Here are the final images from the Trellis Project.
The last trellis in place.
The last trellis illuminated.
The front yard with no artwork. But other projects are bubbling, though.
*A paraphrase of a line from ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.
After nearly four months on exhibit, the trellises are coming down. The first has been removed. Here are day and night photos of the three, then the two.
Today was the last day of the trellis project. I removed the final canvas, though the trellises are going to remain in the yard for a few days. We have some friends from California coming to visit and I thought I’d give them a chance to see the structures in place.
This has been an interesting experiment, not the least for all the positive response I’ve had. Many people have come by to see the installation and several times while I was in the yard moving the trellises from one location to the next, neighbors have stopped and chatted. One neighbor said that the trellises livened up the neighborhood and gave him something interesting to look at on his daily walks with his dog.
I had originally intended to auction the pieces off at the end of the project to benefit the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City (http://www.hsgkc.org) and Wayside Waifs (http://www.waysidewaifs.org), but I haven’t finished cleaning the canvas and so that will have to wait. One of these days, I’ll let you know about an on-line auction, with all the proceeds going to care for homeless animals, of which there are so many that need our help.
As something of a footnote, I’ve recently been recording observations about various things and posting them here, including a combined observation/image piece which is also going to be incorporated into a mix-media piece that I hope to finish in the next couple of weeks. If you haven’t checked the blog in a few weeks, you’ve missed them. They follow below…
Cheers
is it possible that Donald Trump
and Rod Blagojevich are really
the same person?
could there be
another toupee
at large as bad as that one
ready to pounce
on unsuspecting children?
or can there be
two personalities roaming around the universe
so abrasive or outrageous?
but I’m stating the obvious
like: people who prefer buffets
tend to buy a Thomas Kinkade more often
than a Picasso
you imagine you can walk right into his painting
and follow those secret hues to their logical conclusions
such a simple concept:
a band of ebony
on a moonless field
and yet no one had thought of it before
did he give up on testimony when
he gave up on gods?
what did he see
when he looked at the unmarked canvas?
that burst of light
must have come from somewhere
an easel holds the canvas
mostly green with a band of yellow
perhaps a landscape at dusk
sun glowing on the horizon
but look close:
unfinished, mocking me
for a year
each day I pass it and
say, today I’ll start again
but email must be checked
the dogs’ water bowl is empty
I wonder what the Weather Channel
is saying about the chance for rain?
later, as I walk by a brush
will be nowhere to be found
all out of that perfect shade of blue
and it’s too late to visit Utrecht
I spent part of Saturday cleaning the canvasses I have removed from the trellises. As I mentioned before, the cool and wet weather caused heavy mildew to form on them. I checked several websites to determine the best way to remove the mildew without damaging the art. First, about a week ago, I sprayed the canvas with Lysol to kill the mildew or any mold spores present and let them dry thoroughly. Next, I used a stiff brush to remove as much of the dried mildew as I could. I did this outside (it was a beautiful almost-fall day), wearing a respirator mask to be sure that I did not inhale any of the dust. The canvasses looked pretty good after that, but I decided to take an extra step that had gotten mixed reviews on the websites I looked at. I used a very diluted mixture of non-chlorine bleach (probably 20-1 bleach and water) to wash the canvasses. This was very effective in removing the rest of the mildew and cleaning the canvasses of the remaining dirt and dust that had accumulated in the weeks that they were outside.
There are four canvasses remaining on the three trellises. Next Saturday is another move and I’ll remove three of the four canvasses then, and clean them. One more move after that.
I am into the first week of the third month of this project. I intended from the beginning to remove the trellises at the end of September. When I moved them last week-end, I began the deconstruction process, removing a canvas from each. I removed another set of canvases today. Here are photos of the trellises as they are constituted.
Here are a few photos of what happens to painted canvas when it is subjected to wetter than normal/cooler than normal summer weather. Also, an addition of a spiderweb that fits just fine.
It has been a bit since I posted anything. That’s not to say that nothing has been happening with the trellises… just that I haven’t taken the time to sit down and write. No, I haven’t taken the time. And, I’ll admit that I’ve gotten sidetracked with adding music to my iTunes library, watching the health care town hall meetings, reading (finished “Girl in Hyacinth Blue” by Susan Vreeland, a collection of short stories about a fictional Vermeer painting; and “Skeleton Man” by Tony Hillerman, one of his novels about Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee), and contributing to my Facebook page.
When I switched from a Dell to a MacBook Pro, much of the music I had on the Dell wouldn’t transfer (I’m not running Windows on my MacBook and I haven’t taken the time to find programs that would do the transfer easily). Plus, the Dell was dying and getting it to boot up was always a gamble. So, I’ve just been adding music as I’ve been doing other things. For instance, this morning I’ve been working on getting some new photos ready to upload and I added several albums, mostly John Adams and Phillip Glass, and one Ravi Shankar. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that adding music from my old LPs was a snap on the Mac, using GarageBand and ITunes. Well, not entirely a snap. It took several attempts to work through the process, but so far I’ve been able to add some music that I can’t find on iTunes or Amazon, including a band called Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys from about 1968, the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Libby Titus, and Marc Jordan.
Well, since my last post, I’ve moved the trellises twice. It takes about an hour to unplug everything (two are lighted; I’m going to add lights to the third one this coming weekend when I make the third move), find the new coordinates, install the supports, clip the bindings, move the trellises, re-attach them to the supports and plug things back in. Removing the sod beneath the trellises for the flowers/bushes that will go in takes another hour or so. All in all, it’s not a bad Sunday morning exercise.
Here are photos of the locations that resulted from moves 2 and 3 and a couple of close-ups of individual canvases.
Let the waters come... 