How to make Art a Reality....

The last few months, our lives have been possessed by a unique partnership and a 18' tall sculpture.

In case you have not seen the tweets, the facebook or G+ posts- or seen me with stain and paint embedded on my hands- we are now neck deep in The Infernal Device. This Art Prize entry is a unique partnership between three groups of artists- Todd Cahill, builder of the windmill, is based out of Massachusetts. Ogre and I are the builders/creators of the body of the Machine, and responsible for all of the structural, engineering bits. Myke Amend, Steampunk artist  extraordinare, is creating a 21 foot long mural on a 7 sided wooden "drum" that will rotate in the center of the sculpture. There are tons of pictures of the building of the machine/sculpture on the Infernal Device Facebook page.

After months of creative stretching and hard physical labor, we need your support. there are several things you can do to help make this an amazing success.



1. If you are in Grand Rapids, come out on Friday Sept 16 and help us move this pieces of the sculpture from the warehouse to the Gerald R Ford Museum, which will be our venue for the duration of Art Prize. We will need some extra hands both to load and to unload and do final assembly on site.  Drop me a note or comment if you are able and willing.

2. If you are within driving distance of Grand Rapids, come and vote for our entry. Ogre and I will be there in person Opening Weekend ( Sept 24- 25), but Myke Amend will be there every day. We are looking for volunteers to plan/organize some Steampunk parties or outings around the Device as well.  Votes that are entered between Sept 21- 28 will determine the Top 10 who are announced on Sept 29. We need as many votes as possible during that first week to continue in the contest.  You can register online to vote, but you must visit an Art Prize venue in person to vote. There is more information on the Art Prize Voting page.

3. If you want to support our entry and efforts, but are too far away to visit and vote, you can donate cash to help cover costs.  Between now and the end of ArtPrize, we will have 10 nights of Hotels ( many thanks to the Grand Rapids Radisson for an artist discount rate) , at least 3 rounds trips- some while hauling the trailer and  food enough for survival.  If we win, we will be able to recover material costs, but if we do not, we will have invested several thousands of dollars out of pocket on top of everything else. If you would like to see us continue to build cool art, consider dropping some cash in the hat. The best news is that we are sponsored by the Kokomo Art Association, so we are officially a 501(c)3 and all donations are tax deductible.

•   We are set up on TweetDonate:  Just Tweet : “$XX TweetDonate to @roguepuppet"  and you will get an @ tweet to a donation link.  Be sure to put the amount in place of the XX. 
•  Donate privately & securely via paypal.  (see the button above)
• Send a check:   make it payable to Kokomo Art Association / in memo: for Infernal Device             

                       to: Infernal Device c/o Brauns 3385 Sycamore Lane, Kokomo IN 46901. 


Most importantly? Get out and enjoy some art- if you can not get to Art Prize, find your nearest gallery, museum or college exhibition. Take a few hours and let the art seep into your soul . 




Updated NOTE:  9/12 updated: working with some GR installers/distributors and the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association... all great folks, and hoepful that by eod tomorrow something will work out.  Will update with the names of our helpers when it is finalized.  [that our Solar Panel Sponsor is NOT going to come through. I will have to buy solar panels ASAP. This is either $600 we are looking to raise, or accepting loaners. If you are a solar panel company and want free PR, we will borrow and give back, with option to buy if we win.]

How to Maintain a Tradition and still Innovate Art.

This hexagonal structure is a furnace that gets rebuilt every couple of years.

It is the furnace where they melt the ingredients for Kokomo Opalescent Glass.  We are incredibly lucky, here in the City of Firsts to have the oldest remaining factory in the US who still makes old fashioned Stained Glass sheet glass.  They have been making art glass on this site since 1888.  The glass comes in a multitude of colors/color mixes and textures that are "printed" into the glass when it is rolled into a sheet.

This glass, that starts its life as what looks like a pile of sand, and gets carried by running men in giant metal ladles to go into the rollers, has ended up in many cathedrals around the world.

The results of combining up to 5 colors of glass at a time and a multitude of textures is a series of rooms of gorgeous sheet glass- each one slightly unique in all the world.

In addition to being shipped globally to repair old stained glass ( a series of batches went out to Japan this summer to assist with repair stained glass in cathedrals damaged in their recent catastrophes), this glass also ends up in new art, like that made locally by Little Town Glass and OgreWorkshop. Look Carefully at glass in the top cog- what do you see that was created by the mixing of the glass?

The KOG factory does tours all week. The day we were there, there were stained glass lovers from three different states and some local folks as well. It made a great Geek Family Outing for three generations of our family that day. You can see more pictures, including shots of the glass blowing section of the factory, in this album:

Kog

The Gnomes Revolt: Cthuluhu

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In the time of the Dark Mysts, when the Elder Gods freely roamed the lands, they created the Gnomes for their entertainment. Simple, easy going, nature-loving folks, the Gnomes lived in the gardens, peacefully tending the flowers and plants, at one with nature. Occasionally, the Elder Gods would visit the garden, play amongst the Gnomes and Snack....


 The Gnomes, being simple, peaceful garden folk would occasionally notice one of their comrades was missing, but assumed that they merely wandered off to another garden- oblivious to the carnage in the dark.

Many of the Gnomes would play or lounge in the gardens, not even noticing that Elder Gods were near.

 This co-existance continued on for many eons, until some of the other creatures in the garden grew bored and restless.
 There was a demon in another garden who was particularly bored, and plotted ways to amuse himself. When a Gnome happened to wander into his garden, he took advantage of the situation by giving the gnome a book. Once he had taught the gnome to read, trouble was sure to follow.


When the gnome settled peacefully into his garden for a good read through his library, the Demon also endeavored to teach the Gnome magick. This was easier than you might imagine, as all things created by the Elder Gods have a small piece of the Gods within them, and thus a piece of their magick as welll. It became merely a matter of teaching the Gnome how to awaken his magick....

The Magick Gnome cast a spell, removing the illusions from the eyes of the Gnomes and letting them see the Elder Gods clearly. 


Soon Gods were startling the Gnomes everywhere they went. 


Chopping down a tree would reveal Cthulhu in the brush.

Exploring the garden alcoves, once a favorite pastime of the Gnomes, became fraught with fear. 

One day, A young Gnome hit Cthulhu with his slingshot. It bounced off and the small Gnome approached to retrieve the rock. 

Gnomes playing on a rope hanging from the Old Dogwood Tree were horrified to see the small Gnome sucked into the tentacles of the Godr. 




Gnomes quickly gathered, horrified, unsure what to do to save their compatriot, (there is really nothing that can be done, once a God decides you are dinner).































Frustrated and Distraught, one of the Gnomes made the ultimate symbol of displeasure. This so enraged Cthulhu that he continued snacking on Gnomes until none were left.  







Alone in the garden, Cthulhu surveyed the land. Realizing that there were no longer any Gnomes in sight, even in nearby gardens to wander over, He knew the time had come to move on and find a new garden....

Tomorrow morning, Cthulhu will be traveling to Origins in Ohio, looking for a new  home. Will he be able to find a garden of Gnomes and other tasty creatures ( chipmunks are quite tasty as well....)  in your yard?

An Art and Technology Cocktail

What happens when you mix together Artists, Engineers and Scientists? A recent course at Purdue undertook this experiment and produced results that can be seen in the show "Images of Nature" which opened last Friday night and runs through April 29.

With installations as varied as dance routines with motion tracking that explore the effects of prosthetics and disabilities on movement, to a Greenhouse constructed of recycled windows, there is something in the show for everyone.


One of the interesting things about this show is that the blog from the class is public, so you can get insight into the influences and progress of the projects during conception and construction.

If you are in the Lafayette area over lunch or right before dinner in the next 10 days, be sure to stop by the Frontier building at 7th and Main and see what mixing together technology and art can produce. It is a result both sweet and intoxicating.

For more information on the class, see the overview video.  For more of the sights and sounds, you can click through on the slideshow to see my photo album.

 

old school does not rule

Tonight I got contacted by an old friend whose wife makes hand crafted jewelry and is trying to sell it online. "How do I get in the top of the Google search results?" I explained the basics about how Google ranks sites and pointed them to the concept of Search Engine Optimization. But when I tried to give them my real advice, I hit a brick wall.
"Do the easy SEO stuff, but I would not waste a lot of time trying to game the system. With handcrafted articles, you would do better to have her focus on some social media sites, become active and develop a network of people who know her, like her art and spread the link with their friends".
I got a blank silence on the other end of the phone. "So I could use a really obscure keyword and then use it to test when the Google spider has revisited the site and see what changes with my rank, right?".
We went back and forth like this for several rounds, slight variation on the words, but the same underlying meaning. No matter what I said, he was convinced that the only way to be successful was to get highly ranked on Google.
I finally caved. "You could always pay to have your site in the top listing...."
"Yeah, I think that is a little beyond what we want to do."
I did not have the heart to tell him that Adwords was not necessarily as expensive as he thought.
"well, I wish you luck and hope some of this was useful..."

How do you convince people of the value of social media without them living it first hand??