the "more light" installation diary, part 1

Install week for one of my immersive solo exhibitions is a big deal and involves all sorts of work and emotions.  Since this isn’t something everyone has experience with, I thought I’d share a little about what it was like to be me from July 12 to July 18.

Public Works Art Center was the first “real” outside gallery to allow me to do one of these exhibits way back in July 2021.  The first one ever was at Lander and it was great, but since that was essentially “home” for me, it was a big deal when Kevin Morrissey called and asked me to do something similar at the fairly new PWAC in Summerville, SC.  He hooked me up with the Executive Director, Jana, and everything went perfectly.  In the years since that exhibit, Jana has remained a very good friend and we’ve often talked about when it might be time to bring my work back to PWAC and to Summerville.

The stars aligned a few months ago and there was an opening in all 3 upstairs galleries at Public Works.  Since Jana and I had tossed around several ideas over the years, it just worked out perfectly for me to come in and do all three exhibits at the same time.  Jana has handed the curatorial duties over to Linda and she immediately got me some information and secured lodging for me for the week.  All of this was happening as the spring semester was rolling along full speed and Linda was very understanding of how busy I was and she trusted me to handle everything, even when I didn’t quite get things to her on time.  I appreciate that.

Trust is a big deal with an exhibit like this.  Drawing on the walls of a white space gallery is just shy of blasphemy.  Of course, having done it there before, Public Works knew more about what they were getting into and they knew that I was likely to do it on time and with a smile.  This is why I teach my students the importance of being nice and working hard.  Sometimes you get a show because people know you can do it.  So as time got closer, I did actually sit down and write an artist statement and figured out who was going to be in my curated show.  Even later, I finally dug through all the art in my studio and in my basement storage and got an inventory list together.  Again, Linda was the essence of patience during this time.  

I’ve said before that show dates on a calendar are very abstract ideas to me.  I put them in my phone so I don’t double book myself, but I don’t make those plans and that exhibit real in my mind until just before the event.  I slowly allow myself to think more deeply about the logistics as time gets closer, but honestly, about a week out, I’ll actually start focusing all of my attention on it.  Heck, I was still making new drawings for this show just a couple of weeks before loading up.  

On Saturday, July 12, I spent the morning carrying drawings outside and loading them into my car.  I think there were 23 of them and they all just stacked up, smaller on top of larger ones until the back of my car was nearly full.  The small sculptures started stacking along the edges and in a tightly packed plastic bin that would have to go in the trailer along with some pedestals and a large sculpture.  After the art was all checked off the list, I began loading in all the extras.  I grabbed extra paint and sandpaper in case of emergencies, all my mural equipment and markers, and all the “just in case” items for the week.  My rule is that it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.  That night, I packed my running stuff and a bag of shorts and white tshirts.  Then I spent most of the night thinking through every detail of the week ahead hoping I wouldn’t forget anything, you know, during the time I should have been sleeping but my brain wouldn’t let me.

loaded up, gassing up

On Sunday, July 13, I was up with the alarm at 5:10am.  I ran, had coffee and breakfast and hit the road to Summerville.  I arrived by 10:00am and was met at Public Works by Linda who was ready to work.  A few minutes later, Katherine, the world’s best install assistant arrived and we all set about carrying drawings and sculptures inside the gallery.  Once everything was inside, it was time to figure out where it all went.  Linda had a ton of other things to do, helping artists pick up the previous exhibit, patching walls and repainting.  With Katherine’s help, we were able to arrange all the drawings in the space pretty quickly.  We made a couple of fine tuning switches and then, in just a few minutes, we had all the drawings hung on the walls.  It went very fast and I was happy with the progress.  This allowed me to get the first two wall drawings up before leaving pretty late in the evening.  Katherine unwrapped sculptures, thoughtfully placed them in the space and worked on making things for the Vault exhibit while I drew on the walls.  Some artists were still dropping off work for the curated show and I got to see Logan Woodle and Kevin Morrissey while I worked.  I love them.  After dark, I found my way to South Porch Artist Residency, my sleeping place for the week, and got to work on my other project for the week, drawing tons of Post-It notes for the Vault Interactive exhibit.  I did this until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer and fell asleep.  

Katherine helping me "eyeball it" and make sure each drawing is exactly where I want it.  The drawings begin to relate to one another and begin a visual conversation.

End of the first day of install.  Not sure about the pedestals yet.

finished the first two wall drawings.

On Monday, July 14, I was awake early without an alarm.  The excitement and brain activity kept me from sleeping too much.  I ran at a nearby park and left a free drawing on a bench before getting a shower and heading to Coastal Coffee to grab some coffee.  One of the highlights of my week was that Coastal Coffee has added amaretto flavor to their menu.  I grabbed two coffees and headed to Public Works.  I saw my friend Emily from Public Works and a few other people who have studios in the building.  Everyone was so nice and I got a ton of wall drawings done.  I completed most of the main wall and started a new wall.  I felt really good about my progress and decided to go to Matt’s Burgers for dinner.  I decided to stay outside in the sun and air for a while and walked around the square.  I needed to get away and have something else on my mind for a bit.  Found a cool vintage shop, Retro Fly Vintage, and made it out without buying anything, but those vintage floral Doc Martens boots, oh man, they were tempting.  Went back to work on the walls for a while and then headed back to South Porch to continue working on Post-It notes until bed.  It was a very good day.  

Found a beautiful friend to run with at Azalea Park.

Two coffees and the mural box.  One coffee for breakfast and the other to fuel my day.  Ready to get started!

The development of the "main wall" along with a sculpture placement that felt right.

The Retro Fly Vintage store.  They play vinyl records while you shop.  Cool people.

End of the second full day of installing.  The walls are interacting with the drawings and sculptures now.

As you can see, I'm getting up early each day, working hard going up and down a ladder or crawling around on the floor all day, trying to remember to eat meals, and then working more on another project until I literally can't keep my eyes open any longer.  

While the physical part is demanding, there's also the mental strain of drawing on the walls knowing that you can't make a mistake and knowing that people are in the space watching you do this.  You ever try to draw with someone looking over your shoulder?  It's not the easiest thing to do.  

There's also the constant intellectual demand.  What does this image mean?  What other three or four interpretations can I also expect?  Will anyone be offended by this?  Is there any possible interpretation that would undermine my narrative?  Did I draw that correctly?  The shape is not exactly right, now how do I fix it?  Is this communicating exactly what I intended?  How did I get to be 53 years old when I still feel 12?  Am I a real artist?  Do these people think I'm a punk?  Am I going to be able to pull this off by Thursday?

Being in another town and having so much that must be done by a specific deadline creates a mental space for me that is completely focused.  I'm thinking about the imagery and composition while I eat, while I run and apparently while I sleep, for better or for worse.  Everyone at PWAC was available to help if I needed it but they were also careful to allow me to work uninterrupted for hours at a time.  I guess soon we'll find out if that worked.  

Stay tuned for the next part of the story.

a busy summer part 2: the top secret mission

We rolled into the hotel parking lot in Summerville, SC a bit closer to 5:30 pm than I had hoped.  Violet and I were set to perform a few songs during the Rad Dad Concert at Public Works Art Center that started at 6:00 pm.  We checked in, threw our stuff down, changed clothes and ran back to the car.  We were on time for parking, but by the time we walked into the gallery, we were a good 5 minutes late.  (Sorry y’all.)  The concert had just started so it was all fine.  Our cool friend Dan Riley was in charge and he kept things very informal and comfortable.  When he asked us if we were ready, it took us a few minutes to get things organized but that kept us from getting too nervous.  It was odd to not be in our living room with our music laid out on a table in front of us.  Violet had to hold the music because I don’t always remember the chord progressions.  I really had to concentrate because her hand was shaking, it was dark, and my eyes are old.  We rocked the first two songs but I kept screwing up the third song, “Betty”.  We never figured out what was wrong, but we both agreed the chords sounded terrible so it was definitely something I was doing.  We did one more song on ukulele and then we were done.  The pressure was off and that was one more thing I could take out of my mind.  One more compartment I could close.  We were so pumped to get to hear Dan play with both of his kids.  That was definitely the highlight of the night.  It was also very cool to be playing in the gallery filled with my artwork.

After the concert ended we started taking down my exhibit.  We stashed the drawings and sculptures out of the gallery so Dan could start painting over the mural.  One coat had the entire wall drawing invisible and gone forever.  We grabbed some really good burgers at the burger joint across the street and then got Crumbl cookies on the way back to the hotel.  Everyone except Blue was asleep by 11:00 pm.

We had planned to hang out in Charleston on Saturday before starting our secret art mission at 5:00 pm.  We got up, I ran, and we all headed to breakfast at The Vicious Biscuit.  It was so good.  At breakfast we decided to change our plans and shift it to doing back to school shopping for the kids.  We spent most of the day at the outlets and while I walked around with everyone, my mind had shifted to the mural I was about to start.  I didn’t know what I was going to draw, but I had some ideas on how to use the very vertical space.  I was also trying to problem solve how I was going to plan and execute the entire mural from the top down.  This is not how I usually work.  I like to move around the composition as it evolves.  All this was playing in my head as I “shopped”.  

After shopping we headed back to the hotel.  Actually on the way we had to make a very important stop for Blue.  This summer he fell in love with Cane’s chicken and the closest one is in Summerville.  He was happy we had to make so many trips to the area this summer and this was the reason he was glad to be town again.  After Cane’s, we made a quick stop at the hotel.  G and the kids were heading back to the dogs at home and Katherine and I were preparing to be up very late doing the mural.  We found a food truck near the hotel and got some really good food from Page’s Okra Grill to fuel our night.  We all loaded up G’s car with as many drawings and sculptures as possible and wished them a safe trip.  Then Katherine and I went inside to prepare.  Our friend Dan set up the scaffolding for us as soon as the building closed officially at 5:00 pm.  The idea was that the scaffolding was going to block access to the bottom floor of the Art Center so we only had from 5:00 pm Saturday until 8:00 am Monday to complete the whole thing.  Not a lot of people had been told about the event so we totally ran with the whole “secret mission” thing.  Muraling is still associated with graffiti so the idea of coming in under the cover of darkness and working all night seemed to fit.

We got started very quickly with the first image.  I didn’t want to waste any time.  There are a couple of things about me that played into my approach to the mural.  First, I have no interest in staying up all night.  Ever.  I love my sleep.  Snacks and naps, remember that.  Second, I like to get stuff done.  I’m all for goofing off and having fun, but work comes first.  I needed to get this mural finished by the deadline and I wanted to do it without missing any sleep.  Keep in mind we had limited sleep during the previous week and we were pretty exhausted.  So I lit into the mural as quickly as possible and my mind started clicking, putting things together fast.  A lot of people asked me if I knew what I was going to do before I started.  The short answer to that question is no.  But that answer is deceptive because it seems to give people the idea that I just waltzed into the situation unprepared.  While I did not sit and plan the exact things I wanted to use on the walls of this particular space, I’ve spent years developing a lexicon of images with distinct meanings.  With each new drawing, I use my cast of characters to tell a specific story.  I have years of sketchbooks teeming with images I’ve saved for just such an occasion.  So I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do, but I did come in with my mural box filled with black, red, yellow, and blue markers and about 5 years’ worth of sketchbooks.  I had ideas, just not detailed ideas.  I knew I wanted to use bold black outlines and add some pops of color.  I knew I wanted to use some images of creatures from the land, sea, and air.  I knew I wanted to create a very positive message based on helping others.  I also knew I wanted to make it personal in some way.

When I did the gallery mural for my show, I asked a few of the artists in the adjoining studios if they had any requests.  I did my best to work those requests into my narrative.  I had an idea to do something similar this time.  I had the privilege of getting to know Jana, the Executive Director, Emily, the Assistant Director, and Jana’s husband Dan during my exhibit.  Two of Jana’s kids performed at the Rad Dad concert and I also got to talk to them a little.  The kids had a couple of requests for the stairwell mural and Emily had a tiny one too.  Those were little sparks that started to build and grow as I started drawing.  

That first night, I was at the top of the scaffolding, sometimes standing on tip toes.  Katherine kept having to hand or toss things up to me.  I’d finish an image and scour a sketchbook for the next idea.  Then I’d ask for another.  I knew what I was looking for, but I was never sure which sketchbook it lived in.  Image after image, the mural started to develop slowly and the space started to fill from the top down.  By 2:30 am I had drawn enough that I felt comfortable stopping for the night.  

Sunday was going to be a long day and it started with an early run.  I think the alarm went off at 7:00 am.  Katherine met me outside for a 5K and then we grabbed Waffle House to go and ate breakfast in the parking lot of the Arts Center.  We started working a little after 10:00 am and only took a short break to walk next door for take-out.  We started adding color and I immediately loved what it added to the mural.  As time went on, we were able to start lowering the scaffolding, eventually removing it completely.  The mural was engulfing us now and it was easier to see what needed to be added as we neared the bottom.  We had a few visitors but mostly we were able to work without stopping.  By Sunday evening, I wasn’t worried about finishing on time.  We worked until midnight and tried to get some food on the way out.  That was a bit of a mess actually.  We had encountered all sorts of food related issues over the last week and this one would be no different.  We found a Cookout that was still open and it was on the way to the hotel.  On the way we found the 4 lane road completely blocked by police and we had to navigate around that in the dark.  We pulled into the parking lot and I got confused by the two lanes of drive-through traffic.  After ordering, I apparently managed to pull up to the wrong window and I was handed two small bags that were clearly not what we ordered.  I reiterated my order and the lady got a bit sassy with me about what I ordered and what I DIDN’T order.  I was hungry so I repeated my order again.  She said “OK” and went away.  When she came back, she handed me the same two bags but also handed me a milkshake.  I was confused but I had a shake so I moved on.  Pulling into the hotel parking lot we realized we had a completely different order and I had been eating someone else’s stray hushpuppies on the drive.  We briefly considered going to another restaurant nearby but soon decided it wasn’t worth the effort.  We were exhausted and sleep was more important than food. 

On Monday I ran alone along the exercise path I found near the hotel.  I was able to think about the mural and toss around ideas for the few small open areas left to fill in.  At this point we mostly had touch up work to do and then we’d be finished.  We checked out of our rooms that were so kindly provided by Cambria Hotels and stopped at Coastal Coffee Roasters on the way to the Arts Center.  I found this place when I was doing the gallery mural and loved their coffee.  We were not disappointed this time either.  We took the time to leave a butt drawing on one of the tables outside and then drove over to do the finishing touches.  While we technically needed to be finished by 8:00 am Monday, we had completely dismantled the scaffolding on Sunday, so the stairwell was open to traffic.

We ninja-ed in through the back door to keep with the whole top secret thing and got right to work.  We still had a drive ahead of us and I knew it would still take a while to get all the details right.  We had discussed some things we wanted to do so we quietly started our tasks.  While I was crouched down on the stairs, Jana (the Executive Director) walked up and quietly sat at the top of the stairs.  She had been in earlier that morning to see the mural and had noticed a particular personal touch inspired by her children.  She mentioned it calmly and I smiled.  I could see that it had affected her and I knew it would affect her family each time they came in.  That moment was worth the entire weekend of work.  

Katherine and I finished up and started packing.  Of course I could have stayed another couple of days adding things and touching up stuff, but I usually have no problem calling something finished.  It was time for the next adventure and we needed to not outstay our welcome.  My cool refurbished mural box was loaded to the top and we loaded up the last pieces of art that were too big to fit in G’s car.  I think we grabbed a taco somewhere before finishing the drive in a flash-floody rainstorm.  The day before, the upstairs air conditioner at home decided to clunk out.  This meant that after G made spaghetti and Violet and I watched a funny Netflix special by Tig Notaro, we’d all be camping out downstairs to avoid the sweltering head upstairs.  More adventure awaited the following day and we needed our rest.  

...stay tuned for "part 3: the concert"...

a busy summer part 1: the artist in residence week

The McAbee Summer Studio Sale was July 17 (thank you to everyone who made that a great day).  After the sale ended at 5:00 pm, we raced to put the art away and return the furniture to its designated places.  Later that night I tried to pack tools and clothes for a week-long stay at 701 Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia.  Sunday morning I was up at 6:00 am to run and to pack up the truck for two conjoined adventures.  The house was a little less topsy but still a little turvy when I left.  This is also an accurate description of my brain at the time.  

I’ve been lucky to have so many great opportunities this summer and I don’t mind being busy.  The constant adventures have required me to compartmentalize things pretty tightly.  Leading up to the sale, I tried to only think about the sale and all that was related to that.  Once the sale ended, I focused on the week-long Artist In Residence stay at 701 CCA.  I tried not to think about the weekend adventure in Summerville, SC that was stacked on to the end of that week.  

The first adventure was painting a mural and leading a summer camp for the Boys and Girls Club.  This was planned back in the spring and I requested an assistant because, well, I’ve worked with kids before and I knew it would be a full time job just doing the camp.  They hired Katherine to be my assistant for the week.  She’s worked for me for a few years now and I knew I could trust her artistically, that she’d do a good job with the kids, and that she could tolerate my nonsense for a week.  She also has tools and that became a very handy thing pretty quickly.  We arrived Sunday just after noon and got to work prepping the wood panels for the week.  My circular saw and belt sander both died fast and permanent deaths.  They were cheap tools that I bought 25 years ago so it wasn’t a major loss, just inconvenient timing.  Katherine walked to the trunk of her car and popped out a saw and a sander and we were back in business.  We spent the entire afternoon cutting and sanding a few hundred square feet of wood panels.  We got some take-out food from across the street and then primed all the wood before quitting for the day.

After a good run on Monday morning, we were ready to meet the kids when they arrived at 9:00 am.  It was chaos.  No, not really, but even though we were very prepared and had everything ready for the kids, including step by step instruction, it sometimes felt chaotic.  Around noon I realized the idea of actually producing a work of art on my own while also leading this camp was not realistic.  The kids took both of us full time to manage in order to keep them from getting bored and off task.  Jasmine was their main leader from the Boys and Girls Club and she let us do our thing and only stepped in to manage the kids when she thought they were being too loud.  We went through brainstorming and sketching ideas in the camp that day.  The kids left at 2:30 pm and we were exhausted.  Still, we had a few hours of clean-up and prep work for the next day, so we took a short snack break and got back to it.  Late that night I was able to put some marks down on my mural and once I had an idea of where that was going, I felt a little better.  

Tuesday was more of the same.  A good run through the mill villages helped me gather more ideas and feel a sense of the place where my mural is designed to go.  A couple of bananas and some coffee had us ready for the kids at 9:00 am.  We both spent all day working with the group trying to get everyone ready to start painting.  Most of Tuesday was spent getting students to think about composition and how to fill the entire space with images or words.  We broke the Elements of Design down into bite sized chunks and talked about balance a good bit.  Most of them seemed to understand quickly, which was cool for a group with an age range from 5-13.  We may have had an orange and a granola bar for lunch.  At 2:30 the kids boarded their bus and we took a quick break before spending several more hours getting paint ready for the next day.  The clean-up and prep work was a killer.  I spent a little more late night time on my mural before turning in exhausted.

I’ve been a bit lazier this summer with waking up.  When I’m working at home, I may sleep until 8:00 or 9:00 am.  This made the 6:00 am alarm feel a bit traumatizing.  Once I was up and outside running, I felt so much better.  We were very lucky weather-wise, though.  My friend Paul Matheny, a Columbia area resident, once told me “there’s nothing between Columbia and Hell but a screen door.”  I mean, Columbia is called “famously hot” for a reason.  But we lucked into some cooler than usual weather this week.  There was a bit of rain for a few days, but the mornings were dry and the morning air seemed cool while running.  I am grateful.  

Once the boys and girls were painting on Wednesday, I slipped back to my mural and let Katherine take over.  She advised, encouraged, and directed each student while also providing paint and clean up instructions.  Most of this was individual and the kids worked pretty diligently.  They seemed to enjoy the process.  I helped out in a couple of the busier times, but I was able to get a lot more done on this day.  After the bus left, I continued to work on the mural while Katherine handled the clean-up and prep for the final day.  By midnight on Wednesday my mural was looking more and more finished.  

Thursday was the final day for the camp and that meant we had to get everyone to a finish line with their mural by the end of the day.  Some students were “finished” as soon as they started.  Some took their time and could have worked another month.  Art teachers will understand this.  It’s a delicate balance and you have to have things prepared for students to do during down times.  Some had to wait for paint to dry, some actually finished, and some just got bored and wanted to do something different.  We had cleaning sessions and we had helpers to do all sorts of tasks during these times.  We also had a community mural on extra wood panels that students worked on during these times.  After lunch on Thursday, several of the ones who were finished helped transfer the community mural over to the panels before it was time to go.  We ended up finishing on time and we somehow managed to keep the paint from becoming a permanent part of the building we were in.  It took a lot of plastic and so many hours of scrubbing, but we did it.  

Most nights we grabbed quick take-out food from nearby restaurants and ate in the mural painting room.  Pawley’s Front Porch was a highlight of the take out week.  We ran to Main Street one night late and caught a restaurant just before it closed.  On Thursday we needed to get out of the building for a while so after a few hours of cleaning, we headed back to Main Street to sit and actually enjoy some food.  It was ok, but not stellar.  All week I had wanted to get a Double Doozie from the cookie place.  Blue and I LOVE Double Doozies and I had stopped at this location about a year ago to grab a couple of Doozies to take home and had a somewhat bad experience with the worker who clearly didn’t enjoy her job.  I tried to run by and get one on Wednesday but they had already closed.  We were a little earlier on Thursday, so as soon as we finished eating, we briskly walked to the cookie place.  There was a considerable line but Double Doozies are worth a wait.  As we waited in line for just over 20 minutes, I noticed that most of the patrons were buying ice cream (Marble Slab occupies half the space).  Katherine noticed that there didn’t seem to be any Double Doozies on display.  I didn’t worry.  It takes 30 seconds to make one.  You take two cookies and squeeze white icing between them.  As a long time Double Doozie buyer, I’ve seen this happen on many occasions.  We typically order 4 because if you buy 3 the 4th one is free.  Blue and I eat 1.5 each and Violet eats 1.  When I finally got to order, the young guy looks at me for a second and then walks over to the cookie side of the restaurant.  He looks around aimlessly and then opens a cabinet door.  He slowly comes back and says, “Umm, we don’t have any.  Sorry.”  I took the high ground.  I thanked him and walked out.  

We found a restaurant across the street and decided to just grab a dessert there.  I opened the menu and to my delight I saw that they had cremé brulé.  I almost forgot about the cookie.  The waitress came over and I ordered.  She looked at me like I had said something in a foreign language.  “Umm, I don’t think we serve that”, she said.  I showed her the menu.  She said she’d go ask.  Guess what?  They didn’t serve it.  No dessert for me.  I finished my water and headed back to my room to eat peanut butter M&Ms mixed with disappointment.

Friday started at 7:00 am and that was delightful.  I ran through the USC campus and passed people going to freshman orientation.  The sun was rising over the city skyline and I was feeling good.  We had made it through the camp and I only needed a couple of hours to put finishing touches on my mural before storing it.  There was still a LOT of clean-up to do but after a few hours, we returned the building to the condition we found it.  My paint dried enough to move the panels to storage just as G and the kids pulled into town.  They helped move some stuff and then helped us pack all our stuff into the cars.  We all drove to California Dreaming and had a nice late lunch together.  It was the best food we’d had all week and just what we needed before starting the second part of our adventure. 

I think I may have been at fault for being late for the next part.  Lunch was good and I took my time enjoying it.  I had to do a bit of texting since I had been missing from online stuff most of the week.  When you compartmentalize as well as I do, you tend to totally ignore messages that come in if they don’t fit in the compartment you’re in.  I don’t see this as rude, it’s simply a way of surviving and doing my best on a project.  It was getting close to 3:30 pm and we were still sitting around the table.  We still had a drive to Summerville ahead of us so we decided to get on the road.