Fortuna (detail)

A recent detail shot of "Fortuna"

Three Art Farm Shows!

Wow, the stars are in alignment I guess...there are currently (or soon to be) three different shows featuring all five major Art Farm pieces. The first has it's opening this Thursday, March 4th at the Sonoma State University Art Gallery (from 4:00-7:00) as part of the "Sideshow" exhibit, celebrating the art of the Hand-Car Regatta, and features "The Game Of Hope Or Fear" and "Fortuna"-(click to enlarge)

Then, the following night, over in Oakland, two other Art Farm pieces-"HeadGames" (our first piece from 2005) and another section from 2006's "Hope Or Fear" trilogy-"Portrait Of A Girl" will be shown at Kuhl Frames + Art at 22nd Street and Broadway as part of Oakland's "Art Murmer" (their really cool first-Friday art-walk). That reception is between 6:00-9:00.

And finally (though not least) is our inclusion of "Portrait Of A Boy" (also from the "Hope Or Fear" trilogy) in San Francisco's Project One Gallery show "Anxiety" -curated by Christine Kristen (Burning Man's LadyBee). That show opens on April 7th. (more info to come on that one!)Lisa and I will be at all shows and several other Art Farm artists will be attending as well. Hope to see you there!

the Day After: the Fabulous Hand-Car Regatta

... a smattering of photos from today's event.
Thank you! to the event organizers Spring & Ty, (and everyone else) who helped to create this event. And keep your eye on their great Hand-Car Regatta website-- I bet they'll have some follow-up photos of the actual Hand-Cars & the racing. (click on any image to see it big.)

the Shrine rises again...

...this time near Railroad Square in Santa Rosa, as part of the sure-to-be-fabulous Handcar Regatta.

Coming soon...

...many more pictures from the Shrine at Burning Man...

and the next opportunity to see the Shrine?
Santa Rosa's first ever
Hand Car Regatta,
shaping up to be quite an exciting event-- see the website here.

the 'Shrine' at Burning Man

(as always, click to enlarge)
Success!
We made it (barely) to Burning Man and (barely) lived to tell the tale!
Michael and I left Graton at around nine on Tuesday night and arrived at Black Rock City at about 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday and after a two hour nap at our camp (the beautiful and peaceful "Harmony in the Dessert" camp) we worked until sundown, just the two of us (with the exception of a nice young woman named Pet, who did her best to help and encourage us) and at that point, no generator yet. Not our most fun day.Me and Pet, doing her best to cheer us on.

The next day was an entirely different animal, as my friends Terry (Retro), and Natalie and her daughter Maddy came by and suggested I go over to "Volunteer Camp" (or as they called it-The "V" Spot). Well, almost immediately we had help. We had so much help that at one point we had to turn people away!Look! Lots of helpers!

And those that we didn't turn away quickly became some of our favorite Black Rock City encounters. Thanks Kelsey, and Ron, and red cowboy hat-we forgot your name!, but our most heartfelt thanks go to Ben (Beaner) and Will (below)--true playa heros! They were with us almost the entire day, helping us build, even bringing us cold beer (oh my God, the best beer of my adult life!)--we truly can't thank them, and everyone who helped us that day, enough.
We also finally got our generator (courtesy of Easel Park, and thanks to Phyxx) and so by late Thursday, our Shrine was almost assembled. MC went off for some well deserved rest (he worked so hard and with so few breaks that his muscles started seizing up and cramping, plus at one point he basically drilled a screw thru half of one of his fingers!-Arghh, the playa surely can test a man!) and I lingered for a bit, mostly anonymously to watch people check out our piece.
And then just as I finally packed it in at around 2:00 a.m.-Lisa and Else and Pati arrived! So of course we all had to go back out to the playa for a look-see. I got back at 5:00, everyone else as the sun rose.
Finally, after some good rest, and a slow morning/afternoon--and now with Lisa's and Else's help too, we got the last details done. Here Lisa helps me with the curtains.Else walks towards the back after helping with the wiring and lights. I'm in the back hoping Lois and Mark's "Wiring For Dummies" instructions passes the true dummy-test.Pati brings us a much needed snack! Yum! And when we finally hooked up Mark's special lighting effects to our wheel of fortune and gave her a spin-we all let out a triumphant roar as we saw that indeed-it all worked!
And from that moment until late Monday afternoon, when MC, Else, and I broke it all down, there wasn't a minute that our shrine wasn't being explored and appreciated by someone, and often, by dozens at a time.

(this last photo above was taken by Kraig Meyer, pulled from Flickr)

So to all Art Farmers--a huge thanks for being part of this amazing experience! To all the drawers, thank you!-especially Joe Leonard, Jason D'Aquino, Thomas Yeats, Lori Almeida, Neng Yang, David Aguayo (a big thanks to you!), MJ Lindo, Claire Cotts, Gary Amaro, Lisa B, Else Olava, & Erik Friedman, along with Jaclyn Finkle, Olivia Yeats, Joe Balestreri, Drew and Ruthie Merritt, Michael and Truman Coy, Sandra Maresca, Richard Hensley, Chris and Zeke Hataway, Leslie Zumwalt, Barry Stone, Kim Webster, Amy Stabler, John James, Joel Beck, Bob Stang, Rebecca Scalf, Meika Stang, Anna Kallas, John, Ted, and Carl Ballantine, Pati Wilson, Barbara Jeppesson, and I bet I'm forgetting a few...hopefully not for long.
To Stacey Moltchanoff and Sarah Campbell and Steve Tierra and Drew again--thanks for excellent scissor work!
To the wheel team-Phyxx, you out-did yourself...such a beautiful mechanism! Else-great work again. And Lisa, well, this is the best one yet. Also thanks to all who contributed fortunes to our wheel.
To the painting crew-Else, Lisa B, MC, and Drew (again!), and Nadise Whiteside.
To the fabric team-Laurie Smyth and Ruthie Merritt and Lisa B, -you all rock! Thanks Ruthie for all the encouragement and enthusiasm!
Thanks to Wendy Addison for the books and inspiration.
To Mark and Lois-when we asked for something extra with lighting, I knew we asked the right people. Dr. Danger- you were so much there when we let out our triumphant cheer when we realized our ( your) lighting worked! Yay!
And I gotta say biggest thanks to the Shrine builders--especially to Michael Coy for not only building the Shrine (twice now), but co-designing the mother as well. It was bigger than we both originally thought, but man did it look great! And l owe you a case of Pepsi for the back painting.
And Tim McG.- we truly couldn't have done it without you. In a piece all about luck-you were the good luck we were always hoping for. Same goes to our younger crew--especially Drew and Truman, but you too Jackson and Pearce. Thanks for rockin' it back there. And Else-thanks again for all your work and energy. You were so huge to our project. Are you recovered yet?
Last and not least, our neighbor Catherine, who donated her back yard for almost two months of insanity. I actually thought we could do this in our driveway???
Thank you everyone!!!
MC, Tony, Lisa, Else, Pati

Our Transport Saga, continued!

Well, if you're on Northbay Burner mailing lists, you have heard bits of our plight. "Fortuna", due to a series of missed communications (we guess, noone knows for sure) has been stranded in our (wonderful) neighbor Catherine's back yard, without a ride to her destination at Burning Man '08.

Stay tuned...

at sunset last evening...

from the back...

Here, some shots as things start to take on more visibly finished form... It's this back (the blue) that Michael & Else finished over the previous night. Later, last night, things were completely dis-assembled for packing.

There now appears to be some question about how its all going to get there... Seems like our trailer-pulling truck may have headed off without us.

Back-up plan?

The Night Crew

These two worked yesterday... all through the night... and they're out there still (5pm).
Art Farm Medal of Valor recipients.

And then there was FABRIC

We were thinking that a little theatrical draping might help to frame Fortuna well... and lo & behold, 2 of our friends (Ruthie & Laurie) are fabric mavens-- AND long lost friends! They appeared to have a good time sewing up a beautiful storm yesterday...

where we'll be: 3:45 & 'B' street

This just in... (the group we're camping with is named Harmony, or Harmony in the Desert, FYI...)

"If you happen to be coming in at night, you'll see a huge beamer light coming off the top of our truss (smaller than some we have, but think luxor and visible from accross the playa), and colored lights just above the parachute... otherwise we shouldn't be too hard to find during the day if you remember 3:45 and B. We have a big green parachute (but there are a few others around also), 2 converted school busses, oh yeah, and look for all the lawn swings! (A number of our campmates have lawn swings as art cars... if you see anyone driving a swing out there - they are probably one of us!)"

Two Days Left!!

How time flies when yer havin' fun. Um, it also flies when you're about a week behind on a project that has only two more days left, but, whatever. It'll get there.Our newest Art Farmer, Else Olava, a very talented and dedicated (!) artist. Talk about good luck.Nadise Whiteside, a graphic artist in Occidental, heard about the project and stopped by to help. Thanks Nadise! And the ever awesome Michael Coy is seen in the background-but where's the ever awesome Tim McGinniss? He's there somewhere.Else continues her "Fortuna" siding painting.and I finally make some (slow) progress on our actual goddess. Take your time Tony, you've got a whole day left.

go team, go!

Not too many pictures got taken yesterday, but this was the scene near 9pm last night. Painting has begun in earnest.

...and did we mention that there'd be lights? Not just basic lights, *special* lights. Mark "Suits of Light' Ferrari (aka Dr. Danger) & Lois arrived last night with the lighting plan, and an infusion of other needed elements. Mmmm, In and Out burgers and Zachery's pizza and mmmm, beer!

--L

The Latest Drawing

(Lisa here) When I woke this morning, I found this drawing done by a sleepless Tony, showing current visions of the piece (o, so much to do in three more days!) This drawing is probably meant to aid in color choices. Tony's been looking to imagery of gypsy wagons, as potential color sources (below, some images culled from the 'net)





...and true to Tony's multi-cultural approach, he's also looking to Tibetan Temple decoration.