the memphis opening

this is the opening food about 10 minutes into the opening

and here is the same food 30 minutes later. In case you were wondering the menu was, meatballs, eggrolls, seven layer dip, a vegetable plate, brownies and iced tea.

notice the sweet tea on the left is completely drained, while the unsweet tea remains partially drunk,note this was the only consumable left behind after the swarm of students descended upon the food.

imagine the chocolate brownies that once stood upon this spot

and a good time was had by all.

The Memphis Piece+Brilliant Stuff Merch Booth

these are a couple of shots i took on the drive in to memphis in the town of brilliant alabama, i definitely need stop back through there if i have time and weather permits on the way back.

I managed to get the merchandise display put together and have already seen a few of the glow in dark t shirts head out the door. unfortunately i wasn't able to get my new stickers here in time, but I should have some of those ready by the time i go to Berlin. After this show I will set up a proper online order system so people playing along at home can get shirts posters and other brilliant stuff being produced along the way.

The opening is tomorrow night from 5-7. I will do my best to get a few action shots from tomorrow nights opening and hopefully get on my merry way back to SC by friday morning.

memphis day 8 on day 9

Richard Lou the chair of the department, and the one who invited me here, checks out the progress on the memphis piece.

the little stick that got away

I have reached the end of construction on the piece and need to resolve the lighting, clean the gallery and finish something else before the opening. I am giving my artist talk today. giving a talk is something that always bookends a project for me. It causes me to take stock and think about how I got where I am now. In this instance I can immediately see the lessons learned in the making of the city gallery piece and the norman piece synthesized into the memphis piece. In particular is the intersecting planes woven back through the structure that emerged in the norman piece, and the severe curves and lyricism of the city gallery piece. I am continually amazed by the variations and discoveries i am making along the way.

the boxes of sticks used to create the memphis piece have been inserted one into another to form a meandering line, then promptly flattened and recycled....

so I am rearranging the component parts of the styrofoam travel crate i made in order to make something special for the opening.

memphis day 7

and on the seventhe day a laundry and powerpoint work day was created. I actually did sleep in a little bit this morning, alarm bell at 8 rather than 6. I managed to runa load of laundry and do some other work and still make it into the gallery by 1. I worked on fleshing out the intersecting planes and resolving the leading edge and cleaning up a bit. At first I was unsure about the industrial carpet floor, but have warmed up to it as it allows for a little more grip along the foot of the piece. I am enjoying the direction this piece has taken and can see it being resolved very shortly.

memphis day 6

todaythe intersecting planes from norman piece made an appearance in the memphis piece. only a couple more work days before this is resolved.

memphis day 5

today's inspirational lesson from the university of memphis holiday inn.

memphis day 4

so today i worked on the left side bringing it closer to the other side, tomorrow i will try and take the piece in a new direction, with only 5 work days left until the opening i need to pace myself now that we are at the half way point. I did find out today that the day after the opening i will be on a morning tv news show weaving my way through their segment, that should be fun.


I have some amazing accommodations for this gig. The university of memphis has me a room in the university of memphis holiday inn. Not only is this the nicest holiday inn I have ever seen, like my room is a suite with a living room and a kitchenette, it is also the holiday inn museum. The floor i am on houses a gallery full of the holiday inn founder's personal relics and a wall of text panels with his inspiring adages and aphorisms. The hotel actually doubles as their school of hotel and hospitality management. It really gives me that little get up and go that it takes to get through day, especially the panel pictured here.

i will try and snap images of all the different ones in there.