our humor through out the night. We all made mistakes. We all felt like we had accomplished something when we left. Seeing a pattern that you hand printed spread over eight yards is something to look at. We all went home and got some sleep. I went back much later the next day to un-pin everything. I rolled up our cloth and took it home. Critique will come on Thursday.

On Friday I finally woke up about 9:30 am after sleeping off that last experience. I sat around a while, trying to let my body adjust to moving again. I went to the chick-fil-a in front of home depot to get down to the detailed design of my hula piece. This stage is where I take the drawings and turn them from just proportions into real measurements. I spent about $120 on materials. I bought some nifty straps that ratchet to get tighter so I no longer have to use the stupid twine home depot will give me for free to tie things to my car. I then took it all to boundary to use their wood shop. I've gone so long with out using the wood shop. I've built very large things with nothing but a jig saw, a drill and a circular saw. At the shop, I did things that would have taken me two hours previously in less that a half an hour. I was drooling, I was so happy. It gave me the same feeling that I could get from the best meal I've ever had. It was just too easy. I got all of my cuts done for all of the wood I had bought. I have a chance that I could assemble it all in one day tomorrow. That would be incredible.

So this evening I met up with Michelle and Adam to go to some galleries. First we went to "Deconstructing Video" at the red gallery. It had a good showing of video art including a work by Nam Jun Paik (a second). This exhibition seemed unusual for SCAD. I enjoyed it a lot. I think they hired a curator just for "new media" to bring shows like this to Savannah. The gallery had several flat screens running digital videos and had some digitally projected onto a white wall. We then went to Starland and saw my friend Brain's show "Surfacing". He had at least 13 pieces in a vacant apartment. His work is very process oriented. He starts off with some sort of form, like a sphere or a column. He then starts putting layers on it. He uses too many materials to remember, such as latex, wax, concrete, glue, dye, pulp, body filler, paint, hair, rope, resin, and silicon. He takes a lot of time making them. He may have four or five going at one time. Each layer needs time to dry before he can start to think about the next layer. These layers are suggestive of his depth of concept. He draws from personal experiences to make the intangible tangible. The experiences are not easily accessible directly in his work for me. The tile and the object are all you get. The forms however are very suggestive. I think that's where his strength lies. He puts so much into his work that you cant help but get some story out of it even if it's not the same one he was thinking of when he made it.

posted by cliff

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