Memories of an Art Exhibit

Some things stick in your head over time and you don't know why.  Let me tell you about my wife's Masters Art Exhibit and maybe you can tell me why.  JoAnn was working towards a Masters in Fine Arts degree from Eastern Washington University in Cheney  while I held an administration position with Spokane Falls Community College.  She had started her college work many years earlier in San Dago, California, completed the BA at Central Washington University while I worked there, and now was completing the Masters which required the creation of an exhibit of her work.  A room in the Administration Building was scheduled in blocks of time for each masters student's work.

When JoAnn and I looked at the space it was a disappointing rectangular room with one side almost total windows.  JoAnn started developing a floor plan that would require some temporary remodeling and sought approval.  When given the green light she enlisted me to help with the carpenter work and heavy lifting.  In short order we had the windows covered with plywood panels.  Free standing display modules, pedestals, and bases placed around the room created a path that would lead the viewers past all the art work.  That represented the weekends labor and I had to get back to my regular job Monday morning.  I left JoAnn with the task of painting all that new wood and preparing the art work to be used.  I was amazed when I next saw the exhibit space.  Everything was a soft white and a number of white canvas screens were placed so that when floor spot lights were shone on sculptural pieces, interesting shadows were cast to enhance the canvases.  Only two of these wood sculptural pieces survived our many moves since that exhibit.  You will notice smudges and cracks  that have occurred as testamentary to their age and travels.

JoAnn laid out the designs of her wood sculpture pieces and gave me sizes so I could construct rough wood pieces that she worked down to a smooth shape and finish. These two have many coats of white shellac.  We used them as decorative pieces around the home, so when a blemish would appear white shellac was the corrective measure of choice.  No telling how many coats were applied.  The taller piece stands at 46 inches while the shorter square one is 30 inches high.

You may have noticed this exhibit was primarily done in white.  In fact, JoAnn had a self  portrait of the artist at work in the studio, all in various textures of white.  Sections of the floor were covered with white crushed rock which kept the public out of some areas and defined the viewing trail.  There were limited splashes of color used to draw the viewers attention.  One such example was a site named "Heir to the Throne".  A shadow cast by a large free form white chair was cast on a large canvas on the wall.  It suggested a very majestic throne.  In the seat of the wooden chair lay a 12"long, clear royal blue resin egg with interior color which appeared to outline a fetus shaped figure.  I'll let you think about that instillation with relation to the title.

This should give you a verbal picture of the exhibit with the exception of two other very important pieces.  I had helped JoAnn build what we called "the volcano".  Construction started with layer after layer of wood rings glued together to form the rough shape.  This was then turned  on my wood lathe to produce the smooth outer surface.  One eighth inch wide vertical slots were cut through the wall of the piece, spaced around it's circumference.  Plastic strips were fit into these openings that protruded slightly above the outer surface and also into the open center area.  The photo of our volcano shows what I have been describing.  JoAnn painted the outer surface transitioning from white on top to a graded blue into black at the bottom.

  Two neon tubes,one red and one blue, were bent to form circles that fit inside the volcano.  They were connected to a transformer inside the cone with an extension cord that plugged into an electrical outlet. we were ready to try our creation.  As you can see in the darkened photo, light from the two neon rings is transferred through the plastic strips to the outer surface.  An unexpected result was the mixing of the light between the two sources, resulting in red on top, violet in the center and blue on the bottom.  The final touch  was to place crumpled aluminum foil in the bottom of the cavity so that when viewed through the opening on top the red and blue light was reflected as glowing embers.

We were concerned about the heat that our volcano generated so constructed a round pedestal, slightly larger than the base of the volcano and approximately 18 inches tall.  A whisper fan was mounted in an opening on the top surface of the pedestal which was open at the bottom and raised several inches off the floor. with short legs, thus providing air circulation to carry the heat away.  JoAnn placed our masterpiece in one corner of the room that offered the limited light to make the neon illumination effective.  I called it our creation for we had collaborated using my building skills and JoAnn's design and artistic skills so it was part of her exhibit.

A few final touches and it would be, " on with the show".  We had put in some very late nights getting everything ready as the opening date raced toward us, so we were pleased to see the end in sight.  JoAnn asked her son,a keyboard player in a band that was performing in the area, to create a tape to play as background music.  He had been by and analyzed the exhibit and was impressed with our volcano.  When we played his tape we were equally impressed with his work.  He used the full range of his synthesizer from soft mesmerizing passages to the rumble and roar of an exploding volcano.  It wasn't hard to imagine the floor was shaking and you had to take a quick peak at the volcano in the corner to make sure lava wasn't oozing from the top.

Finally, opening day arrived and JoAnn played her last trick on the viewing public.  Wine and snacks were provided, so she filled several plastic wine cups with tinted resin matching the color of the wine.  This was done well ahead of the reception so that the resin was well set and the resin odor had dissipated.  These containers of fake wine were set among the real wine filled cups and blended in convincingly.  It was fun to watch the expression on the unsuspecting wine drinker that chose the glass of resin.  They all were good sports and became part of the crowd around the snack table to watch others make the same mistake.  A tension invaded the onlookers when the Art Department Chairman strolled up to the table and chose the resin wine.  The group watched as he moved from one cluster of people to another.  Finally he sampled a sip only to discover he had been fooled.  He moved quietly to an exit and left the resin wine siting on a table.  JoAnn wasn't sure if she would be in trouble with him in the future, but he was quite complementary of her exhibit the next time they met and the wine incident wasn't mentioned.

The show was a success and it established JoAnn as a creative artist as did other projects I would love to tell you about sometime.  There are many good memories of this Art Exhibit, but I will never forget the way it effected the viewers.  Perhaps it was the all white show or maybe the shadowy presentations; possibly the music.  I suppose all these factors caused the viewers to move through the exhibit with subdued whispers, almost as though they were in church.  Once out in the hall- way they found their voices and many intense conversations could be heard about various aspects of the exhibit.