what is red and black and clear?

    In her CES art room, my wife has plenty of real artwork for the students to view, question, and think about. Over the summer the room received a fresh coat of paint. She had me come in Monday, two days before the first day of classes at the Carrollton Elementary School. With a tall ladder I installed three hung works and placed works on top of shelves where she wanted them.

ABOVE, a few years ago we bought this metal blossom from the Primary Colors Gallery in Independence, MO. A heavy nylon line tethers it to the ceiling with two pencils. This was my engineering solution. See following photos.

Simply push up the ceiling panel and let the pencil do all the work. It works well.

 

Next, this yellow and green soft sculpture was created by a former student of my father at Concordia University and it is made out of sewn fabric.

In 2013 I used school supply packing paper to create a large weaving, BELOW. It measured 5 feet by 10 feet. This year I moved it to the opposite wall. My wife likes it very much. Tissue paper, yarns, and other bits of color have been added to it. Double click on images to enlarge.

It is tethered across the top in four places, BELOW.

As large as it is, pencils and string loops suspend it nicely.

On the top of cabinets, from the ladder on which I perched, items were set where she directed. The ceramic glazed tile sun was made by Jan Marxhausen. It measured 24 by 24 inches.

Above one closet a horizontal textured angel was lifted. The painting was signed "Art by Faye 2006." It measured 24 by 52 inches on composite board. The artist lived in Seward, Nebraska.

On a shelf top were put two paper mache frogs by the Overland Park, Kansas sculptor Maryellen Munger.  We bought these two at Linda Lighton's studio a year ago.

 

Spring Chick by Jan Marxhausen, welded metal. A happy face made of rusted heavy metal parts.

Next, when I was finished accomplishing her list, she showed me what I could build with. A sink full of this year's packing materials. Clear inflated units. In storage was the remains from the previous year. I could use any of it that I wanted.

Marvelous 

bright 

slick 

patches 

of color 

with stickiness. 

Yeah !!!

Adhesives   
to join the plastic units  
into a vertical column.

 First two minute video of nine foot creation.

there are trails

going up the back side 

you can see thru the front side         

there are suspended patches     

jutting off the edges  

held in place by  strategic stickiness  

And the whole column hovers away from the wall, so you can see behind it.
A lone pencil at the top secures it in places. How cool is that. I spent a chunk of time creating, peeling, manuvering, flipping joined sections over. A great time seeing this form unfold in front of my eyes. Oldenburg on a small-scale. Pzamm!!!

Second two minute video.

Classes start again on Wednesday in Carrollton, Missouri.
Have a good year Miss Jan!!!!!!


(Munger link courtesy of http://www.msubillings.edu/library/ABC/ArtistPages/Munger.html# accessed Aug 17, 2015)