posted 9/21
LATE NIGHTS

If you had peeked in the windows of the Art Barn (Finch Lane Gallery) last night around 3 am you would have seen me, ipod on, dancing around the room, oblivious to world and time, making alternating dashes and swoops with pastel sticks. Unfortunately, you wouldn't have seen a finished ninety foot drawing. But pretty close. I'll have another late night session tonight and then it should be done. The Deseret News came in to photograph me (earlier in the day, when there was no ipod and no pirouettes) so look for it, hopefully, in tomorrow's paper.

In the larger space with taller ceilings, the drawing doesn't quite dominate in the way it did in the studio, but I'm assured that it's still pretty big.


posted 9/19
GETTING THERE

About 60 feet of Tiamat is up at Finch Lane. I had thought I would put everything up and then finish things up in situ, but when I found out how rough the walls are (years of exhibitions going up) I decided to keep the central panel at home to finish things. Which I better do pretty quickly since there are only a couple of days left. As soon as I can get everything in there I will shoot it and post the images. In the meantime, here are a couple more to tease you with (we've got three people lined up to get sections, so if you don't want to have to wrestle someone for the piece you want Friday night, get your deposit in).

Our 4-month old isn't quite sure what to make of it yet. But, then again, neither are a lot of the people that have seen it in process.

Chiana (seen here looking at the East section), on the other hand, has already participated in the interpretive process. When I was working on the south/southwest section and the drawing was still fairly rough, I asked her what she saw. She said "Mellificent," referring to the witch in Sleeping Beauty. For the life of me I couldn't see what she was referring to and when I finally had her go up and point to it I realized that a small portion in the shape of a V looked somewhat like the witch's headdress. Initial interpretations at Finch Lane have also been interesting, so I'll keep mum for a while on my own reading so as not to taint anyone's vision.

A section of the East wall:

posted 9/14
COST AND WHO GETS THE RAZOR BLADE FIRST

I had thought my first entry on this project would be a short description on how this project came to be (a few gems of insight to make what you see Friday night a little more comprehensible) but I've already had a few questions on how this exhibition is going to work so let me address that first.

Tiamat is a large drawing on Canson paper executed in pastel. It is on three large continuous rolls of paper measuring between 22' and 33' (and a couple of smaller sections). These will be installed so that the paper runs along every portion of wall space in the West Gallery at Finch Lane (a total length of about 90').

The overarching theme of the piece is revisionism, as a cultural, political, personal and creative process. As part of this theme, I am inviting patrons (i.e. you) to revise Tiamat and join me in the aesthetic process by selecting portions of the drawing for dissection into smaller artistic units. Because my main interest is this focus of audience participation, the drawing will be sold at $50/square foot, making it affordable enough for just about anyone to participate.

I hope to have printouts of the entire work available at the gallery upon which patrons selections can be indicated. Also, I will be uploading to this site images of the entire piece so that you can download the images and begin cropping and rotating them to find a selection you like (some of these will be posted on this site as "audience remixes"). The piece will be dissected on November 4th when the exhibit comes down.

A couple of people have already asked about preordering. Unfortunately I won't have images of the entire thing until it is installed, but I will be posting on this page some low-quality images of large sections of the piece (if you see a section you are sure you want I will presell it). Otherwise, in order to allow a process of right of first, second, third etc refusal I will accept deposits up until the time of the exhibition.

In other words, the first person to send a deposit will have the right to select their portion first (a portion equal to up to twice the amount of the deposit). The second person will have the second slot, third person the third, etc. For example, if you deposit $50 you will have the chance to select any 2' square portion before other parties. If you want a section larger than your 2' square you will have to wait until all other parties who have made a deposit have had a chance to make their selection. In other words, if you think you're going to want a large piece, make sure that your deposit is appropriately large to ensure that someone else doesn't cut into the section you want.

Hopefully this isn't too confusing. I want to make sure things are as fair as possible, but in the end this may be a painful process. Someone might cut out a square out of the section you want. Our someone might cut in half what I think is a very strong section of the drawing. That is part of the experiment, and part of the artistic process.

EXAMPLES:

This, for example, is a nearly completed section of what will be the south wall. It is about a 5 x 14 foot continuous section (if you click the image you can see an enlargement; the enlargement is scaled at 100 pixels = 1 foot).





This is a section from the left end, middle of the piece. It has been flipped around. This section is about 1' square and would cost $50.


Below is a section cropped out of the above as well (at a ratio of 100 pixels = 1 foot). It is 193 x 245 pixels (to find this out, right click on the image with your mouse, click 'properties' and look at dimensions).
So, the piece is about 2' x 2.5' or 5' squared, which would be $250. To secure this piece before the show, a deposit of $125 would have to be made.

If the patron with right of first refusal (A) chose the above section and the person with right of second refusal (B) wanted the section below (5' x 6', about $1500)




patron B would have to put up with a gaping hole in the center:



Or, if patron B actually had right of first refusal, but had only deposited $200, they would only have rights to a section worth $400 and would only be able to secure the entire piece intact ($1500) after all other patrons with a deposit had selected their portions.

Confused? Wait till you see the entire piece installed.

If you have questions you can email me.

If you would like to make a deposit you can do so with a credit card by using PayPal and sending payment to shawnrossiter@netzero.net (or click this icon)



Otherwise, if you would like to make a deposit by check, email me to that effect. My email is shawnrossiter@netzero.net