DAY 188
10.09.07
TREE 110
I got to teach a 3-D art class at IUS today from 1:15 – 4:15pm. I showed them some of my work, some of Mark Jenkins‘ work (the guy who I learned the tape casting technique from), then had them cast body parts.
Then they took those parts and put them together to make three bodies.
They installed them in the hallway in the Arts building.
It was a really fun class and they all seemed to enjoy themselves a lot. I had to give them a survey for grant reasons and one student wrote that he learned that you an make art from cheap materials. That is a good lesson to learn.
Anyway, after that was done I took off my nice shirt and went to look for a tree to climb on the campus. I went over to the building to the left of the Arts building. At the back corner was a young sweetgum tree that was just slightly taller than the building. I thought that maybe I could get into the roof from the tree. I waited till no one was around and then ran up the trunk, grabbed the first branch and began to climb.
It was an easy climb with planty of good, strong branches spaced evenly apart.
At the very top I looked for a path to the roof but there were none. So I took in the nice view on this amazingly clear, sunny day.
I swayed a little at the top, took a leaf, then climbed down.
I was spotted on the way down but only by a student who didn’t seem to care. I snapped a couple more shots then headed back to the Mary Anderson Center. Though it was an easy climb, not too challenging or hard, it was good coupled with such a successful class.
10-10-08: That was such a good experience. I really enjoyed teaching Elizabeth Raleigh’s 3-D class. There were 18 kids in the class and it made for a perfect number for 3 bodies. 3 torsos, 3 heads, 6 arms, and 6 legs. Everyone got to throw in a body part and everyone participated. I was a little surprised because the experience can be uncomfortable but they were all super willing. Especially for the heads. But it made for some really interesting bodies too, since everyone’s not shaped the same. It was really awesome to see them get into the installation of them as well. One of the groups body was collasping so they went and got some fabric to stuff it and they spent a while positioning their bodies exactly where they wanted them.
I should also mention that the link on Mark Jenkins‘ name at the top of the entry is his website. I highly recommend visiting and checking out all his work… it is very good stuff. I met him in 2006 while I was staying with my brother in NY for 2 months in the summer. I went with a friend to the Graffiti Lab talk. Mark was there discussing his work and technique and described his work as very open-source and was eager to spread his knowledge of what tape was best and how to do it safely. I believe he has also inspired other art classes to do tape casting as a project.
After a climb like the one on Tuesday night in Chicago I knew, back in Louisville, I might not be able to find another tree with as exciting of a view as that one. But I went out with a positive attitude on Wednesday night and walked down Washington Street towards Adams and spotted a nice, big Magnolia tree by a law firm house.
I have yet to climb a Magnolia for this project. So I was excited to get in there. I walked up to the trunk and scanned for a way in. The branches weren’t low enough at the trunk but they drooped down on the outskirts in spots. I was careful to watch out for any neighbors or cars going by as I did not want to be seen. After pacing a little while to wait for some cars to go by, I grabbed a branch and began to pull myself up. New tree types are always interesting to climb because I never know how they branches will behave. As I climbed this first drooping limb I was very worried it was going to break since it had so much movement as I moved. But thankfully it held. Possibly Magnolia limbs are like Gingko limbs… very bendy but strong. I got to my feet and began to move up through the many entangled branches. Another thing I found about this kind of tree is that dead branches stick around for a long time just waiting to get knocked off. I knocked off quite a few as I went up and was nervous I was going to call attention to myself. I did scare some sort of animal out of the tree which had me nervous for the rest of the climb because I did not want to come upon some angry raccoon that I didn’t see coming. That also did not happen, so when I got to the top I was able to concentrate on taking pictures.
Magnolia branches are curled, bent, and strong. It made for one of the most maneuverable and comfortable tree tops to shoot pictures and sit and watch over the quite neighborhood.
I climbed down breaking more dead limbs off on the way and sat on the last limb to wait for my moment to drop out of the tree. It has to be done fast because someone could turn the corner on the sidewalk or drive down the street at any second. Whether they would care or not, I don’t know, but better not to tempt it. I got down and walked briskly back across the street just as a car came up and drove past. Another successful climb.