It has been two and a half years since I visited Japan and just as long since I spent time with my old friend Kjell Hahn. He has a new studio set up in Onishi, a little town that is now part of Fujioka in Gunma-ken. The studio is an old two story building that has a wood-shop and ceramics area on the first floor and a painting area along with a clean room on the second floor. Kjell let me use the studio to work on a project for a group show this January at Westchester Community College, Wish You Were Here, curated by Joe Winter who I met as Sculpture Space this summer.

Since I do not see Kjell often, I made a piece with him reflecting on the title of the show while referencing our previous collaborations. We found a pile of stuffed animals at a local flea market and selected those that would be true river warriors. With old wood from his house I began to construct a boat that would carry the furry friends safely down the river. Then we secured some foam to the inside of the boat and tied the characters to the ship with a sheep in the lead.

This ship will be sent down the river and we will attempt to retrieve it after it has gone through a bit of rough water and before it goes past the point of no return down river.

Behind the inflatable suit that I am wearing is the studio at Sculpture Space in Utica, New York. This new piece is called Make it Look Rich and currently in a testing phase. After some adjustments and repairs, this suit will be heading out into the world. I wanted to make an inflatable suit that overpowered me and it looks like this is going down the right track.

My sewing machine is tearing through some new nylon during the construction of a core for a new inflatable suit at Sculpture Space. Now that I have the inner foundation, which includes four tubes for blower motors, I can tackle the fun part of the outer structure. I see a lot of red and yellow nylon in my future and some new Organ sewing needles.

The new suit will have arrows of different sizes. Here are two little red arrows still with the wrong sides of the fabric out. The seam allowances are visible.

The new suit will sport big yellow letters as well as some large arrows.

Tomorrow I trek to Grand Rapids to install work at the Old Federal Building as part of the upcoming ArtPrize competition. There is also a preview event from 5:00 to 8:00 at the same location.

As the PR says:

Be the first to experience ArtPrize in UICA’s exclusive PreView! Engage with artists as
they install their work and get a sneak peak at UICA’s ArtPrize exhibitions before they are
completely installed. Learn about ArtPrize voting procedures, UICA’s ArtPrize audio guide,
and how to evaluate contemporary art. Also, don’t miss the opportunity to pre–register and
purchase ArtPrize merchandise. Reception includes hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.

Should be a hoot.

After setting my studio up at Albion College, I got to work designing a new inflatable suit. This suit will have some large inflatable arrows made from pink nylon. Above is a small preview of a preliminary sketch for the suit. As details get finalized and fabricated I will post more pictures.

After returning from Finland and a nice summer break in St. Louis, I am back. This time I am at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. For the fall semester I will be a resident artist here at the college.

Today I began to move stuff into the studio. While setting up my second welding studio with Kjell Hahn in Japan, I asked him, “How many more times will we have to do this?” I am not sure about an exact number but the answer is many, many times.

Since I have set up my studio multiple times and in various locations I can do it a bit more quickly now. Today I made a fabric cutting table and will set up my sewing machine station tomorrow. Hopefully I will be sewing soon after that.

Those forty two purple squares are now sewn to the ends of orange tubes. Now I am entering the final stages of fabrication. My goal is to finish this weekend. If do not encounter any unforeseen problems and sew into the night I should be able to complete it in time.

The suit I am working on will have lots of orange tubes with squares on their ends. Some of the squares will be pink and about forty two will be purple. Each tube – square assembly consists of seven pieces of fabric and therefore takes a bit of time to sew. I have most of the other pieces of the suit cut and ready for assembly. After finishing these tube assemblies I can begin final assembly of the suit.

It might not resemble much now, but this is the new cockpit for my next inflatable suit. The backpack harness is installed in the back. Two fan ports sit in the pink fabric in the front. Now that the cockpit is finished I can build around this foundation to complete the suit. The orange tubes with the pink squares at the ends run along the bottom of the cockpit. There is more pink, orange and purple from where this came from.