Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Diorama is moving along.....

Hannah and I received the "girl discount" at Alro Steel despite the fact that a "girl" waited on us. 60% off - we will take what we can get! Chet cut two 24 foot poles to perfection and welded them together (muchas gracias, Chet). It's been a week of sanding, puttying, and welding. By Friday we should have the plywood bent inside for the backdrop that David Hannon has willingly volunteered to paint (get a website David so I can provide everyone with a link). Everyone is getting as excited as we are to see this take shape.

The images....

The base after Joseph Beuys. This will remain raw steel after we polish off the black grime that I wear on my face to photography class after spending a couple hours in the foundry. The main difference is that our diorama will have casters with brakes.



Hannah holding the post-it with the dimensions for the caster plate.



Chet's "love" welding glove (yes the other one says "hate") while cutting the steel.



The welding "uniform" (out of necessity). We discovered that the soap stone pen writes excellent graffiti (i.e. swear words) all over the steel.



Taking a photo of Chet welding without looking at the light.



We had to cut down the size of the diorama (no more 4'x4'x4') because we realized it wouldn't fit through any door other than the woodshop. So the new size should hopefully squeeze through Hannah's office door where we plan on moving this monstrous work of art to start carving out the terrain.

In addition to miniature versions of the earthworks, the diorama will also include:

1) a naked man swimming off the top of Spiral Jetty.
2) Jimbo on the lip of Roden Crater, pink balloons, & a few salt licks here and there
3) green rocks and a bell at Amarillo Ramp
4) an antelope running through Lightning Field
5) a cowboy hat blown off someone's head into Double Negative or blue tulle
6) doormats at Sun Tunnels

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