sculpture deathmatch 2022

This year's Sculpture Deathmatch was Saturday, April 23.  Held during the busiest semester of the academic year and during the absolute busiest part of that semester, the Deathmatch is something that I keep in my head all year.  I'm always "thinking" about it.  When it should be scheduled is important, but I also have to carefully consider how I'm going to do it.  I have to know the date in order to put out the call for volunteers.  Then I have to know the volunteers in order to know exactly how I need to divide up the teams.  Then I need to know the teams in order to know exactly how much chaos to conjure up during the event.  

This year Victor wanted to be in his first Deathmatch and he indicated that desire to me early on.  He also suggested that it would be fun for him to be paired with only one other team member, perhaps a freshman.  I was very interested in the idea.  I love to get mismatched teams and see how they perform under the intense pressures of the Deathmatch.  

Soon I had a date set and a large list of volunteers.  Shirts and stickers were ordered and the snacks were purchased.  

The weather was perfect and there was definitely an excitement in the air.  Violet wanted to help again this year and she was appointed as one of the judges.  I was up at 4:45 am to run and after coffee, she and I were headed to school.

Freshmen are reluctant to participate in the Deathmatch because they don't know a lot of people and the whole idea is ridiculous even before you consider that a freshman has no sculpture experience.  I recruited MG because I liked her energy during plaster pouring day.  She admitted she was apprehensive but she still jumped at the chance for an adventure.  She joined Victor to create Team Ducks.

Team Leave It On The Horse was a bit of a super-group.  Michael, Georgia, Lux, Abbie, and ECoop have a lot of sculpture classes in their past.  Michael and ECoop are return contestants and none of them are afraid of anything.  Seriously, any one of these students would make a good solo contestant.  

At 8:45 am the teams were announced along with the rules of the day.  Each team was given a 12" steel sphere, 60 feet of 3/8" steel rod, and a plastic container filled with recycled plastic lids.  All of these materials had to be used in the creation of their sculpture.  Other materials could be used as well, but they had to use all of the provided materials.  They were also asked to pick a number between 1 and 5 with no explanation.  Team Ducks chose 4.5.  Team Leave It On The Horse chose 1.

Both teams understood the importance of using time wisely so they immediately got to work.

It was interesting to see MG jump right into an important role working with Victor to create their design.

MG also got a crash course in using the plasma torch.  Victor showed her the basics and then left her to cut out shapes while he formed them with a hammer.

Meanwhile, the opposing team was multitasking with everyone doing a different job and moving very quickly.  

We had a good group of spectators all day.  Sure, some just came for the food, but many of them set up camp and stayed all day while doing work for final projects or just hanging out and having fun.  At noon, we devoured several pizzas and the big surprise was unveiled.  This year we introduced the Wheel of Misfortune.  This 2 foot wide wooden wheel contained 8 horrible misfortunes and the teams were forced to spin.  Remember that whole "pick a number between 1 and 5" stuff?  Well, the number each team chose was the number of times they had to spin the wheel during the day.  Both teams spun for the first time at noon.  Lucky for Team Leave It On The Horse, they chose 1.  They got a "no welding for 30 minutes" misfortune and they were free.  Team Ducks, however, had 4.5 misfortunes to deal with.  This was hilarious for everyone except Team Ducks.  

Providing annoying hourly time updates is a fun part of the event.  This year Hannah reprised her role as our Deathmatch Hannah-Hannah Clock.  Each hour she posed with a new tool to announce the time.

During the afternoon hours, several trips were made to get supplies.  A couple of food runs and a supply run to Lowe's and Walmart were necessary.  The teams continued working while I took my Minions to gather supplies.  

Our friend Abigail was in town on a job and she stopped by to visit.  Seeing Victor in anguish caused her to step in and see how she could help.  Team Ducks needed a few tutus for their dancers and Abigail was on it.  She took some measurements, some fabric and some wire and disappeared for a couple of hours.  

I love teaching people how to use power tools and I especially love teaching people how to weld.  As the 2 person team struggled to divide up the labor, MG quickly needed to know how to weld.  My favorite part of the day was getting to teach her.  She showed no fear and was a natural at it.  Within 10 minutes she was welding completely on her own.  

By this time, Team LIOTH was already painting their sculpture outside.  They began with a simple idea for using their materials and just kept stacking more ideas on top.  Each team member was providing input and helping to solve problems.  Even with 5 team members, they still ran into their fair share of issues but they were moving right along with no outward signs of panic.  

Around 7:00 pm, Team LIOTH was putting on finishing touches and planning their installation.  Georgia volunteered her truck to move the sculpture, saving a lot of time and effort.  Soon the sculpture was oriented on the pedestal and safely anchored.  Then they made a few final adjustments and they were done!

Team Leave It On The Horse with their spider family sculpture.  A job well done.  They worked together as well as any team in Deathmatch history and Micheal didn't burn his hands off this year. They were now able to relax and wait to see if the other team would finish.  

Panic had set in on Team Ducks.  As the minutes ticked away, major design changes were required.  Victor and MG worked together to come up with solutions and there was a lot of movement in that final hour.  As the clock neared 8:00 pm, other heroes stepped in to help.  Katherine helped MG with some tasks while Ethan appeared like an angel and became a crucial helper in that last hour.  

Team LIOTH was watching and Georgia offered to let Team Ducks use her truck to save time.  Soon there was a large crowd gathered in the dark at the final pedestal.  Victor and MG applied paint while Ethan held the sculpture in place.  A few anchors were placed and around 8:45 pm the second sculpture was installed, just 15 minutes before the deadline.  

A very relieved and exhausted Team Ducks posed with their sculpture. We all went back to the studio to clean up and put away tools before heading out to dinner.  

So who won?  

Well, most of the judges were present during the Deathmatch and witnessed the spectacle.  We let the dust settle and on Monday all the judges saw the finished sculptures in daylight.  Each judge turned in their vote to me and the winner is......

Team Leave It On The Horse!  Congratulations to Michael, Abbie, Lux, Georgia and ECoop!

the bfa show of '22

This year I had all the BFA seniors in my ART 410 class to help coordinate the BFA exhibits.  There's a lot to do leading up to the installation and the actual installation and un-installation of the exhibit is pretty much a whole semester of work in itself, so we decided to try to have all the seniors in one class this time.  This allowed me to have everyone on the same page through the semester as they completed the work for their exhibits, prepared artist statements and turned in contracts and marketing materials.  Almost none of that was photo worthy so let's skip right to the fun stuff.

Each BFA student has their own solo exhibit of artwork before they graduate.  Like last year, we were able to coordinate with The Arts Center of Greenwood to use their exhibition spaces.  Each student had their own space in which to create their own exhibit.  Students planned their exhibits down to the last detail and as the install date approached and stress levels peaked, my job switched from taskmaster to assistant (and part-time therapist).  Students who needed help with transportation met me at the Sculpture loading dock on the morning of the install.

We are not much on rational actions in sculpture.  Pretty much everything Victor planned was ridiculous and bordering on impossible.  He was encouraged to do it anyway.  One of his sculptures took up my whole trailer.

Tien also had an outrageous idea and I loved it.  I lost count of the crazy number of individual sculptures she planned to create, but she filled an entire room with her sculptural installation.  The ones above were simply the ones that were too big to fit in her SUV.

Victor was encouraged to bring an entourage to assist him with the impossible.  Taylor and Ryan came to help.  

 

Brianna got to be "that person".  You know, the one who cruises in with some 2D work that fits nicely on a wall?  Yeah, she was nice enough to take her time in deciding about the arrangement of her photos and paintings, but she popped some things on the wall and peaced-out on us.  We were all envious.

Jordon had a pretty good idea of how she wanted to install her work, but once she got in the space with the work, she considered every aspect of how she wanted the details.  Hanging things from the very high ceiling was also going to be a challenge.  Once she had it figured out, she just needed to wait on me to figure out how to get up high.

Meanwhile, Tien gathered some help with her transformation.  Michael, Oliver and Haley all spent some time hanging paper flowers from the lower ceiling in her room.  

Caretaker John, who I'm almost certain is an actual ghost, led me up to the attic of the 1910 (I think) building and through a maze of ladders and catwalks to the balcony door to hang Jordon's work.  "Oh by the way" he said before seriously disappearing, "That ladder in the center leads up to the cupola."

I wasn't nearly as stressed as the students, so I took my time heading back.  I climbed the ladder to the trap door and exited through another tiny door before finding myself outside mingling with the cupola.  

Soon I was back downstairs assisting again.  Jordon had her work hung quickly and began thinking about how she wanted to add her crochet work to secure everything.

While Tien continued to hang flowers and fill her room, Victor had brought in all of his easy stuff and it was now time to assemble Charlotte, the 12 foot tall sculpture he created in 4 separate components.  We used Victor's team of helpers and also stole Michael from Tien.  The very precarious sculpture was assembled and raised to life.  The victory was short lived though, as we realized Charlotte did not want to stand up on her own.  Victor quickly devised a plan to sturdy Charlotte and he raced back to the sculpture studio to create a device to help.  

Chanel worked to finish her pieces in the studio and several trips were made shuttling work from school to the Arts Center.  Bek was quietly working in the back hanging her gorgeous paintings and arranging red yarn precisely.  Victor worked intensely trying not to seem frazzled.  Charlotte spent this time lying on her side before finally being raised again.  Slowly, we all let go and she stood on her own.  We celebrated.  

Tien was still hanging flowers and trying new arrangements of her work in the space.  Her room was transformed.  

Chanel's pieces were getting set up and we had to pull out the BIG ladder for one of them.  

Victor's parents arrived to help in time to stand Charlotte up and it was fun to see how proud they were.  At this point Jordon was asleep in the floor after only having about 2 hours of sleep over the last few days.  Bek was all set up except for her ceramic sculptures that were still cooling in the kilns.  Chanel was still attaching yarn and Tien was still filling her room.  We are certain Brianna was napping by a pool with boat drinks.  

The next day, those who were not completely finish gathered again to briefly put the final touches on their exhibits.  Victor also showed up to check on Charlotte, who seemed to have shifted a bit overnight.  Odd.  However, the work was finished and everything was ready to open on Monday morning at 10:00 am.  They did it.  

We gathered for the official opening of the show to the public and took a few marketing photos.  I forgot to mention that I planned to photo the students until about an hour before we met but look how great they look.  They clean up nice, huh?  

They were excited and relieved.  Most had slept now and everyone seemed relaxed except Victor who immediately wondered if Charlotte had shifted even more during the previous night.  Impossible, right?  Let's ignore it and move on.  

So we took photos and checked all the minor details instead.  Bek posed with her portraits.

Chanel posed with her tufted wall-hanging sculpture.

Brianna posed with her work, which featured nudity.  Can we show nudity in the Arts Center?  We all assumed so until we got really close to install day and Brianna finally asked.  Luckily for us all, the answer was yes.  I should have considered that question much earlier.  

Victor put away his growing anxiety about Charlotte's shifting and posed for some photos.  

Jordon posed with her powerful work and her very blue Crocs.  

And Tien's room was complete.  She was happy and proud but she was also a bit anxious about her family coming to see her exhibit.  Her show was about her family and their transition from Vietnam to America.  They were all planning to attend the reception to see the work for the first time.

Monday passed.  Tuesday arrived.  Victor texted me another photo of Charlotte leaning pretty hard to one side.  We just needed another few days from her.  Maybe she would hang in there.

She did not hang in there.  This photo was texted to me just after 10:00 am on Wednesday.  Charlotte took a fall in the night.  Disaster.

I forwarded the photo to Victor and started walking to my car.  We pulled up at the Arts Center at the same time.  Charlotte's neck/leg snapped from the shifting weight and she took a dive to the floor.  Victor had arranged all of his work around Charlotte so that if she fell, she wouldn't do a lot of damage.  She scrubbed the pedestal under her but otherwise there was no damage to the show.  We assessed the damage to Charlotte, developed a fast plan, and headed back to the studio.  My plans for a nap flew out the window as we knew that this needed to be addressed immediately and would take some time.  We needed to secure Charlotte and make sure she wouldn't fall on anyone during the reception.  We still needed a couple more days out of her.  

We found the exact parts we needed and I assembled an ambulance box of supplies while Victor made some changes to his stand and assembled another crew of helpers.  Hope, Samii, and Kelsey all arrived as we prepared to see if Charlotte was ever going to stand again.  

The "skin" Victor devised to cover Charlotte's armature was a crazy collection of Liquid Nails, plastic wrap, caulk and almost any other thing he thought of while making her.  Of course, none of this should have worked, but aside from the fall, it was all working.  A crucial steel splint was created, inserted and capped off with a Super Mario band aid created out of duct tape.  

Charlotte was once again vertical.  Well, mostly vertical.  She had a slightly different lean now that made her seem even more prone to falling.  To be stable, she needed just the slightest amount of pressure applied to her head.  

While I made preparations to secure Charlotte so that Kelsey didn't need to stand beside her for the next three days and nights, Victor began repairing all of the cracks and tears that occurred during the fall.  

The patches would need time to dry completely before they could be painted so Charlotte was going to have to spend the day in a slightly unfinished state.  I grabbed the ladder and scurried around, heading into the attic once again to make sure that Charlotte was secured with some extra help from above.  

Soon everyone let go again and Charlotte was on her own.  She stood proudly and more secure than ever.  Victor made some last patches before we finally got a very late lunch to celebrate.

Thursday evening arrived and the reception began.  As viewers filled the space there was an excitement in the air.  The artwork was exceptional and as the artists shared their work with family and friends it was a really great thing to experience.  There was relief for sure, but also there was pride.  They had made it to the final days of this long journey.  They had summited the mountain and now the trip back down would be much easier.  

Tien's family arrived and I noted the look of pride on the faces of her parents.  I grabbed this photo of each family member posing with the sculpture that Tien created to represent them.  Pretty sure I saw some people crying at this moment.  Bek's family stared proudly at super-realistic portraits of themselves and surely felt the love in each brushstroke.  Brianna's crew glowed in the light of her figures.  Chanel had to settle for a substitute dad moment but her friends were there to be her family and to be proud of her.  Jordon's family came and experienced what must have been a powerful moment of taking in the work and reading her artist statement.  Victor's parents stepped back and watched it all, smiling, laughing and taking it all in.  I took a cue from them and did the same.  

After introducing them to their viewers, I snagged this photo of the students while Laura took their official photos.  I met each of these students when they arrived at Lander, most of them 4 whole years ago.  I taught 5 of them in their freshman year and most of the semesters following.  I've slogged with them, traveled to the beach with them, given them hard words and provided some encouragement.  This was a nice moment.  

But it wasn't the end.  The next morning we gathered at 9:00 am to begin the individual BFA Final Reviews.  Each student presented their exhibit to the BFA committee and was given feedback.  At 11:30 am the final words were spoken and the exhibit ended.  Within two hours the entire gallery was empty.  Nothing on the walls, nothing suspended from the ceiling and nothing on the floors.  A couple of trailer loads and a few car loads later, it was all over.  

Four years ago they started out with the goal of learning about art and earning a degree.  In a couple of weeks these amazing goofballs will walk the stage and accept their diplomas.  

i need a nap

The spring semester is always the busiest one and for various reasons, this one has been a tough one for me but there have been so many bright spots.  As a means to remind myself, I'll take a few minutes to share some of the highlights from school related stuff.

At the end of the advanced sculpture class early on, we all needed a treat.  We decided on ice cream and dipped out for our break at the end of class.  I feel like this should be a more regular thing.

Visits from former students are awesome.  Katie and MoLo...and MoLo's kid came for a visit.  I'm so happy I got to be one of their stops during the day.

Haley suggested we do something cool for 2/22/22.  Tutus were made, photos were taken, frolics were frolicked?  I suppose I couldn't ask for students who were more fun.  Look at these people.  These are my people.

Plaster pouring day is still one of my favorite days.  This is the first year since I started teaching that I'm not teaching a Freshman Foundations studio class but I'm glad I still get a chance to meet the freshman art majors on this wonderful day.  

Victor.  Always I highlight.  Actually all these people are cool.

Spring break gave me a couple of days to finish a drawing and several days to wake without an alarm.  I also got to do a couple of workshops for area art teachers.  Candace Cannon invited me to lead a wood drawing workshop at Lexington High.  To my surprise, one of the high school teachers was my former student at Winthrop, Allison Hendrix.  It was fun to catch up with her.

Then I got to go to Walhalla High to do another drawing workshop and got to spend the afternoon with Stan and Jarecki.

It's been so long since I got to hang out with Cessquatch.  I love her.  I met Brandy my first semester teaching at Lander and taught her for 4 years.  We've stayed in touch, even though she's now an award winning graphic designer with a big company I wont name unless they pay us.  You know the friends you haven't seen in a while and and when you do, you immediately feel like besties again?  That's Cessquatch.  We talked and laughed for a few hours until Starbucks finally kicked us out.  Look for our new talk show on your favorite network in the future.  Hello Netflix!  We're ready to talk.

Timmy got his hump removed.  Over the last year or so he grew this thing that looked like it was going to be a second head.  The growth just below his neck started to interfere with his mobility so it was time to cut it out.  Our vet is awesome so if you need a vet we can hook you up.  Timmy recovered fast and he's doing great, four pounds lighter.

I took my Sculpture 3 class to Greenville to hang out with another former student from Winthrop, Katie Poterala.  Katie is a super cool jeweler/artist and she taught us how to do some metalworking with brass.  It was great.

That's Katie beside Ashley (2nd from left).  She was kind enough to let me play with metal too.  Her place is called Make Made and you can go there to buy stuff or book your own cool party workshop thing.  My students loved it.  

I took my sculpture students on another trip too.  I knew they'd love the sculpture exhibits at the Columbia Museum of Art so we took off on a Friday morning to see some Rodin and a great contemporary artist.  We also did a photoshoot at the State House and hiked to a pizza place.  Such a fun group of people.  

I've been busy with school but I've also been turning out new drawings.  I needed to replace some drawings that sold in order to be prepared for a solo show coming up in May.  It's been a pretty productive semester creatively.  And not just for me...

My students get tired of me yelling at them to work more but it actually pays off.  My upper level people have installed several new public sculptures on our new concrete pads around campus.  This is Ana putting some finishing touches on her plant lamp.  It's a solar powered night light based on a Chinese Lantern flower.  

There are many other highlights as well that have not provided easy photo opps for me.  There was an amazing high five with ECoop.  There was an art competition where my sculpture students took 4 of 6 possible awards.  There were classes with my MFA students where they really impressed me with intermedia art.  There were conversations with students about serious topics where hopefully I was able to be helpful.  There were student who learned to weld.  There were visits from Victor's parents, who I love.  There were students who finished sculptures that were absolutely amazing.  And there was the entire week of working with my BFA students to set up their solo shows...but that's for another post.  I think I'm going to go watch a movie with Violet and rest.