Installation -Watershed Moments

Rolling the tree to the Dana building

Communitree out of car, ready to roll into building.

 Moving the Communitree sculpture was an adventure.  It had been stored in a basement which was once a paper mill - and the egress was a steep ramp with doors that were significantly lower than the height of the piece.  Somehow we got it out having lowered the branches - the tree is now a conifer having previously been deciduous!  I drive a Subaru Forester and we put down the seats and somehow got most of the sculpture in - several feet hung out the back -the green thing at the top is the flag we used to be vaguely traffic compliant when I drove across town with the hatch tied mostly closed.  The elevator was not as tall as the tree either (gallery not at ground level of course) so we somehow diagonally got the piece in.  This all brings back painful memories of transporting large pieces on buses in art school....and reminds me why I generally size my work based on the largest size I can conveniently fit in my car!.

Attaching line to the bracket with Dave's help

Installing a monotype and an installation view of 4 of the 5 monotypes

 Between Sara Adlerstein (gallery director) and Dave - the SNRE's photographer - whose last name I need to get - I had  a lot of kind and competent help installing.  Never a given and much appreciated!

Communitree in Dana commons

For a relatively small show - 5 large monotypes and one large sculpture - this show was more challenging to install than some, largely because of the difficulty of moving the sculpture.  The Communitree is a piece that was done last summer as a collaborative piece funded by Annarbor.com and the Street Art Fair.  Many hundreds of people were involved in building it over about a week during the summer.  Now it will continue to grow and evolve at the School of Natural Resources.

The opening for this show is tomorrow - Feb 16 at 4pm.  Gallery director Sara Adlerstein and I will both be speaking about the gallery - this is the inaugural show for the Art & the Environment Gallery at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment - and about the work in particular.

More big monotypes

Watershed Moment #8, encaustic monotype on Rives BFK, 22" x 30", ©2012

Watershed Moment  - blue on reds, encaustic monotype on kozo, 20" x 48", ©2012

Watershed Moment #10, encaustic monotype on Rives BFK, 22" x 30", ©2012

Watershed Moment #6, encaustic monotype on Lenox, 24" x 38", ©2012

Watershed Moment #7, encaustic monotype with collage on Lenox, 24" x 38", ©2012

These are more of the current series of large encaustic monotypes.  I haven't written much about the process of making these one-off prints.  A monotype, as opposed to a monoprint, is made as a unique piece through a print process (monoprints have repeatable elements like stencils).  I work on a heated surface - a hotbox, as developed by Paula Roland.  I use a sheet of galvanized steel (many artists use anodized aluminum), heated with 4 100w light bulbs in an enclosure of insulated wood which I built. For these large prints I actually use two hot boxes under one large sheet of metal - so 8 bulbs total.  I paint directly on the metal surface with a mix of encaustic and pigment sticks and then make a single print using a variety of papers.  This is the point where the pieces can diverge from a classical monotype because I often work back into the piece with graphite, pastels (both soft and oil), conte or add collage elements.

My upcoming show at UM has been publicized at Montage - the U's arts portal and at the School of Natural Resources' site.

Big monotypes

This series of monotypes is part of my ongoing exploration of river movement.  These are far and away the biggest monotypes I've done - they're all 25" x 50" on kozo.  They all incorporate encaustc, graphite, pigment sticks, conte and other drawing media. 

Like all of my recent monotypes they are strongly influenced by both my connection with the environment AND with the music I've been listening to in the studio.  WEMU plays jazz and blues during my studio hours and that sets the mood and the motion for the work.

These five pieces will be the inaugural show at the new Art & the Environment Gallery at the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan.  The opening will be Thursday Feb 16 at 4pm.

Watershed Monotype #5

Watershed Monotype #4

Watershed Monotype #3

Watershed Monotype #2

Watershed Monotype #1

Stop SOPA/PIPA

What is SOPA/PIPA?

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R. 3261 is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. The bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.*

Similar to SOPA, the PROTECT IP Act or S.968, (PIPA) establishes a system for taking down websites that the DoJ determines to be "dedicated to infringing activities." In some cases, action could be taken to block sites without first allowing the alleged infringer to defend themselves in court.**

As artists, inventors, educators, writers, creators, and dedicated citizens, we believe in the importance of protecting individuals' intellectual property, but these bills are too broad and go far beyond addressing issues of internet piracy. If passed, they will infringe on First Amendment rights, enable Internet censorship, weaken Internet security, destroy jobs and cripple the Internet.

Open letters in protest of SOPA/PIPA have been written to Congress from some of the most influential and important members of the internet community including the founders of Google, Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo!, The Huffington Post, LinkedIn, Youtube, Paypal, Craigslist, eBay, Wikipedia, Blogger, and a group of eighty-three engineers instrumental in the creation of the internet, to name a few.

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IN ORDER TO STOP THESE BILLS, EVERYONE READING THIS MUST:

CALL or E-MAIL your Congressional Representatives and let them know that you do not support this bill and won't vote for them if they support it.

It's easy! Visit this website to call and then do the Take Action Checklist:
http://tinyurl.com/SOPAcallcongress

Congress will be voting on this when they reconvene in January 2012, so make sure their inboxes and voicemails are flooded when they get back!

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Here are links to two of the open letters:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/internet-inventors-warn-against-sopa-and-pipa

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57342914-281/silicon-valley-execs-blast-sopa-in-open-letter/

Check out these videos for a more thorough explanation of the implications surround the passage of SOPA/PIPA:

http://tinyurl.com/SOPABreaksTheNet

http://tinyurl.com/SOPAInDepth

What is the difference between PIPA and SOPA? Not much.
http://tinyurl.com/SOPAvPIPAchart

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TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTO.

Take a photo of yourself with tape over your mouth and write "SOPA" on it. Upload it to Facebook and copy-and-paste this description. Tell your friends about it!

Educate yourself!

Get the word out!

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*excerpted from Wikipedia. Read the full bill here:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show

**excerpted from OpenCongress. Read the full bill here:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/text

More work with antique maps

Channel mapping

 These pieces are all encaustic and mixed media on Rives BFK, incorporating elements of antique maps of the Mississippi River.  They are not true monoprints but rather encaustic, oil bar, conte, charcoal, pastel,  graphite and inkjet on paper; worked on a hotbox.  They're good-sized - these two are full 22 x 30" sheets

  Dynamic channels-map II

 Dynamic channels - map

Dynamic River

Art Walk - afterwards

Art walk this year was a lot of fun

 although it was certainly exhausting.  I shared Margaret Parker's space at her generous invitation.  Between us and musician Ken Kozora and Margaret's film collaborators we had a constant stream of visitors. The pieces shown here all started as demo pieces during Art Walk and were all finished at home in my own studio a few days later. 

I'm exploring more abstracted takes on aerial landscapes here, inspired in part by a series of antique maps of the Mississippi which I found on Radical Cartography.  These pieces are all encaustic and mixed media on paper using techniques inspired by Paula Roland's amazing work.  My aim in working on paper and using monotype techniques is to be looser and more improvisational in my work while still taking on some of the same content issues in my work.

 

 These pieces are all fairly small - none larger than 10 x 13.

Photos of my demonstration at Margaret Parker Studio, all taken by Bonnie Wylo

Upcoming

I'm proud to announce that I'm part of the River Gallery's juried collage exhibition at the Rackham galleries. Slideshow here.

FALL 2011 COLLAGE INVITATIONAL ART EXHBIT KICKS OFF ON 4TH FLOOR OF HISTORIC RACKAM GRADUATE SCHOOL BUILDING

"Treasures Textures and Objects" 2D and 3D original collage art now on display...thru December 15th

Rackham Graduate School Building

915 E Washington Street, 48109

8:00 am to 9:00 pm Monday thru Friday

Braided Channels 1, encaustic & collage on panel, 24 x 40"

Art Walk
This year I'll be at Margaret Parker's studio showing Woods & Water - current work focused on a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest. These pieces are a mix of encaustic & digital monotypes and paintings evoking the peace and beauty of the northwestern wilderness.

We've got exciting stuff planned - the wonderful Ken Kozora (link is to video of a performance) will be playing Friday night, Margaret has a big installation piece in the glass house out between Downtown Home & Garden and Mark's Carts on Friday as well.

Pelicans, sea, sky - monochromatic square

Here's the details.

Leslie Sobel
Woods & Water • new work 2011

at Margaret Parker Studio during Art Walk
210 S Ashley St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104 - upstairs

Hours

Fri, October 21 5-9PM with live music by
multi-instrumentalist Ken Kozora 7pm-9pm

Fantasy Forest, encaustic and mixed media on panel

& Sat & Sun, October 22, 23 12noon-5pm

I’ll be demonstrating encaustic
monotypes on Saturday from 2-4pm

Light thru big trees - overlaid, digital imaging

Going to ArtPrize

I haven't been yet but will be going soon. Am looking forward to seeing a number of friends' pieces but most especially Lynda Cole's piece Rain, seen above. If you go, the vote UP code for Rain is 42861. edited to add photo by Paul Hickman

ArtWalk 2011

ArtWalk is almost upon us. This year I'm going to be at Margaret Parker Studio in Ann Arbor at 210 S Ashley St for ArtWalk. I'll be showing new encaustic & mixed media work - primarily monotypes with digital images from the pacific northwest.

Fri, October 21 5-9PM with live music by multi-instrumentalist Ken Kozora
& Sat & Sun, October 22, 23 12noon-5pm
I’ll be demonstrating encaustic
monotypes on Saturday from 2-4pm

Margaret, Ken and I are excited about ArtWalk and hope you'll come see us.

CommuniTree - sculpture as toy

Working on the CommuniTree at the Townie Street Party

Most of the armature still visible

It's been an interesting process building this thing. An an artist I generally work solo and have total control over what I make. When I do community based/sourced projects I have to let go of the control and go with people's creativity, energy and ideas - steering them but letting the project go where lots of people's involvement takes it. The CommuniTree project has been that in a huge way. I brought the partially pre-built armature to the Townie Street Party and assembled it with help from my son and a few volunteers. Then something like 100 people contributed their efforts over the course of the evening. Julianne Pinsak had bought two smaller tree pieces last fall and she brought me 200 phone cords sourced from the PTO Thrift Store. My friend Paul Malbeauf brought a huge stash of cords cleaning out his basement. At the end of the Street Party we rolled the tree up the street to the patio of AnnArbor.com.

Rolling it to AnnArbor.com

Over the next few days a few dozen more people stopped by to help build the tree. Here is a stop motion video shot by Angela Cesere of AnnArbor.com of some of the building.

Some numbers: the finished piece stands about 8.5' tall and is 8' in diameter. It weighs more than 100 pounds - probably closer to two hundred. We used more than 400 cables ranging from mini-usb, scsi-to-serial, fiber-optic, electrical, phone and power converters, mice and CAT5. It's been suggested that the finished piece would be a great interractive lobby piece for a high tech firm - put out a box of cables and invite visitors to play. With that concept it may never be finished. I like that idea and hope it finds a home along those lines.

CommuniTree is a partnership between the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, AnnArbor.com and the Milan Art Center. It is for sale and proceeds of the sale will benefit the Street Art Fair and the Milan Art Center. Bid for it here. Full disclosure - I'm the board chair of the Milan Art Center.

wire and cables and angle-iron oh my

Cast concrete counterweight and lab stool base for Communitree - ready to go and very heavy!


Box of cables for weaving the tree. It won't be enough but it's a good start. Bring me more!

I've been sorting and coiling what feels like MILES of cable getting ready for Monday's Townie Street Party followed by the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I cast the base for the sculpture out of concrete. Still need to organize tools, ladders, etc and finish the armature but the bits are all assembled and ready to haul to town. I'll be in the art activity area during the party. At the end of the evening the tree will roll up Liberty Street to the AnnArbor.com patio - its home for Art Fair.

I'll be there working on the tree during Art Fair from 1-4pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Come and get involved. The finished piece will be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Street Art Fair and the Milan Art Center. I'll post a link to the online auction as soon as it goes live - it will be hosted via ArtFair.org

Community based public art for Art Fair

The CommuniTree-

Once again I’ve been commissioned by the Street Art Fair, this year partnering with AnnArbor.com, to do a community based public art project. We’re growing a tree out of recycled cables. This project was inspired by the little table-top trees I made as part of the Ecology Center's Sustainable Centerpieces project last fall.

coil wire tree

How will this work and how can you be involved? The tree will be a sculpture using recycled and repurposed materials with community help in making it grow. I’m building an armature out of a repurposed lab stool and metal posts, old window sash weights and other found objects. The tree will be fleshed out using old computer, phone and electrical cables and that’s where you come in. I need your old phone cords (coiled ones are great!), computer cables and the like. If you’re like me you probably have a box of them somewhere. You can drop them off at the Art Fair Office at 721 E. Huron St., Suite 200, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 734-994-5260 (PH) or at AnnArbor.com at 301 E. Liberty St., First Floor. Or you can get in touch with me directly.

stool base, procured at UM's Property Disposition

angle iron - part of the trunk to be

When will this all happen? We’ll start assembling the tree at the Townie Street Party on Monday July 18 from 5-9:30. After the party the CommuniTree will move to the patio at AnnArbor.com I’ll be working on it during Art Fair from 1-4 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Art Fair. Come help, contribute cables and watch the tree grow. The finished tree will be more than 8 feet tall and will have solar powered lighting.

We’ll have a reception on Friday July 22nd at AnnArbor.com at 7:00pm.

The Communitree will be auctioned off over the course of Art Fair. The proceeds will go to help support the Street Art Fair and the Milan Art Center. The auction will end when Art Fair ends on Saturday evening.

panorama!

My friend Gene Parunak kindly shot this panorama of the Immersed show. Fun to see it all laid out in one place like this.

Working in the studio in encaustic loses some appeal when the high for the day is in the mid-upper 90's. Time to explore water media perhaps? More digital? And an upcoming sculpture project I'm excited about and will be able to talk about soon!

Meanwhile I had the amazing experience of flying to Chicago in a private jet thanks to a generous investor in my husband's company. We flew much lower than a commercial flight and naturally I shot for most of the flight - nice to have my own aerial source material rather than relying on NASA's much higher altitude (and quality) images as a starting point.


Look for mixed media pieces coming from this euphoric experience...