Saturday #5

This has certainly been a hectic and chaotic summer but I have really enjoyed my Saturdays working in the park. The weather has been perfect, I've met and talked to lots of people, I've had lots of little helpers–and a few big ones too. It is so great to have the opportunity to watch a piece unfold before your eyes....to go from sketches to reality. What a great experience to have the public be able to join in with the development of the piece, share ideas, and put a hand into the work. I'm a little sad that there's only one week left but I am looking forward to finishing this installation for the public to enjoy.

Saturday #4

Beautiful day in the park and I had lots of helpers. We really made a lot of progress! Thanks to the families and kids who helped out.

Saturday #3

With the threat of thunderstorms, this day got off to a slow start but later some people started to stream through. I was really excited to see my boss and her daughter, who had come down to the park to lend a hand. Robin and Lola did a great job help to build up the surface on the big shanty and we tossed around some ideas for the rook...which I still have to build. I installed four more shanties and the ideas for more keep rolling in. As I hit the half-way mark on the project, I'm really happy with the progress of the project so far.

Saturday No. 2

Another beautiful Michigan day for working in the park. It was great to have some awesome helpers, who did an amazing job of painting and helping me to develop ideas for the shanties. I made some progress on various structures–five in process–and installed two finished shanties today.

More Shanties on the Way!

Developing the Shanties Structures and Design

The idea of building shanties is based a little bit on memories from my childhood. My dad was a roofer so there was always an abundance of tools, nails, and scrap wood. I was always building something...tree forts, coasters, bicycle jumps...I even had a phase where I built and installed wooden crosses all over the yard. It was a boys activity to pound nails and build things with your hands and it was also a great way to engage my imagination. Building these shanties is somewhat of a reminiscence for me and the smaller scale and proportion of these structures has again triggered my imagination. I have a feeling that, in the case of this installation, each structure will take on its own personality.

One of the cool things that happened when I was looking at the site were these patterns that I found on a fallen tree up the hill. I guess they are markings from some kind of worm or insect (below left) but it got me thinking about how I would approach "camouflaging" the shanties. I started with rubbings so I could record and study the patterns more closely and see what color would do to them. It turns out that I also had to consider the degree of camouflage I would aim for as my first attempts at mimicking these patterns worked too well and the form of the structure really disappeared. As I developed the surface treatment, I settled on the scheme below on the right as a compromise between form and surface.