A question, stuff and nonsense, and one last photo of the Habitat Project

One of  the joys of today was finally putting all the ladders away  after months of living with them and ON them.  But, before I put them away, I made sure to get down the things that need to be framed.  While climbing in the "rafters"  I found this painting all rolled up.  I did it probably 5 or 6 years ago.  Totally forgot about it.  So, now I see it.  I like it.  But it is really, really wroggly...you know, the ridges formed from being rolled too tightly and probably squashed just a bit.   It is acrylic on canvas, cut and reassembled, presumably using PVA glue.

The Question:

HOW DO  YOU MAKE A WROGGLED CANVAS TO GO FLAT AGAIN?
















This next one falls under the category of STUFF:

The pink and green piece is the first of three that are inaugurating the return to useable studio space.  Saturday evening, after installing  the Habitat project and before splitting a celebratory bottle of wine with my assistant, I resumed work on three old, stalled pieces.  Marcus was shocked that I was already at work.  Actually, it was a way of claiming my space back  and forestalling the normal let-down from finishing a major project!

I have my Mother's Thighs!

And Now: ONE LAST PICTURE OF THE HABITAT INSTALLATION

Taken by Dale Kennedy from atop a 10 foot ladder.  Susan Beuchler and Susan Hensel down below

The Installation of Habitat-DONE

The big core of the roll

Unrolled, awaiting hanging cables

The injured warrior unrolling cable

First Panel almost installed

Cleaning up the top rails, viewed from the cubicles

Complete!

The view toward the cubicles

The Habitat Project has left the studio

 The very last day before the Habitat Project goes to its "forever home."

Raising the Roof on Home

By Susan Hensel and clients of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

Hope. Optimism. Generosity.

The clients of Habitat who worked on this project filled the room with their excitement about building houses and creating safe, secure homes for their families.  They were filled with pride in their work , great optimism and hope. They generously contributed their time and talents to this artwork, creating a “crazy quilt” of home.

Fabric decorated with fabric paints, dyes and machine embroidery

Second panel coming down

The Last Grommet

Laying it straight

The 2 panels are loosely rolled up together

Dale observing the roll

Marcus and Gideon observing the roll

I'm the short human

Out the door they go

And into the car, ready to travel to its forever home tomorrow.

A few delays...but still working

There have been some delays on the Habitat front due to their move into the new building.  The grant writer and the architect did a studio visit to day to consider the size of the piece versus its designated location.  I hope to have it installed in a couple of weeks.  Tomorrow I will measure the metal rails and the eye bolt locations for the architect.

Part of my proposal was the making of an artists book for the Habitat Library, documenting the people and the process.  That was delivered today.  It really is cool.  It's an Apple book, printed from iPhoto.  The colors are rich and lovely.

And the people are glorious!  

BUT...see the next post for the other book I ordered and continuing work on other art!

Here's the thing...

Bad weather abounds....although the sun is shining pretty fiercely.  Marcus, my wonderful helper, only has to commute across the alley.  So, 10 inches of snow only delayed things long enough to clear driveways and clear out cars.

We plugged away on catty-wampus modules today.  Crimping here, cutting away there.  They seem to get up to mischief in the night!

But today!  against all odds, we moved both halves across the room and hung them from my tin ceiling.  They match!  We measured well!  We will now let it rest until Monday.  Hopefully the little houses will get all their partying done by then;-)

We have just moved part one across  the room after 2 full days of wire adjustment

Now part 2 is joining Part 1

Marcus getting ready to move the cousins closer together.

It is too large to fit in the photograph.  Some modules still need adjusting, but HERE IT IS!  Largely finished!

Mining the floor for treasure

I have been crimping away on the second panel for over a week.  My helpers all got sick or injured, so I was on my own for a while.  I just plodded on with lots of breaks and some icing of my still recovering shoulder and forearm.  Snips and glimmers litter the floor beneath the work area.  Often I do not need to cut wire from the large spool.  I just look to the floor and see what has fallen.

All but the last few upper wires have been strung and crimped.  That is not to say that there is little left to do.  There is always trimming, adjusting and nattering around.  When you adjust one connection it affects at least four more connections!  But we are definitely in the final leg and well into the home stretch of this project.  Marcus and I will go over to the building tomorrow to meet with the architect and see where and how it will hang.

We are officially AIRBORNE!

The first half of the project. sometimes thought of as the bigger half, is off the wall and hanging free in the studio.  It was so exciting to see it in mid air.  While there is still tweaking to do, probably mostly on site, it is pretty much how I imagined it could be.

Here are the exciting videos of Marcus and John moving the work off the wall and pivoting it into storage position.  

"Storage position?" you ask.  The piece will cover 16 linear feet when it is completed.  I do not have 16 linear feet of wall with sufficient height to make this piece.  So, we decided to pivot at a 90 degree angle to the pinwall so we can compose in relation to the existing panel.

 Here's the view of the hanging from the sewing area.  And then, a photo of the layout of the second half beginning.
None of this would be possible without the help of my assistants:       Dale Kennedy who has worked with me on and off for years.  He helps me figure out the logistics of putting things together.          Marcus Larson, neighbor, friend, tall, master gardener and artist .          John Mitchell, neighbor, friend, tall and kind.There is a theme here...I like to hire kind, tall men to climb tall ladders;-)

 

Getting pretty wired...

We tightened up the design today and began wiring it up!!!! It is so exciting!  That is Dale, manning the grommeting machine and Marcus is pinning the design more accurately.

We loosely wired one section and removed it from the wall to see how it moved and how the light passed through.  It moved way better than I expected and I love seeing through it to other "stuff."

This Marcus, my neighbor, a member of my dog's "most favorite human" club, a master gardener, an artist in his own right.  AND, he is TALL!  He can reach even farther than Dale can, and we have always teased Dale about his "freakishly" long arms.  We haven't needed to climb the ladder today.  But by tomorrow we will need to climd I am sure.

Here is a photoshopped version of the design at the end of this workday.  The left side of the photo is actually on the wall, the right side is virtual, as I hope you can tell.  Otherwise my wall sure is odd!

Still composed, only more so

The Habitat Project is taking form more each day.  Today I worked with Dale Kennedy and Marcus Larsen, composing on the pinboard and the computer.  We think we have it now.  An off center house with a sweet roof.

The official description :

Raising the Roof on Home

By Susan Hensel and clients of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

Hope. Optimism. Generosity.

The clients of Habitat who worked on this project filled the room with their excitement about building houses and creating safe, secure homes for their families.  They were filled with pride in their work , great optimism and hope. They generously contributed their time and talents to this artwork, creating a “crazy quilt” of home.

Fabric decorated with fabric paints, dyes and machine embroidery

More embroidery and serging awaits.  But by mid week next week, assembly will begin.

Feeling somewhat composed

I am still sewing and dyeing to beat the band, but there is enough done to begin composing this radically large thing in earnest.

Dale came over today and started the process.  He pinned up 4 compositions in all.  We determined that we want to group by shape and size; worked with how to have a focal point; determined that there are key negative space issues to keep track of....and other things.

He will return tomorrow and we will compose more then.  Tonight I embroider.

Composition 1

Composition 2

Composition 3

Composition 4

Polar Vortex does not slow us down

As the wind began whipping outside the door, piling small drifts of moister snow than we've had to date,  9 hardy people came to the Textile Center to make more squares for the Habitat for Humanity artwork.  Tomorrow the output will enter the dye pot and begin the trek toward completion.

What is this?

These little squiggles appear all over the studio, clinging to my pants and shoes as I head upstairs to bed.  

What are they?

They are not squashed, nor living, centipedes, though surely they look like that!

They are the static filled tails of waste from the serger that edges each and every module.

Meanwhile, on another note, little drawings are being done from the scraps and off cuts of the modules.  I think they will find a home in the artists book documenting the project that I am going to make for Habitat for Humanity.

Composing on the wall

I'm still waiting for a new grommeting die and the final yardage.  I swept the studio.  I napped.  I read.  And then I began composing.  I decided I could not comfortably wait for all the modules to be grommeted.  I needed to get a move on and see what could be done with these houses!

So, late today, on the 8' x10 ' pinwall, 1/2 the width of the final piece, I began pinning.  The first basic idea is to form a sort of house shaped area with the "face" modules.  Not all the modules are made yet.  They will be completed by late next week.  But I decided I had enough to begin composition studies.

Then I began to play with connecting squares of color.  I had determined that a broad swath of color, like a road or a tree branch, as I had shown in the blog before, would be far to prone to humidity changes and would more than likely warp like the devil with season changes.  So, back to working within the grid to see what can be done to both settle the eye and stabilize the  piece.  I'm not liking my solutions yet, but that is why I scheduled a full month for assembly and problem solving.