Today I am applying the images to my autobiographical cyclone.  After messing around with various possibilities, I copied the images onto glassine, a translucent paper. 

The images are faint, with the ghostly quality I wanted.  Some are legible, others probably not unless someone is familiar with the scenes.  This is the quality I am after.  The images are like memories - ephemeral, changing with time, and two people remembering a shared incident can have completely different memories. 

I’m adding images and more threads as I go.  Once these are all complete, I will make a hanging apparatus and install the piece.

(My photography skills are quite lacking, as evidenced here.  I apologize for that!)

The structure of the reed and thread cyclone is nearly complete.

Time to start digging through old photo albums for the images to go on it.  I have figured out how to print onto a transparent paper called Glassine.  I will make up a small cyclone to do tests on, as I have to figure out how to adhere the images to get the ghost-like quality I want.

It occurred to me that I need to find a different name for the “cyclones” I am making.  When people hear me talk about cyclones, they think of destruction and chaos, but that’s not the meaning I am attempting to convey.

Instead, I want to convey life, growth, becoming, ambition, striving.  The form of the cyclone is what I like, the circling and cycling upward, like a life unfolding.

Perhaps “funnel cloud” would be a better term. ”Funnel cloud, a rapidly rotating funnel-shaped cloud extending downward from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, which, if it touches the surface of the earth, is a tornado or waterspout.”

I will keep pondering and looking for a better term.

This summer I am taking a three-dimensional design class at De Anza College taught by Patti Jauch, who also teaches at San Jose State University. 

Our second project is to use paper to make folded, glued or molded forms that we then put together into a larger sculpture.  My initial idea was to make fungus-like pods that would “grow” out of the wall.  My plan was to use reed for the inner structures, cover those with paper, and then paint.  As art does though, the project morphed into something different and I went with that.  It’s a cyclone made of reed and thread.  My plan is to put photos on the cyclone, photos from my life, so it will be an autobiographical piece. 

The basic cyclone structure is nearly complete.  It needs more reed woven and tied in to make the structure stronger.  In the meantime, I’m experimenting with printing my photos on translucent paper, or perhaps translucent cloth.  I want them to look ghostly, like memories rather than actual photos.  Once I figure out printing the photos, I will do some tests to figure out how to adhere them to the cyclone.

I especially like the threads hanging all the way around the cyclone.  They are a fitting metaphor for how fragile life is.

The project should be complete in two weeks.

Our recent group show at Micaëla Gallery received a postive review by Anneliese Vobis at ArtBusiness.com:    

“Micaela Gallery: COLD+HOT 2010. 

Artists: Peter Bremers, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Michelle Knox, Weston Lambert, Carol Lawton, Mark Leibowitz, Silvia Levenson, Susan Longini, Thomas Scoon, Carmen Spera, Tim Tate, Kristiina Uslar. 

Exciting, visionary and innovative designs are the dominate Cold + Hot 2010 at Micaela Gallery. The work ranges in characteristic from straightforward and direct to expressive and filled of personality. The properties of glass materials are intensely explored to create objects which have organic as well as sculptural qualities. A show not to be missed at 49 Geary.” 

Although individual artists are not directly mentioned, a photo of my Winter Cyclone is included with the review.  It’s impossible to capture the feeling and movement of this piece, given its coloring and the flatness of photo images.  I installed in such a way that the cyclone gently spins with air currents, creating a beautiful dance between the piece and its shadows.  

The show will be available through August 28 at 49 Geary Street, No. 234, in San Francisco.  415-551-8118  www.Micaela.com