Saturday, August 29, 2009

The coloring of the rocks has begun


Here is a little update on the ArtPrize project. We finally got all of the rocks brazed together in groups so they can be attached to the board later after they're colored. Today Thomas worked on the stand that will hold the piece and I stated coloring the rocks with various chemicals and treatments to get some vibrant colors out of them. The stand Thomas is building is amazing! I will post some pictures of it soon. He is building a stand that kind of hands the sculpture out in front without you really seeing the stand too much at all. He is crazy detailed about getting it perfect. The Lord definitely gave me the right person for the job. The rock coloring is going well. I am really excited by the way they turning out. Sorry I don't have any picture to put on here yet.
One thing I want to take a moment to say is how thankful I am for all of the help I have received from others so far. My dad, Brad Savickas, Scott Ouzts, Josh Koziej all have helped with the production part of it. Laurie and Thomas have done so much for me in this I can't even begin to list it. Insisting I eat with them has been just one of the great blessings. Kellie Norton and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (the venue) have been GREAT too. This has all been a wonderful experience so far! I will post again soon. Please feel free to ask any questions you have in the comments section, I would love to answer any questions I can for you.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

New ArtPrize Video! (Vol. 4)

Here's the latest video documenting the production of my sculpture for ArtPrize. I posted it here because unfortunately I used a copywrited Mute Math track for the background audio and they turned the audio off on Youtube. I think if you view it from my channel on Youtube though and you can still hear the audio, it really is much better with it. The track is The Nerve from Mute Math's brand new album Armistice which is great.
Last night, while working on the sculpture, I got a good burn from the acetylene torch. It turns out 800 degrees is pretty hot afterall. Tonight we will be continuing to attach the rocks together in groups of 20-40 so they can be attached to the backgroup in several large chunks. We are also going to be making the waterline on the three big rocks that need to appear that they are sticking out of the water. We're going to do this by actually putting them in a kiddie pool, filling up with water and making a line on the rocks where the water comes to. maybe I'll get some pictures. I', hoping I get done in time to make it to our friends house for smores tonight.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Start of a Big Week

So tomorrow at 5am I'll be kicking off a mad week of work on this artprize project. I hope the furry of manpower does not negatively effect the quality of the final product. By the end of this week we should be done or almost done with it. Pray for Thomas and I if you think about it, we'll be putting in like 16 hour days mon-tue & thu- fri. -then my brother in law's wedding saturday which all of the rest of my family is in. I'll try to pop in here and update but if not, you know why.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

It's a New Day

After night
comes the light
dawn is here
dawn is here
it’s a new day
it’s a new day
everything will change
things will never be the same
we will never be the same


As I sit here this beautiful Saturday morning the sun breaks through the trees at a sharp angle from left to right. Fewer leaves are being disturbed by the subtle breeze than those that are not. The upside down copy of the trees on the lake surface is competing with the original for "best in show."

As I sit here I have been blessed to remember something. We can come to this spot, and by this spot I mean any one of an infinite number of places amongst creation, with the heaviest of burdens or weightiest of occupations, and be blessed with a truth that the created world is insistent on reminding us. -That HE is forever making all this new.
The cycle of day and night. -Fall Winter Spring and Summer. -Death and resurrection. -Old put away and new sprung open. Everywhere it's built-in, -can you see it? It's a new day. Everything will change. Things will never be the same. WE will never be the same. Breathe in the air of the fifteenth of August two thousand and nine. This day has never been lived yet, -by you or anyone else. Live it. Be a good steward of it.

And should you mess it up, it will die and there will be another born tomorrow.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Jumping Back in to the Blog Pool

So here I am returning to this place of forgotten intentions. I figured since I was working on this ArtPrize project I would start my blog back up and not only document its progress day to day but throw in some random thoughts about life from time to time. I will do my best to make it worth your while but definitely no promises there. I still plan to do a weekly YouTube video on the production of the ArtPrize sculpture that you can find here.So... regarding the sculpture: FINALLY all of the
rocks are are formed! I cut, hammered, and welded the last one today. I'm sure once we start attaching them to the board we will have to alter or redo some of them, but for now no more making rocks. phew! Now... well now is the next fun phase of grinding all of the excess welding material off all of the rocks. That's 10-20 welds per rock x about 300 rocks. I ground rocks for
about 10 hours today.
Thomas Ouzts is the metal fabricator that is helping on the project (I could never have done it without him). He finished up some of the welding when he got home from work today too.
One of the best things about this project has been getting to know and working with Thomas. He listens to the same country radio station all the time and somehow I don't even care!
ArtPrize announced the 1000th artist today. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm really excited for this whole thing and what it is bringing to the city. I just hope it does good for the cause of art. We'll just have to see how it all shakes out. Anyway, tomorrow its another day of grinding rocks in at the shop in Cedar Springs.