Palm Springs Art Museum Challenge 13

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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The day had finally arrived. I was as ready as I could be as we loaded the car for our two hour drive to Palm Springs... until I was reminded that I had forgotten my butterfly. How could I forget the focal point of my project!

The Palm Springs Art Museum isn’t hard to find. Just take a right at Marilyn Monroe! The 26-foot sculpture made of stainless steel and aluminum, was created by Seward Johnson and unveiled in Palm Springs early in 2012. The Art Museum is right around the corner.

We arrived one hour early. Randall Weidner, the Artists Council Coordinator, and the person who dreamed up and organized this exciting event, met us at the museum’s loading dock with a dolly to move my project parts and supplies into the museum. Using hot glue, I had made giant bags out of plastic tablecloths to enclose my project pieces. I didn’t want to walk into the museum with everything I brought on display. I wanted there to be some surprises.

We entered the freight elevator and my camera was ready

to document every moment of the completely unique experience I was about to embark upon. But my husband, my best friend, and Randall also had cameras of their own. There may be people who enter a museum in a freight elevator on a daily basis. I’m not one of them. I had to capture the moment.

We arrived on the museum’s main floor, which was very ready for three designers with ideas for transforming a stacking chair into something creative. We each had a place to sit, a table on which to work or rest our supplies, and a power source. The floor was protected and ready for whatever we might throw on it. They had thought of everything. My pathetic little chair looked like it had been through a war. It was splattered with paint and the seat was torn. I could hear its pleading cry for a makeover.

As I unpacked my tools, there were a few museum visitors milling around. I plugged in my glue gun, my most important tool for this project. It needed to be thoroughly heated and ready when it was time to begin. As 1:00 PM arrived the seats filled up and people were standing in the back of the room. It was a good-sized crowd that grew as we worked.

Randall introduced the three designers and gave the audience a little of our background before announcing the start of the event. Although this was not a race or competition of any kind, the idea of a ticking clock loomed over us. We had 50 minutes to complete our chair transformations.

I was thankful that I had done so much work in advance. It removed any pressure I might have felt otherwise. I was confident that I would have enough time to assemble my “Woodland Perch.”

I began by unwrapping and attaching the butterfly first. It would have been more complicated to work on the butterfly if the stump and it’s sprawling roots were in place first. I heard comments behind me, people with a view of the butterfly wondering where this concept might lead. I was delighted to find that the hot glue held the black Styrofoam butterfly body securely to the chair’s metal frame. Not having access to the chair in advance, I wasn’t certain that it would.

The fabric strips I had sewn on my machine at home were attached next, wrapping around the metal frame in front of the butterfly. Hot glue was applied to the strip’s end to bond it to the metal. Then I wrapped the strip around and secured the other end with more glue.

I also wrapped the chair back with wider strips of fabric and glued it in places to act as support for the leaves and flowers I would be adding. It seemed like I was taking too long to get even this far in assembling my project when I heard Randall announce we had 40 minutes left. Had it really only been ten minutes since I started?

Focused on my own project and the deadline, I only took an occasional look at the other two artists and their progress. This was unfortunate because I would have enjoyed seeing all the steps they took to transform their chairs.

Artist Steve Maloney’s approach to the chair was to remove the seat and back rest. He and his helper also cut the back legs shorter than the front to create a bit of a recliner effect before strapping different size inner tubes to the metal frame, which he then inflated with a compressor.

What was so very interesting about this event was seeing how differently each participant met this challenge. Artist Cathy Allen, dyed white cotton gloves pink and stuffed them with wire frames, making the fingers flexible, and positionable. Like my project, a portion of her work was done before the event. Some gloves were part of sleeves that were slipped onto the legs of her chair. Other gloves were attached individually.

The next addition to my chair was one or two of the leaves I had sewn and a few flowers. I got out my placement chart and looked it over. I didn’t want to add

too much at this point. Having the stump in place on the chair would give me a better overall idea of where to position the various leaves and flowers, so it was time to unwrap the foundation for this project.

I guess it might have looked like a big lump of dark cotton candy to onlookers as I carefully pulled the stump out of the plastic.

I imagine it wasn’t until it was draped over the chair seat that my concept started coming into focus for the crowd. My idea for using Velcro on the back of the stump worked well and I was able to adjust the piece and fasten it to the chair frame. I was happy to see that the ladybugs, vines and the Woodland Perch sign were all still securely attached.

With 10 minutes to go, I finished attaching more vines, flowers and leaves.

Thinking I was done, I looked over and noticed that there were several flowers and leaves remaining on my worktable. Where could I put all these flowers? As it turned out, I hadn’t added any to the back of the chair at all! I grabbed my glue gun and went to work. When I was painting flowers and sewing leaves at home, I only had a vague idea of how many of each I might need. As I added them to the chair, I was happy to have an abundance.

With five minutes left, I stepped away from my work area to get a broader view of my project. I could see a few minor adjustments were needed and completed them as Randall called out, “One more minute!”

When the transformations were complete, the audience was allowed to step closer to the projects and ask questions. The one I was asked most was how I achieved the texture, color and shape of the stump. After I described the process, other people asked about the flowers. They were surprised to learn they were created with airbrush-painted coffee filters.

Rich experiences like this event don’t come along everyday. I’m delighted I have lots of photos to remind me of how much I enjoyed being a part of this fun event.

The three transformed chairs: Woodland Perch, Innertube Project, and Cotton Glove project

The “Palm Springs Art Museum Challenge” postings have followed each step in the creation of this project documented by photos. It includes my thoughts, creative problems and solutions along the way. The finished works will be on display at the Palm Springs Art Museum through February 28, at Zone 101 on the main level.

Miscellaneous Photos

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