"Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl"

This isn't really a true Art Farm piece, as I did it almost totally solo (Lisa drew some of the snakes and a few plants)-but I really wanted to see how the approach would work on a smaller scale. This isn't the greatest shot of it, but you get the idea.(click for a really large blow-up)

"The Game Of Hope or Fear" in the Pavilion, Burning Man 2006

Wow, I was only out of it for a week-not bad for Burning Man.
Well, the piece went up and it looked much better than these photos could show. If you were there you know. People really seemed to like the piece-and I know some that loved it. It was fun meeting them all. And our camp was great this year-really good times. And good energy (when we had some). And if you are one of the artists that contributed drawings for the piece and you were there-- first, I hope I did right by your work-- I tried my best to honor all the great contributions and hope you liked the piece, so yeh, again and always, thank you tons for helping to make it. (When I collect myself further I'll post all the names of the artists that participated in the piece as well as info on up-coming showings of it.)
Here are some pics of "The Game of Hope or Fear" as installed in The Pavilion in Black Rock City.
from outside the Pavilion (a glimpse of Alex Grey's back-entrance installaton "suite")
then through to our piece (with some from above on the deck beneath the Man).







THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HELPED, AND EVERYONE THAT LIKED THE PIECE AND SMILED, AND MADE UP THEIR OWN RULES OF HOW TO PLAY THE GAME AND THOSE THAT SAID ALOUD "HOW WAS THIS DONE?!", AND THANKED US.
IT WAS DONE ESPECIALLY FOR YOU!

AND... check out these amazing panoramic shots, sent to us by Gene Cooper, who was involved with the project next to us in the 'pavilion'. Click on "Full Screen", and use your mouse to navigate. Our 'Game' piece appears in the photo third from the bottom...

360 Burning Man Views

going, going, gone

...as of 11:30pm last night they were in Sparks Nevada, so I have every reason to believe they arrived on the playa near 2am.
Today will be a busy day of installation...

FINISHED!

(composite shot without the bird panels--click to enlarge)

Thank you to all the artists and other contributers that helped make this huge project a reality-
Thank You!
Wendy Addison, Jennybird Alcantara, Lori Almeida,Gary Amaro , Lauren Ari, Todd Barricklow, Christopher Blaz, Michael Briganti, Ross Campbell, Margaret Clayton, Bill Collins, Claire B. Cotts, Michael Coy, Truman Coy, Jason D'Aquino, Troy DeBraal, Marylu Downing, Lisa Drostova, Barbara Elliot, Julian Farmer-Bowers, Mark Ferrari, David Fleischmann, Tom (Flip) Flournoy, Erik Friedman, Paul Gower, Wendy Halenbeck, Vaughn Hannon, Kevin Harden, Ema Harris-Sintamarian, Chris Hataway, Don Jackson, Donna Jackson, D. Lasdow, Joe Leonard, Lois Lyons, Monica Madeiros, Eric Martin, Richard Martin, Manny Martinez, Claire Maxfield, Lauren Maxfield, Chris McKee, Cassandra Mittlestead, Sequoia Raven Moon, Lex Monkey, Eric Nielsen, Mary Jean Nixon, Rik Olsen, Giovanni Pacheco, Marcel Patzwald, Tara Reck, Mike Reynolds, Adam Rosendahl, Melissa Santala, Marc Scheff, Paul Schneider, Irene Scott, Patrick Scott, Judith Selby-Lang, Nat Schumacher, Jeff Shauger, William Smith, Nancy Speir, Suzanna Stinnett, Charles Swensen, Mike Terry, Trine, Mario Uribe, Graham White, Pati Wilson, SallyAnn Wolanczyk, Neng Yang, Michael Yeates, Olivia Yeates, Thomas Yeates, Bob and Peter and Lori--I don't know your last names yet!, and hmm, maybe you. Cheers one and all!

soon, soon...

all this will be leaving for the playa.
In the meantime, added glazes push these pieces along, and stamps add lettering to the game wheels, and Lisa writes in the Game Board captions-and we find and paint our game pegs... (click to enlarge)

Two Days Left!!

Well, ok, now we're finally getting there. Lisa kicked some ass yesterday in her glazing-and our hero Lori came by once again to finish drawing in the snakes on the "girl" panel-who should be looking like the "boy" by late tonight."You should not have come back...hmmm, the force is strong in this one...oh well."

Sunday Night at the Art Farm

The Game Board. Lisa spent the weekend working up a beautiful set of warm color washes (or "glazes") for the game board. My late-night, low-light photo does'nt do it justice.
The "Girl" panel (minus the right side of her face-which is across the room). She's almost ready for the final varnish-just a bit more drawing and collaging to do. Gary Amaro spent the whole day and evening here working his magic on the birds, with Lisa adding alittle assist at the end. (We may wait until the girl and background gets started in color before finishing up the birds here.)
The "Boy" panel (sorry again for poor quality fotos!)-I'll be beginning my glazing of color onto this panel somewhere around midnight-and hope to finish most of it by late tomorrow. And it's hard to see them clearly-but Gary's ravens are looking really great-hopefully I won't mess 'em up in the final stretch! Again-thanks a ton Gary-and it was really great talkin' shop and music with you. Hope you and Claire have a fabulous weekend up this-a-way.
And speaking of thanks-I've just been too busy to blog my incredible thanks to everyone who has contributed to this monster of a project-and I suppose it's a bit premature to be talking about the project as if it's done (still several long days and nights to go)-but the hard part really is done-and that was done by the over 60 artists and cutters and gluers and other helpers that are the soul of this project and piece. Especially Suzanna and Lori-and again, Gary. And I finally got some great, almost late drawings from Wendy Addison, Lauren Ari, & Michael Coy last week that just barely made the deadline, anyway-thank you for being part of this! Oh, and thanks so much to Jason D'Aquino for the scans-they were all so amazing! Thank you!
Of course, biggest, most loving thanks to my partner in all this, who really in pretty much all ways has been a part-a huge part-in the struggle of bringing this beast to fruition, thanks Lisa.
OK-back to it-the project and i leave in 4 days! And there's still 7 days of work to do.

Two Art Farmers

...discussing the crop

Michael Coy, artist extraordinaire & one of our partners from Arches Gallery, makes some creative links on the piece. Michael is our latest Burning Man recruit (we think)-- he will go for the first time this year-- right?

With a little over a week to go...

drawing in some more snakes (you can never have too many snakes...)

Don't worry Booder, I'll protect you. (at the top center you can see Thomas's "mer-deer"-click to enlarge.)

Saturday Night Drawing (etc) Party

1) Gary Amaro really starts to breathe life into his ravens. (Gary, these are such a huge part of this-we only hope we can do them proud with whatever work we manage on them.)

2) Julian Farmer-Bowers & Marcel Patzwald check -out some resource books. These two came courtesy of our friend Mary Vaughn (check out her great paintings at www.maryvaughan.com) from the summer ArtStart program. (Mary was here this weekend too, and brought by photographer Barbara Elliott and artist Mario Uribe and his wife to see and contribute to the piece but I did'nt have the camera then).
These two, Julian and Marcel-along with fellow Art Starters, Adam & Chris, really gave us some great drawings. These guys have so much innate talent and I don't think one of them has hit twenty yet (oh wait, Chris is 21 but Marcel's still in High School)- Amazing. Thank you for being part of this!

3) Lori Almeida & Claire Cotts (& Thomas Yeats) draw. Thomas gave us another of the piece's highlights with his "mer-deer" and Lori and Claire also did some great drawings.

4) Suzanna (aka Bell) surveys the scene (and hey-it's Michael Coy there in the background! We're hoping he'll be in the foreground soon.)

5) Olivia winds down, near the end.

6) Adam, another of Mary Vaughan's ArtStart students, dropped by the next day and besides doing some great drawing, filled me with total envy over the rock concerts he's been to in the last year or two.

further developments...

(reminder! Last official Art Farm drawing party today! 4:00 on. And there is still time (barely) to send us drawings. But ready or not, paint starts going on these walls by mid-week next week-so hurry!)

...to the game wheel...Phyxx cuts a mean wheel-his other two are finished and ready for Lisa's paint magic. Speaking of, Lisa is really getting some nice colors down-these pictures (and especially the ones I take) don't do the colors justice. Hey, what am I doin' on my butt with only a week to go?

Thursday Night at the Art Farm


A wheel! A wheel!! Watch out, it'll make you queasy.
Bob & Lori dropped by to check in; Bell, our Master Glue-er surveys the scene; Phyxx built all three spinning wheels. Thanks!!!

Thanks and How About Some Pictures?

Huge thanks to every one!-- you are all making something that should not be possible actually happen. This thing is going to stretch alot of people's heads in Black Rock City.
In the category of drawing contributions specifically-- Big, HUGE thanks this week to Erik Friedman (dude-- seriously-- you rock. I can't wait to see your and Emma's show in October), and speaking of-- thank you Emma for your amazing contribution-- so, when do you sleep?-- , thanks also very mucho Jennybird-- they're really great. You kicked such ass last year at the Fun-House!, Nancy Speir-- my evil twin...no wait, I'm the evil twin...,William Smith (very cool, -- I still kick myself for not buying that great bumble bee at Roshambo), oh right, how could I forget-- from Minnosota -- Neng Yang. Neng, Lisa and I were pretty floored when we got your package. They're all great-- thanks tons. Oh-- a belated big thanks and greetings to Judith Selby Lang-- (are you going out this year? --Lisa and I would love to meet you). Very nice drawings--and it looks like you do all sorts of other cool art-things. Lisa collects colored beach plastic too. And also belated thanks to Mike Terry --again, still. Mike, you gotta lotta 'splainin' to do.
Oh-- and I never thanked Ross Campbell, so I finally will. When you see his pieces-- they are just so good. Totally raises the bar. Anyway-- go buy his 2 new books-- "Wet Moon 2" and also, well I really loved "The Abandoned". It's pretty brutal-- but a good zombie comic should be, right?
But maybe the biggest thanks this week goes to Joe Leonard. Joe-- you literally saved the day. your drawings and designs are so huge to this project, anyway-- thanks again-- and can't wait for you to see the finished project.
(And Lisa and I can't wait to see it too.)
Well, here's where we are with about ten days to go....
The game board last night
the two portrait walls
a shot looking from the doors, almost from outside

Lisa guest blogs for me (thanks Lisa)

Tony adds finishing touches to his circus-style letters; & the board takes a leap forward, with the painting of the snake's head & tail. Super last chance to pop yer drawings into the mail, or e-mail jpegs!