From PLEASEtouch to pinkStardust: my search for time and space

Introduction: 

From PLEASEtouch to pinkStardust: my search for time and space

I originally created this blog using the title PLEASEtouch  to discuss the solo exhibition it was named after.  The work, a gallery installation, was by invitation for Artworks Center for Contemporary Art, in Loveland CO (2021). Past blog postings talk more about the installation.

As time flowed by I expanded the blog to include some of my work with water.  Now, I am changing the focus of the blog from PLEASEtouch to pinkStardust: my search for time and space.  The title expresses my desire to secure both an exhibition space and an exhibition schedule for my installation pinkStardust.

PLEASEtouch - a brief reminder

PLEASEtouch was both an unusual installation and an unusual opportunity. What made it so was that I didn't focus it around a theme, didn't tell a story.  It wasn't about anything.  It was created solely for the purpose of inviting visitors to touch.

I  organized the installation around the idea of using artifacts - past, present and future. I mention this because some pieces that I created as future artifacts for PLEASEtouch will be in  pinkStardust

                                        Exhibition poster for PLEASEtouch.   The poster features the back of one of The Four Enola Geishas, (seen below in a PLEASEtouch installation pic).  The Four Enola Geishas represented future artifacts in PLEASEtouch and will be included in my installation  pinkStardust. 


  This image includes all three artifacts used to create PLEASEtouch : past artifacts (work from other installations and exhibitions), present artifacts (existing work that I re-worked for the installation) and future artifacts (new work) -  some of which will be included in pinkStardust, like The Four Enola Geishas seen on back wall in this pic.  A detail of one is shown in the pic below.


The back of the Enola Geisha used for the poster for PLEASEtouch. The back of the canvas is skinned in aluminum foil (one of may nods to Warhol in pinkStardust),  printed with the schematic for a uranium atom.


 pinkStardust: my search for time and space  


Poster for pinkStardust - created by hand, as it would have been "back in the day", before computer possibilities. Acrylic paint on scarred canvas, mended with medical tape.  2012

As I send out the call to the art universe, I continue to work on pinkStardust

As I search to secure an exhibition time and place for pinkStardust, I am continuing to work on her.  Future posts will be about the different components I am creating, the different processes I am using and how the concepts for the installation tie it all together.  

I am also planning how the work will be transported to its exhibition space, working on the video that will market the installation (featuring The pinkStardust Blues) and organizing book content (I will send these to curators who I would like to work with). 

I'll post pages about past works that orbit the three installations included in My Manhattan Project (I call them 'satellite' pieces), such as "...they sang before the dawn." and pinkStardust Reminder.

And finally, I continue to make The 32 Most Notorious Atomic Tests (inspired by Warhol's 32 Campbell's Soup Cans) - a series of works that will be auctioned off to fund materials and supplies for pinkStardust. 


Prepared canvases, (16" x 20",  the same size canvases of Warhol's 32 Campbell's Soup Cans).  Skinned with the back side of aluminum foil, coated in black acrylic paint, and awaiting the drawings of notorious atomic tests from the time frame that pinkStardust sits in 1945 to the present.  A black & white image of Trinity, the first ever atomic explosion, taped to my studio wall.

I strongly desire to exhibit pinkStardust somewhere in the southwest, preferably close to the "dirt" where the events I am discussing in the installation took place, such as: 

New Mexico. Los Alamos, the site of Trinity, the first atomic explosion that started it all, as well as one of the current locations for nuclear weapons testing, White Sands Proving Grounds. 

Nevada. Las Vegas when it was known as the Atomic City because of the many above ground atomic tests that were conducted about 60 miles north - prompting 'bomb parties', family picnics, and other atomic tourism.

Even Los Angeles, where museums such as the Wende exhibit work about the Cold War.                    

Or, someplace out there that is looking for me too.










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