“Working In and Around a Boat”

This past Saturday I participated in the Tour Des Artistes Sculpture Box Contest in Downtown Long Beach.  Basically, we had to complete a piece inside the 8′ x 8′ x 8′ cube of 2 x 4′s.  I decided that simply filling the cube would be too easy and that I needed an actual physical obstruction to my process.  Thus, the boat.  I also interpreted the rules of the contest as such that I had to be inside the cube while I was constructing.  I definitely spent 92% of my time inside the cube working in and around the boat.

Here’s how it began (below): 1 boat, 54 sticks of 1″x2″x8′, 1 air compressor, 1 nail gun, 1 chop saw, canvas drop cloth, and red and white striped cloth, 1 nautical map of Southern California.

This is how it ended:

Simply seeing the end result really doesn’t get at the meat and potatoes of what this piece was about – that is, the process.  I had no plan of what to do when I started on Saturday, I simply brought the materials and started building.  One of the judges said, “I liked how I could see you working out your ideas as you went; you looked so frustrated!”  It was super frustrating.  So many times I just wanted to take an axe to that boat and cut it up, just so had enough room to move around and work.

It was tough, but it was a lot of fun – and I won $300!

The other 3 box sculptures were really great too, and at the end of the night I put the boat in the back of my truck and drove off with Amanda’s polar bear from her sculpture: