enCHANTment: Installment 1 - Tachi Neputa

My father and I decided several months ago that we wanted to send 2012 off with a beautiful celebration of art and life. The word enCHANTment resounded well in both of our ears so we planned to use the studio space and completely reinvent it into an enchanting world. My process began much earlier than Dad's. I ordered fabric and chose items to make for the show, knowing I would create a Monk's world inside the studio: bedroom, living room and dining room. Dad wanted to build a tarpaper chapel in the center of the studio, but as the show took form, we both began to reference our time in Japan, not when I was nine, but later, in 2002 during Dad's artist residency.

Making of a Tachi-neputa float

An assembled, illuminated Tachi-neputa float

He was living on a ceramics co-op preparing for a show that summer and I came at the end of my college quarter, having spent the year immersed in Industrial Design. I took an internship with the master float-builder in the town of Goshogawara, in the Northern-most prefecture of Japan's main island. Often, I would ride my bicycle down the hill from the ceramics co-op into the town center where the floats were being assembled. I would spend the day papering segments of a large metal armature that took up the entire inside of a warehouse. Once the structure was papered, the other volunteers and I would paint the paper with watered-down inks of every color. The master, Masateru, would paint the more complicated designs - all of his own creation - and when the summer was over, the 60 foot float was assembled with cranes, illuminated by thousands of lightbulbs and paraded through the streets while giant drums and fifes were played and the people of Goshogawara drank, danced and made merry.

From L to R: Armature of illuminated William Guadalupe, armature almost completely papered, William Guadalupe painted with wax and watercolor inks. 

Dad decided to use Washi rice paper as well as wood carving to create his chapel and we planned to create an illuminated William Guadalupe to reside within the chapel. Once he was completed and placed in the chapel, we added the final detail of asking visitors to write prayers or poems or wishes on strips of painted washi to be hung around William Guadalupe's neck and arms. At the opening in Japan, Dad had taken similar wishes and prayers, and tied them to helium balloons and then released the balloons into the night. We brought two dozen white balloons to enCHANTment and hung the first prayers and poems from the balloons and let them rise to the top of the studio's high ceiling for the opening.

This is an illuminated sculpture of William Guadalupe. Patron saint of single mothers, monks in exile, and starving artists. He will journey to the south of Florida next. From there, who knows where he will go? Known for sneaking out of the monastery at night to dance with the Cha Cha girls under the stars, you may see him in a flash, speeding along on a motorcycle, a sheep in each hand, "rescuing" the sheep though the herders would beg to differ.

ArtReach year in review

Through Alys Stephen's Center's ArtPlay, I have been teaching a quilting class at the Woodlawn YWCA as a part of ArtReach, which offers free classes to YWCA residents. This past Wednesday, 12-12-12, we finished up our ten week class with an open house. I am so thrilled at the progress of these women. Sharon, the woman in the far left of the photo, began sewing in April of this year and had never sat at a sewing machine before. She now attends not only the ArtReach class, but Bib & Tucker sessions at DISCO as well. She completed a quilt, the one sashed with purple fabric in the picture and also two pillows. Yesterday we cut out fabric for her to make some Auburn pillows (being a child of U of Al alumni, this was quite a difficult task : ) and she texted me a photo mere hours later of at least one she had completed by hand. She has caught the sewing bug and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Michelle, shown holding the red and pink pillow along with her daughter, Ashanti, also completed a quilt this session and three pillows. Michelle had some experience with a machine, but her greatest asset was her confidence and persistence. When we shifted gears to hand-quilting though, she did not enjoy the change of pace. She likes the speed of the machine and is a whiz at it. Ms. Viola only joined us later in the class and had some difficulty with piecing fabric, but she was determined to create something before the class ended and she proudly displays her pillow in this image. All three women plan to return with ArtReach classes begin again in January. Bib & Tucker will be meeting next Tuesday and I am sure to see Sharon and Michelle along with Ms. Annie, Ms. Jearaldine and Ms. Carol. We have become quite the group as Sharon also brought a sister from her Muslin group, Shannon.