PHOTO BY CHANELLE

Almost every time I told someone that I was thinking about putting roll-out sod onto a gallery floor I got the same response: “why not use some kind of turf?” To that I say “If I have to use fake grass I don’t want grass at all.” I admit that I was beginning to doubt myself; it could just be a plain old bad idea- -an expensive bad idea, not to mention a wasteful bad idea, and a bad bad idea.

When the time came to buy the grass I was surprised to find out that you can’t just go to any Home Depot in Phoenix in July and buy a specified amount to suit your fancy- -no, no. Home Depot can’t keep that stuff alive in 110-degree heat, are you crazy? I was about to give up on the idea when my very nice friend Mark (in spite of his misgivings) tracked down a sod farm outside of town who was willing to truck it in for us, in the middle of the night of course. Their minimum order was only twice what we needed.

So, said nice friend Mark had the honor, along with my giant nephew Tully, of meeting the truck at 4 AM outside the Women’s Center of Mesa (where we had the pre-opening). He also had the honor of helping me bring half of the sod into the gallery the next day, rolling it out and fluffing it up. I hope his back didn’t hurt too much. Anyway, turns out that the whole time he was scared that the Women of the Women’s Center would come by and stop us from carrying muddy sod into their gallery. We put it on plastic, honest!

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

I tell you all this because my relief was so great that people loved the grass. They sat on it. They spread out the blankets. They took peanut butter sandwiches out of the picnic basket and ate them. They watched the show from the grass. They played ball on the grass. In fact, they acted just like it was regular grass at a regular park, which was exactly what I was wishing for.

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

BLURRY CONCERT-WATCHERS

The bonus of the whole thing is that after the show was over, everyone took off their shoes and danced on the grass for a couple hours. Have you ever danced on grass? It’s fun.

PHOTO BY CHANELLE

One more bonus (that for some reason I didn’t think about beforehand) is that grass smells good. It smells like grass! The whole room was transformed into a park, not in small part because of the growing smell of grass. I just can’t wait to do this when it’s winter so people can come in from the cold for a tiny summertime experience. Lord, I hope sod is not as hard to get in Michigan in the winter as it is to get it in Phoenix in the summer.

The best part is that my fear of wasting was also unfounded. What was I going to do with 250 sq. ft. of sod? It would die in a matter of hours if I just left it outside without water. But my friend Nancy knew of a nice family with small children and a dirt yard. We rolled up the grass and they took it away just like that. The report is that the grass fit exactly into their space- -no leftover space or grass. I was relieved and overjoyed. Once in a while things work out perfectly.

My Yarn Cone tree has arrived. There is much rejoicing. Also, my server has been fixed and now there will be much posting. Rejoicing and posting all the day–that’s how I’m celebrating July 4. Oh, I know…some make cakes in the shape of the American Flag–that’s cool and all, but me, I’m celebrating my right and privilege to say whatever I want on this here blog.

MY SISTER PEGGIE

Here’s what I want to say: I love my sister. I’ve been at her house and in her 2nd grade classroom (it’s off-season space has become my installation workshop). She puts up with a lot from me, and from 100 other assorted people she takes care of every day. Everyone who comes into her house, or within 50 feet of her feels welcomed. She feeds a jabillion people a day. She mothers everyone who needs it. She’s good to the world. You should meet her.

JORDAN SEWS A MEAN LINE

CARALIE IS SKILLFUL AND DANGEROUS WITH SHARP IMPLEMENTS

I would also like to say that I’ve been having a great time hanging out with Caralie, Jake, Ben, Jordan, Tully, Ken and Isaac. They have helped me with sewing, knitting, nest-making, wire-cutting, torso-sculpting, sweater selection, cleaning and etc. I can’t tell you how much I like them. Ben’s here right now power knitting cones on the sofa behind me. Knit like the wind, Ben.

BEN HEARTS YARN

Also, I must mention that my dad, whom I’m probably killing, is working outside with  a herniated disc and 115 degrees temps. He never complains. And the kiosk he’s building is going to damage your eyeballs it’s so beautiful. I’m a complete idiot and didn’t get a picture of it before it was disassembled for painting. 

Thinking ourselves SO original yesterday, with our knitting men post, I expected to be the only listing to come up when I typed men who knit in the Google box. Not so. Not even close to being so.

This is a real, live genre of activity/person out there. There were not just a few listings. No, there are pages and pages of listings, including a magazine devoted to it.

This is probably my favorite site out there…It includes a little history of male knitting.

I would like to read this children’s book, too, but keep in mind: written by a woman.

Here’s a video, featuring a man knitting a hammock with pool cues.

Some more links:
Men Who Knit Community
Male Knitters (at Knitty.com)
A fun blog

Keep in mind, I’ve only listed a tiny fraction of the sites out there.

We’ve officially decided to rename our musical genre Male Knitting Music. It’s going to catch on, I’m sure of it.

I had to go back to the hospital Monday night because of my recalcitrant Cauda Equina Syndrome. Fun times. This is a picture of me looking down at my brand new IV port. The nurse who put it in was extra gentle. I had some bruisers the last time I was there.

Here I am in a hallway waiting for my Xray. In the halls outside of the Bronx ER they have these really cool mirror balls attached to the ceilings, so that the orderlies don’t crash into other gurneys when they’re coming round a corner. I got parked right under one of them. I wanted to draw me drawing myself (like a discount Escher!) but by the time I got around to drawing myself on the gurney I was way too small. When I learn how to draw better, maybe I’ll redo it.

Anyway, it was 4:30 AM by the time I was wheeled out into the hall, and I was glad for a little quiet; emergency rooms are loud. I finally got admitted at 9 the next morning. The hospital was full.

The whole experience was a success because I got out without being cut open again. And I got a lot done on my yarn tree. By some stroke of luck I was put on the orthopedic floor’s only private room. I knitted a bunch of tiny trees to lay around. The nurses all wondered what I was making. I stopped explaining it after awhile because they just weren’t getting it; I said I was knitting wee hats. Anyway, it was nice to see some of those nurses again. Especially the one named Anna.

They let me out this afternoon, so I’ll resume regular posting tomorrow.

I like this idea better. It’s really Austin’s. Hang the cups from the umbrella tree, he said. Great.

I think we can even put the more inside–attach the hangar holders to the insides so that we’ll have a place to put the saucers. Gonna need to find a way to make them pretty secure–no one wants a whole bunch of broken china on the gallery floor.
I need a break from the Tea Tree.

I made this bear with a FedEx envelope, thread, and yarn ends (for stuffing). He’s about 8 inches tall. I made him fairly one-dimensional because I wanted to just spend an hour or two–he was an experiment, after all– but I really like him. I’ll probably make him a scarf and hat. He’s pretty happy in the tiny forest I’m making for the Yarn Tree.

I would like to sing the praises of Tyvek as a fabric. It sews like a dream, is stronger than fabric, and wrinkles up to a beautiful old paper texture. I can’t wait to make the pigeon. I’m going to have to purchase an alligator clip and find some used airmail envelopes. It’s essential that they’ve been posted; I want the return address to appear under her wing, and possibly the stamp too. Of course the airmail stripes will appear as the stripes on her wing–like a rock Pigeon:I think I’ll staple together a pattern sometime this week before I start in on the real pigeon, which (because of hand-stitching) will likely take a long time.

In case you haven’t read the blog about this pigeon, here’s the plan:

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I’m hoping to find some manila Tyvek envelopes as well, to make her feet with.

My next Tyvek experiment will be to see if it can be printed on in a standard jet or laser printer. If so, I might use it to reproduce bark patterns for another tree.

Here’s more on the tea tree. I did this drawing of the whole deal, but since then I’ve had some second thoughts about the overall shape, which I’ll explain later.

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The overall structure and idea is there (teacups on hangar racks on chicken wire with old fashioned napkins sticking out to cover up the blank spaces). What I’m not so keen on is the lampshade shape of the top of the tree. I think I want it to be more like this:

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Here’s a detail of the inside tea-dispensing part of the tree (without the foliage):

More Questions and Comments:

1. This is looking too precious in the Alice and Wonderland, girly type of way. I want it to be more Terry Gilliam-ish. Like Brazil only brighter. Maybe the cloth napkins (these should be thrift-store) are not the way to go for foliage. Maybe there’s something that can be juxtaposed (something more Kafkaesque, or macho or scary) with the ladylikeness of the tea service. I’m going to sleep on that. Maybe someone has an idea?

2. I’m not sure chicken wire is the way to go for the support of the foliage of this tree. It may need to be partly attached to a wall for stability. That may provide the support for a more uneven shape that’ll be much better looking. It may also add a nice pop-up book feeling that can be employed throughout the exhibit.

I got a bunch of Tyvek today that I’m going to test for pigeon-making. I think I might make something simpler first–I’ll take a picture of it and show when I’m done.

Today just a short post starting on my favorite tree, the Tea Tree.

All I have so far is the hangar supports. They should all be glued or welded together to form the top part of the tree. It looks like this:

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All the teacups should be thrift-store and all different. I’ll probably have to get around 100. It could be that it’s easier and better looking to get two or three different types and mix and match from there. Not totally sure which way to go. I guess we’ll see what the thrift store yields.

Here’s what’s supposed to happen: Participants take a cup and saucer from the “leaf” part of the tree and put it into a hole in the trunk. Hidden inside the leaf part of the tree (which will be the net of hanger supported teacups) is a tea maker, which dispenses tea into the waiting cup.

Next to the tea tree will be a cream-and-sugar tree, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m having some challenges working out how to do the innards of the tree. They are:

1. I want to find the right machine to make/dispense/keep hot the tea. My dad might have a line on something… Originally I was thinking one of those old giant coffee/tea dispensers that you might see at a truck stop or community college maybe 15 years ago. But they are too heavy and prohibitively expensive. They’d also be hard to cover in a tree-like way.

2. I also want a lever or a pressure plate so that the tree knows there’s a cup there and can begin to dispense. My dad thinks that a standard coke-dispensing lever might work…

3. I want to figure out a cool way to obscure the machine inside the tree. The hangars/teacups make a nice form, but it’s very see-through. I want to stuff the bowl of the tree with something that makes it look more tree-like.

4. The trunk is also unsolved at this point. I think I want it to be a little more realistic trunk-like than, say, the apple tree. Austin/Caralie, do you have any ideas? Dad?

(Arlene’s a modern pigeon and decided to hyphenate.)

Take a look at this pigeon nest that’s on top of the Sweater tree (see yesterday’s post)

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The nest at the top of the Sweater Tree is made of #2 pencils. The bottom layer has the pink eraser side sticking out. On the top layer are loose, sharpened pencils which participants use to fill out order forms which will be in one of the sweater pockets nearest to the nest.

Don’t forget (from yesterday) that the Sweater Tree uses a ladder as its base, so that participants can “climb” the tree to reach the nest high on top of the tree.

Back to the nest: Also inside the nest is a pigeon. The pigeon is made of Tyvek air mail envelopes–an already posted one so that the stamp and address are clearly visible. The Pigeon’s beak is made of an alligator clip. Participants can fill out order forms and put them in her beak. On the pigeon’s back is a coat hangar top that attaches to a nearby zip line. Participants can spread the pigeon’s wings and attach her to the line and send her across the room and into the hands of a waiter at Tavern on the Green (more on that later) who prepares the order and has it ready by the time the participant reaches that side of the room. Orders for Tavern on the Green are ONLY by carrier pigeon.

Here’s a diagram of the pigeon:

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Here’s the pigeon on the zip line:

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PROBLEMS TO SOLVE AND QUESTIONS TO ASK:

1. Can you sew Tyvek? I’ll have to make sure you can. If not, must find alternate way to make this pigeon work.
2. Not sure how to make the pigeon return on the zip line. I can’t have the waiter running the pigeon back all the time. I’m gonna ask my dad about this one.
3. The wing extension might be a little tricky. I’ll have to mess with it. Also it may make the pigeon slow down halfway across the room. This’ll need some tinkering.

INGREDIENTS LIST:

1. #2 Pencils
2. Tyvek Airmail Envelopes (for the pigeon skin/feathers)

3. Alligator Clip (for the pigeon beak) 4. One of those old rulers with the joints (for the wings)

5. Zip line

(just like this, but pigeon-sized)