"Ron, this is Sharry Miller. She's the artist," the middle school principal said to the construction manager. Ron introduced me the same way to the construction foreman.
I failed to resist rolling my eyes as I shook hands and exchanged nice-to-meet-yous with both men. "The artist" just sounded so pretentious. In this case, however, I suppose it was appropriate. I was at Valdez's still-under-construction middle school to consult about lighting the artwork that will be installed in the commons area and will stretch across nearly 30 feet of wall. My artwork.
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post in which I said I was taking a creative leap, but I wouldn't tell you what it was for fear of jinxing myself. Well, now I think it's safe to tell you about it. I submitted a proposal for one of five pieces of public art in the new middle school. Needless to say, I was thrilled to get a call from the project manager telling me that the art committee had selected my project for the largest of the five places artwork will be placed in the school.
I proposed working with the middle school students and staff (and interested community members) to make 200 vibrant salmon. The salmon will be mounted on 20 "waves" made of stainless-steel pipe which will then be mounted on two adjacent (90 degrees to each other) walls to make a giant school of salmon swimming over the commons area in the school. The photo above shows a prototype Thane and I made to test our mounting ideas, and to make it easier to explain to the art committee what I was talking about. It's currently looking fabulous in our living room.
I will do the hard work of cutting out the salmon shapes, and the students/staff will get the fun part of decorating them. Here are some close-up photos of the fish I created for the prototype.
It's been a struggle to arrange for enough time off from work to be able to complete all the fish before school's out in late May, but all the pieces finally fell into place this past week. I'll work part time three days a week for 6 - 8 weeks. Now I just have to get all the materials ordered so that I'm ready to start working with the students as soon as possible. It'll likely be April since the kids are on spring break right now, and I'll be in Las Vegas for the Glass Craft and Bead Expo the last week of March. Of course, I also need time to get at least a few dozen of the fish cut out before I head to the classroom. I anticipate several weeks of exhaustion, but it'll be worth it. I'm looking forward to working with the kids on this project, not to mention actually having it installed in the new school.
I'll keep you posted on how the project progresses. For now, please wish me luck. If you're in Valdez, I hope you'll come decorate a salmon when I'm able to schedule the times.
