Wednesday Traveling Thesis... on Tuesday

            On Sunday I drove from Maine to Massachusetts to set up in the Meeting House Gallery. I left later than I wanted to because the larger of the two pedestals Mr. Riverdragon and I worked so hard to build didn't fit in the car. Thankfully we were able to just partially disassemble it and make it fit. I took the hammer and nails with me in anticipation of putting it back together as part of setting up the show.
            It turned out that getting it out of the car was also a problem, because Mr. Riverdragon was the one who made it fit in there, and he didn't tell me the secret trick to get it out again. So I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to wrangle the thing out. But! I succeeded, and then successfully put it back together, good as new.
            On Monday, I got up in the morning and headed over to the gallery to set up. It took seven hours to set up the display. This sounds like a long time, but it is actually significantly better than the first time I set it up. A wonderful friend of mine came over to the gallery and hefted the big tree trunk all by herself to get it into the gallery for me. That trunk weighs something like ninety pounds, and I really can't carry it myself. It feels kind of funny to have built something that weighs nearly as much as I do. I made it, but I can't carry it around.
           I like the gallery a lot. It has nice wood floors and these pillars around the room. It is in the basement of a large building, so the pillars are necessary structural things, I'm sure, but they divide the space nicely. At Simon's Rock I positioned the display in a corner, but far enough from the wall that people could walk around all sides of it. This time, I positioned it near a window. The gallery is only open three days a week, so the window will allow the plants to have light regardless of the gallery lights being on. There was a pillar that could be considered in the way, but I just wrapped the sheet around it and made it part of the display.
            Here are some progress pictures I took while setting up.

            You might notice that the plants are different than the ones I used in December. Here's a shot of some of them hanging out in the motel overnight:

            The plants I used last time mostly belonged to the housekeeper of the building the display was in, who kindly allowed me to borrow them for my exhibition. The other plants that were mine unfortunately did not travel well - they were root bound and I didn't have time to re-pot them before the road trip, and they just got sadder and sadder until they died. So these are new plants, that I intend to actually take care of now that I'm living in one place reliably for a while.

            The plant that is placed in the bottom pool is actually a calla lily. I'm really excited to have that plant because it will have beautiful white flowers if I treat it right. Also, conveniently, it likes having its roots submerged in a bog-like situation. So it's perfect for my display!
            On Wednesday I'm going back to the gallery to help set the lights and check on things to make sure they are all working right. I'll also take some pictures of the finished product and share them here, so check back soon! I'm thinking I'll post on Wednesday, but if not, definitely Thursday.
            If you are in the Berkshires for the next two weeks, come see the show! I'm not the only sculptor there, and it's promising to be a really beautiful exhibition! Come to the Meeting House Gallery in New Marlborough, MA, from 11-4 Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from June 22 - July 8.