Mud

Hello and welcome.  

Just as when one explores the installation PLEASEtouch one does not follow a path framed by linear progression, subjects explored on this blog will be free flowing and informed only by inspiration.  In other words I will follow what comes up and share it with you.  

For instance, in my last post I mentioned how it may be time to address history - a subject that is attached in more than one way to PLEASEtouch.

However, I recently discovered something in the installation that I found fascinating, and so, once again, I am postponing the discussion of history for a bit.  I will be getting to it as it is important to include it, but today the blog is about mud.  Or more specifically about the Mudman.

Mudman has been with me since I began making art, in a more informed, serious way.  He began his life as a part of my mini-installation called Systems Within, in the Honors Show exhibition at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  His concept and creation have continued to inform my process - how I work, the materials I work with and even why I make work.  

Each incarnation of Mudman is made on the spot.  I do not transport him from place to place like I would a painting or a sculpture.  Rather, I make him in the moment from mud created from dirt I dig up, or others dig up for me (as was the case in PLEASEtouch ) and local water.  He does sit in the same chair that I originally created for him (steel sheeting over a wooden base), but he can not be preserved or replicated.  He is a new creation each time, although he is recognizable by how he is made and what he is made of.

I included Mudman in PLEASEtouch because he is necessary to the concepts I am considering in the installation.  

The first time I created Mudman he was as a 'studio study' - in a lawn chair on my in-laws deck in CA. This image is blurry as it is a digital image taken of a Polaroid.  

The next time I made him he was sitting in a walk-in structure made of wooden slats.  Above him sat an irrigation system that continuously dripped water over him.  For the ten days he was available to be visited he slowly eroded down onto the floor.  This was the work I created for the Honors Program exhibition.  Below are images of me during the making time.

 

His next incarnation was in a shop window in downtown Santa Barbara.  This was a significant install for me because while there he broke into a beautiful coat of moss.  The continual watering and being bathed in sunlight nourished the seeds that dwelt in the dirt I used to create him.  Unfortunately I do not have images of his new moss coat.

The third time I made him he sat in the window of the Rialto Theater (while under historic restoration).  It was the beginning of a new year.  The theater was not heated, which meant he did not erode, he chipped away as the mud froze and melted, froze and melted.  Pictures are similar to those above so I won't post pics of his Rialto incarnation.  Interesting fact.  I needed dirt, but wasn't sure how to get it from frozen ground.  The Downtown Development Authority, a sister of city government, and sponsor of the work, asked the city for help.  It arrived in a backhoe full of dirt from the Loveland cemetery, dumped in front on the sidewalk.  Wonderful...

Which brings me to today.  As I was leaving the installation after my Artist's Talk about PLEASEtouch last Friday I walked over to the Mudman to see how he was drying, as I was thinking of altering him with some chalk or paint.  What I found were some green sheaths of grass growing in a few spots.

  

  

I'm not sure if continued watering of Mudman will keep the grass growing, but I am going to give it a try.

* A word about process. In the past I have always made Mudman from neck to toe - all at one time.  In this incarnation of Mudman he was made over two days because of being dependent on how fast we could make the mud (it has to be cleaned - any particles or bits such as small stones, grass roots, cement chucks, effects the texture of the mud and possibility of injury to my hands).  The result was a breaking at his knees. When making this kind of work, and working within the parameters of what is available regarding time, material and labor the work will be what it will be.  Control and perfection is not the focus of making Mudman.  It is also when volunteers are so valuable to me.  I had volunteers working for three days to supply, clean and make mud for me.  A big thank you to Gean, Way, Sandra, Zoe, Robin and Tracy for coming down to clean and mix mud for the Mudman.  And to Marge for supplying 5 more large buckets of dirt than we began with.  Just enough!

As I continue to post on this blog, I will be sharing more information and images about other artifacts, materials, found objects and surfacing used to create the installation, as well as some thoughts about history, time, objects containing energy, guest essays by Jennie Kiessling (artist and educator), and Jennifer Cousino (Curator of History at the Loveland Museum/Gallery) and a 5 question interview of me by Bhanu Kapil (writer, experimental poet, and performance artist).  I hope you will continue to join me.

Thank you for visiting and supporting my blog about the gallery installation