Friday, March 14, 2014

Success is for Sale

 
It’s a Shoe In – Success is for Sale


Clay, glaze, paper, ribbon, staples and plastic



This old phrase “It’s a Shoe In”, historically refers to the horse races where a horse was a sure bet. In thinking about this and the prizes given to award winning horses, the ribbons and medals, I was inspired to produce this small series called “Success is for Sale”. 


To be an award winner takes money. Not just the horse races but also any sort of athletics or career.  At the same time as thinking about buying success I was researching Affluenza for a different body of work and found a connection between Affluenza and being “a shoe in”.  Those with money are buying their way in. Any success costs money, many people never reach their goals or dreams because the financial cost is too much.


Success is for sale in this time in history, major athletes are buying various performance enhancing drugs, bribing judges, quitting work to train full time, having personal trainers, massage therapists, spending money to be in the right circle of friends and hiring psychologists, is just a small list of the costs of success. Being an Olympian or bringing home an Olympic medal costs money. The more money spent, the more medals is often the story we hear in the news (Own the Podium program).


This series replicates a store shelf but “success” is for sale.  It is for sale for all those suffering from Affluenza, Kalopsia, as well for parvenus and arrivists. The QR codes are real, as are the UPC codes. Scan the UPC code and the product numbers spell “Success is for Sale”. Scan the QR codes and you are linked to a webpage about the series and links to instances where “Success has been purchased”. 











Thursday, January 23, 2014

Forest Gold

Here are pieces from my new series (a small series of 4). The nests, eggs and the background are made from old gold mining maps. The nests are printed using a linocut technique and then cut out.  They eggs are very small measuring only 2cm. The last photo gives a scale so that you can understand the size of the pieces.

Thank you to Theresa for collecting and delivering this wonderful material for me. I am so thrilled to work with it.











Monday, November 25, 2013

World Friendship Tulip - Planting Ceremony - Istanbul, Turkey

November 15 in Emigran Park in Istanbul, Turkey was very special as it was the baptism of the new "World Friendship Tulip"  and the first official planting. The Mayor of Istanbul, Kadir Topbas, Klaas de Geus (Maveridge Bulbs), Michel Gauthier and myself were part of the official ceremony. It was a really special moment to plant the blubs that I had a part in bringing to life. I had an idea quite a while ago now that the World Tulip Summit Society needed its own tulip and pursued the idea with Klaas, and it became a reality this year in Istanbul. 

The garden will be in Emigran Park as a symbol of World Friendship. 

I created an accompanying linocut print for the occasion. 





 

The tulip bulbs being guarded after the ceremony, those are really special bulbs.





Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Favorite Nests at Disney

My time here is winding down, here is a shot of my favorite nests made from clothes hangers. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun trying to figur out how to make them work.





Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

that is one BIG nest

You know the nest you made is large when two people can fit inside and there is room to flap your wings.


Monday, November 4, 2013

more nest production

thanks Trint and Jean- Christophe












This is a big one





Two old baskets for an egg. 


The thousands of hangers that we used today.