mi segundo fin de semana en santa cruz

Andrea took me on a material search to the "7 Calles" market. This is a taste of the multitude of fabrics available.


I have become very fond of these electrical boxes that sit outside just about every building and residency. This set of boxes especially caught my attention because of the rigged wire trying to hold the larger case closed.


Best find yet- a used book store! Look at the lean on that book shelf. Ruth and I have already made plans to go back, it is such a special nook in the center of Santa Cruz.

Fin de Semena 2

Well it’s the second weekend already here in lovely Santa Cruz. We have reached the halfway point of our trip with quite the memorable weekend. Richard and I spent Saturday morning working on the installation while Yolanda went on a search for yarn. We met back up in the afternoon and paid a visit to the America Home Center, Bolivia’s home depot. Our purchase: an automatic staple gun, matching green hard hats, multi colored bamboo sticks. Sunday was a day of rest and studio time for Yolanda and I. Julio showed me a hidden kiln in the back of the residency house and gave me a generous amount of clay. This is a nice treat for me. I was worried about what to do for the show and thought that my ideas were too close to Richard’s work. Right now I feel stronger as an artist working with clay. Day by day working with Richard is helping me to learn how to use other materials and tools that I am not familiar with. In the future I want to adopt more of these methods into my work and branch into a mix of sculpture and ceramics.  That is all for the weekend report. 

Día 12

Hola! I want to shout out a THANK YOU to all of you that have been reading our blog. This is a grand experience and we are so happy to share some of our stories with you.

Building is strong and steady. I must give props to Jon, he works hard yet patiently on the job site. The dome structure really started taking shape using the beautiful scrap pieces of wood from locally grown trees. The reds looked especially stunning in the sunlight as we started weaving pieces into the frame. The picture above offers a glimpse of the rickety ladder that makes for a thrilling job-site aura.

Learning from Richard's artistic process has geared our focus towards paying heed to the "vernacular" aesthetics within the environment we reside in. This evening we were offered a chance to share our own photographic research of Santa Cruz. Through our awesome new friend Andrea, we met an energetic group of young artists- Javiera, Kelly, Andres, Marcus, Marco. Javiera invited us to be a part of her "urban installation" event this coming weekend. Coincidently, the theme of the exhibition has been our photographic obsession for the past two weeks: Santa Cruz. The idea is to hang up from 5 to 10 photos on a chosen street corner in the center of the city on Saturday. Then on Sunday, we show our photographs in the main plaza, Manzana Uno, as a collective. We are so appreciative of this opportunity!

Día 11

Today we worked slightly in reverse. With the new arrival of Ruth (another artist in residence for Kiosko) we got a bit of a late start. Flying in from London, Ruth was brave and bold enough to venture out with use in the late morning for some salteñas. She is a fun person and our time together should be good. We let Ruth catch up on sleep and went over to the job site to get working. Working hard till dark we got a lot done. We have been experiencing a little bit of problems but nothing to really hold us back. The day might not of been possible without some help. The interne for Vamos magazine, Andrea (Dru) and her friend, Andrea (Andy) was nice enough to spend their day off lending us a helping hand. It’s nearly two weeks now. Yolanda and I have a pretty good grasp on what we will construct for our show at the end of the month so now it’s only a matter of building. The days seem long and the nights short with much work still to be done. 

Día 9

Power tools are a blessing. Today was the second day on the job site. We accomplished a lot. The first anchor piece to Richard’s installation is showing much progress. The weather here is turning cold and the rain comes and goes. Personally I found the day to be delightful. Within a day of working together the three of us have found a successful system. Minus the slapstick moment of Yolanda hitting Richard with a plank of wood we are working well with each other. We’re cooking with gas.

Our workdays start with a team meeting covering the day’s plans and goals. Richard assigned me the task of maintaining the job site. I leave slightly earlier than the two and work on preparing everything for the day. Working in Bolivia is interesting. Power tools never seem to fit into the right plugs. The wood we are working with is extremely hard to deal with at times. I am constantly dealing with breaking drill bits and stubborn screws. Although these create problems they also make for a great learning experience. As Richard’s assistant I am learning more then I would from a class setting. Apprenticeship is a very traditional form of art teaching, it offers the unique chance to learn from a professional. No assignments, no grades, just raw experience. 

Día 8

Reporting 8 June 2009:

Jon and I didn't sleep much last night- we were both restless from processing an exciting weekend. I think we were also anxious for the week to come, fore today we commenced the building stage of our project. Our visual research and materials searches will never come to an end, but now our main focus is on building the installation. Our day was a bit rickety, as we became acquainted with the tools, materials, and each other. Improvisation and intuition are often key components to the artistic process, and have been crucial on this trip. As you can see (in the photo above) by our improvised ¨sawhorse¨, we are learning to make art in situations that don't offer the accessibility (and excess) of resources of say, the Home Depot.

For the days to come, Jon and I will be working with Richard from 10am to about 6:30pm (with a lunch break somewhere in there). In studio time this evening, Jon created a "sketch" model resourcefully using our broken tape measure as his material. I worked through some sketches, contemplating recurring shapes that I've taken note of recently. As Jon and I have been working so closely with Richard and his artistic process, it is inevitable that we are influenced by his aesthetics and philosophies. I have the sense that our installations will be very representative of our "apprenticeship" with Richard, and may also demonstrate a further discovery/development of our "artistic sensibilities" as we digest the visual/cultural magnificence of Santa Cruz.

Even though I am acting as translator for Jon and Richard, there is much about the Bolivian Spanish language that I am not accustomed to speaking in the U.S. or in México. The primary example is in the use of "vos" instead of "tu" when you adrress somebody in a personal manner (where one may say "como se llama vos" instead of "como te llamas"). I am trying by best to adopt the use of "vos" to avoid offending the local Bolivians who may see the "tu" form of speaking as an insult. I will be stumbling with my Spanish for a while, but I crave to blend in the best I can, plus "vos" sounds beautiful!

Encantos

 More photos from Nico's farm. We took lots.