MoCA Mask 2009

The deadline for MoCA Mask turn-in was today at 4pm.  I was 30 minutes early.

Next year I solemnly swear I'm going to complete my mask by the midway point! Procrastination is a mixed bag. This year it was a bit too tight for comfort. This material is much more difficult to work than I anticipated, though I loved every minute of it.

Lazy Afternoon...

I pulled out the rasp today and began trueing the surfaces. Probably a bit to early as I will likely continue to substantally work the basic design.  But that's the way I work: smooth it up a bit to see if it's going to be to my liking, then rough it out some more.  There are some interesting life-parallels here.  

In the process of revisiting this stone every few days, I notice I have becoming intimately attached to it. It think that's more to do with what it does for me than what I do for it.

I hope I can keep track of this one after the auction.

For this first image, I wiped the ribbon area with a wet sponge to mimic the effect of polishing.

Another Good Day

In reverse order...

Progress!

After weeks of procrastination, I finally got back to my Mask project.  It may not look like it but I made huge progress today. Part of that progress is not and will not be visible. Progress of the Mind. This first photo is just after the piece was drenched with water.

Daily Grind

Done cutting and grinding. Next step will be working in detail with my little air chisel.

Masked Progress

Some basic rough-out this morning...

MoCA Masks 2009

This weekend I am beginning the ideation phase of the now-annual ritual: preparing for the Museum of Conteporary Art’s annual Masks at MoCA fundraiser.

Each year the mask form takes on a new shape. This year’s mask seems to come from a island culture: a bit of indigenous broad-nose African influence with a hint of Oompa Loompa. I think it is the best one yet.

I’m leaning toward a pedestal-mounted Escher-esque "wrapped ribbon” concept executed in a beautiful piece of Honeycomb Calcite marble I acquired three years back.

More MARBLE/marble XX Photos

I didn't write or photograph nearly as much this year as compared to past years--I think mainly due to being at only 80% due to fighting a mild cold & cough bug all week.

The M/m Experience was no less wonderful, however. In fact each year I think somehow I find a deeper, more life-encompassing benefit and appreciation for this amazing opportunity. Without a doubt, I will continue to be one of the first to reapply each year.

Here are a few more photos...

This photo overlooking the Crystal River was assembled in Photoshop using 10 shots from my Nikon DSLR. Its a 180° view which necessarily distorts the image.

One of the highlights of M/m every year is the "Face Off". Here are a few shots from this year's first session.

The Wrap-Up Party is alway memoriable. Especially due to one very special person...


Gracious hosts of Raspberry Ridge (as well as very fine happy hours), Gary and Patsy:

And a few photos captured by excellent photographer Kanae Fukuhara:

A Fort Collins Jazz Experience

Tonight is the kickoff for Fort Collin's first jazz festival: A Fort Collins Jazz Experience. Just in time, we installed 'Saxy' in the front window of Centennial Galleries early this afternoon.

Saxy!

We lost our internet connection at MARBLE/marble which explains the lack of updates these past few days.

Just back from an amazing experience at the 20th annual symposium. Thank you Madeline and M/m staff!

"Saxy"

Day 5 - Monsoon

Ended the day with some wonderful homemade pizza at Patsy and Gary's (owners of the Raspberry Ridge Inn). Dinner ended with a torrential downpour -- early arrival of the monsoon, Gary speculates.

Most of the day spent finessing the lines and learning how to use my delightful little Bantam air chisel.


The MARBLE/marble experience is a amazing as ever, though I wrote much more lengthy posts in past years.

Day 4 - Fractured Wind

The Claronet is dead.

Early today Kathi Caricof noticed a tiny fracture near the bell of what was to be the duet companion for my sax. Fin. The sax is doing well, however. I think I'll name it 'Saxy'.

The daily workshops at MARBLE/marble are worth the price of entry. I've not been attending them this year but stopped into the "face off" for a few photos. See past years for much more detail...

I'm not tenting this year. Instead, staying at the "Raspberry Ridge Inn" next to M/m. Some mountain feline ...

Crystal River Sundial Project

An exciting new installation is taking place on the grounds of the MARBLE/marble symposium: an Analemic Sundial. Most 'garden variety' sundials are off by as much as 15 minutes in either direction and require an accompanying correction graph plotting "the equation of time." An anelemic dial incorporates this sinusoidal correction thus obviating the need for a separate graph. A well-designed analemic dial can be read accurately to within about two minutes year around. An anelemma is often printed on the side of globes.

My first exposure to analemic dials was from an article in Scientific American back in the 80's. I immediatly began programming my own dial generator using "Rocky Mountain Basic" on an HP9845--a very cool desktop computer (technical desktop version of the HP 300) which predated MAC's and PC's.

Our Crystal River sundial is to be engraved on a slab of marble also serving as a coffee table overlooking the Crystal River (see photo below). Without a perfectly flat and perfectly level (or known orientation), computer-generating the dial is out of the question. Instead, we've embarked on an emperical approach using a radio-controlled clock, a hammer and a chisel. Over the next month, during the three sessions of MARBLE/marble (July 2 - August 5), passers-by will be placing tic marks on the quarter hour. Next year at this time, we'll hopefully have enough data to carfully and elegently carve the hour lines into the table as well as add other decorations such as compass points and an appropriate inscription.




Update 23-SEP-09: Back in 1985, I was very deep into the trigonometry of sundial generation. Here are some notes I made for the purpose of explaining the analemic projections on the dials...