Addition Nearly Complete and Molds for Meg

I've spent most of my time, during these last few weeks of record breaking temperatures,(in the air conditioning) making progress on the studio addition.

The last picture that I showed, was when they sprayed in the insulation. This is a picture shortly after that, as I had started hanging drywall.

This picture was taken today. The drywall is all hung, finished, and painted. The floor was laid and the trim put up. I'll definitely feel like celebrating when this project is finished. More than one friend has expressed an interest in spilling beer on my new floor.

This stain glass window has been in storage for 23 years, ever since I traded a fellow exhibitor for it at a St. James art fair. Finally, it has a home, in the bathroom of the new addition.

This week, we've been putting molds on 2 of Meg's sculptures that will be exhibited in a monument show at Kaviar Gallery (the opening is next Friday night). After brushing on 2 layers of Polygel 40, we make the part lines for the mold. Steve McMillen is cutting and taping plastic bubble shims that we buy from Sculpture Depot of Loveland, Colorado.

We use pins to hold the shims in place temporarily.

We mix Polyfill into a batch of Polygel 40 until it has the consistency of cake icing. We cut a corner of a plastic bag and squeeze a bead of the mix to hold the shims permanently in place. I smooth the bead out with a plastic knife.

While we're in the mood of mixing polyfill into Polygel 40, we knife the mix into major undercuts, like under the angel's left elbow. This will allow the mother mold to pull free, later on.

Then, we apply more coats of rubber until everything has about 6 coats.

The next day, we applied a plaster mother mold.

We haven't been going outdoors much, with heat indexes above 100 degrees. But, Meg snapped this shot of a barge that passed close, when we went out beside the Ohio River.

Another foray out, was a visit to Tom Tobin's cabin on Rough River Lake. This is the view from the cabin. He has this property up for sale, so contact him if this appeals to you.

...and closing this post with one of Meg's macro-explorations. These beautiful bubbles are ....in...boiling chicken fat. Leave it to Meg to find the Awesome in the Mundane. (all photos on this post copyright Meg White)

Swan finds home, and Meg's Terre Haute Dedication

Tuesday, we delivered my Brazilian Marble Swan to the Home of Tom and Trish Henrion.

Something old - something new. Behind their home, there is an eclectic collection of contemporary art in the sculpture garden that is in front of a log cabin that dates back to 1830.

Inside the log cabin, are great examples of well-crafted furnishings, including two Walnut tables made by Tom Henrion, himself, from wood that came off his property.

The spiral staircase is too cool!

This is Tom. He's showing us a bench, on the back porch, that he made from rustic pieces of wood that he gathered near his creek.

The Swan is temporarily residing on a patio table. After a base is procured, it will take its place in the sculpture garden.

Thursday, we made the four hour drive to Terre haute for Meg's sculpture dedication at the Hux Cancer Center.

Meg gave her speech, along with several other dignitaries.

The sculpture was unveiled.

At the end of the night we enjoyed some "Spoils of War" (monogramed cupcakes) in the complimentary hotel room provided by Artspaces, the directing agency for the project. We had an excellent dinner with a great group of people at an Indian restaurant after the unveiling. Terre Haute has good memories for us.

Before we left town the next morning, we checked out the new Max Erhmann sculpture. This is one of the several bronze plaques, set into the brick pavers, that commemorate some of the poet's words.

Mammoth Cave National Park

Wednesday, June 15 was my 50th birthday. I had decided to spend it at Mammoth Cave National Park. Meg had never been, and I'd only been once, when I was 10 to 12 years old.

We chose the 4 mile, 4-1/2 hour long Grand Avenue tour. It started at a man made entrance that was tunneled in the 1930's.

Our ranger guide showed us how it looked when people used to tour the cave with oil lamps. Not much to see.

There were formations of Gypsum on the walls for the first mile or so.

About a third of the way, we made a stop in the Snowball Dining Room.

Then, it was on to a section that had its ups and downs.

We made our way through a maze of stone passageways.

Watch your head there, Birthday Boy!

Meg took over 250 pictures, and as a result, we fell behind the rest of the group. That is my only criticism...we felt like we were being rushed. It was our day off, and we wanted to enjoy a more leisurely pace.

Toward the end of the 4 miles is Frozen Niagra.

At the bottom of some stairs is the Drapery Room.

The last part of the tour is where all the formations are to be found.

...and more formations...

As if 4 miles wasn't enough, we hiked down from the visitor center to see the historic entrance.

The last stop of the day was Kroger's, so that I could get some Guinness Beer. When I came out, there was this rainbow. A great sign toward the end of my 50th birthday. There's no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but there is a glass of amber...Happy Birthday to me! (all photos copyright Meg White)

Meg's Terre Haute Installation

It was finally time to install Meg's bronze sculpture "Light of Hope and Healing" for the Hux Cancer Center in Terre Haute, Indiana.

We rented a Penske box truck with a lift gate on Friday, loaded everything up and made the 4 hour drive to Terre Haute. On Saturday morning, we were joined by Mike, Tom and Dave of Sycamore Engineering, who had agreed to help us with the installation. We've been lucky to have great people to work with, on tough installations. Some of the top experiences that come to my mind are the crew at Art Castings of Colorado or the Cajun crew that helped at the LSU installation. But, these guys were incredible. You can't beat real life experience - they were a blessing!

We moved the black granite base into the site and set it up on boxes so that I could eventually crawl underneath to fasten the bronze sculpture.

Next, we brought in the bronze sculpture and fed the electrical wires into the base.

We used a Genie material lift (from Arts Equipment Rental on English Station Rd. in Louisville, KY) to raise the bronze sculpture onto the base. To the right, in the light green shirt, is Mary Kramer of Art Spaces, Inc. She was Meg's art director for this project.

After it was attached with threaded pins and nuts with washers, we lowered it onto the legs of the lift and rolled it into position. Meg was then able to visualize the complete sculpture and see how it related to the site.

Once the final position was determined, we marked the placement, rolled the piece out of the way, and marked the mounting holes with the template that Art Castings had provided.

The guys from Sycamore Engineering drilled the holes for the electric and the 4 mounting holes. When I say that they drilled holes, that is the extremely abridged version. In reality, that was a task. The floor is Terrazo over concrete over a steel 'pan'.

We hoisted the sculpture off the lift, set it on boards over the holes, and lifted the legs of the material lift for the final setting.

...and...giving you the short version, and sparing you the agonizing details....the pins were added under the sculpture base, and it was lowered into place.

While the Sycamore crew made the final attachments of the pins under the floor, I attached the light fixture, added a light bulb and set the globe over the spring clip of the light fixture.

When the electric leads were wired up, the power was turned on. This is the final sculpture in its new home.

This is a detail of the bronze portion of the sculpture. It was really great to see it all come together successfully at the site. Awesome job, Meg! (all photos copyright Meg White)

Estes Park & Rocky Mountain National Park

This posting will show some of the pictures from our trip to Colorado last week, to get Meg's bronze sculpture from the foundry in Loveland.

Colorado is the land of extremes. The eastern portion is very flat, featureless and sparsely populated.

(...not the kind of place that you want to hear a fuel alarm for a big diesel truck...)

A few miles west of Loveland is the road that twists up Big Thompson canyon toward Estes Park (Meg's favorite place on Earth).

Estes Park is a tiny little town that is nestled in a mountain glade. A few miles out of town is Rocky Mountain National Park.

It's difficult to catch the sense of scale and magnitude of the mountains with a 2 dimensional picture.

Soon, we saw our first Elk.

Then, we saw many, many more Elk.

There are coyotes, bears, moose and many more types of animals in the park. This Magpie was very curious about us, and came in quite close.

We took Trail Ridge road up to about 12,000 feet in elevation. The top portion of the road was still impassable in the last week of May because of snow drifts.

...back in Loveland...too bad that we didn't know about these guys last month when we were dealing with Meg's bears.
(all photos copyright Meg White)