Her Work is Shear Genius!

A big thank you to Taylor for helping me out with last week’s burning bush. I spent most of the week creating tiny models that I thought would work. But honestly, by the time I got to her house, I only had a faint idea of how I was going to make the book work. But thankfully, Taylor was pretty patient and helped me tremendously by creating flames for the bush. Regardless of how I tried to recreate them, my flames never seemed to be quite so full and generous as Taylor’s.

My little model using the lectern template

I started out the week thinking that I would make something similar to the piece above. I was even so confident that I thought I would make a series of little videos during the process. After I made my first one, I realized that my ptosis was kicking. Ptosis is were your eyelid droops. I had corrective/cosmetic surgery for it in April 2004. Guess what. It didn’t work. It’s a little worse when I am sleepy or stressed. So I was no happy when I reviewed my video only to see my lazy left eye. Even though, I am not trying to get a television show, I came to the realization that I would probably never have one. You have to admit that is a little disappointing.

But I did learn that Paris Hilton also has a wonky left eye. So I am not alone in sharing this trait, which I believe I inherited from my Grandpa Rutledge. I even got in argument about Radiohead’s Thom Yorke with Alex. He says that he doesn’t have a lazy left eye, just one smaller than the other. Actually, thanks to the internet, he was born with a paralyzed eyelid and had five major surgeries to correct it. The last one almost blinded him. And that is precisely why I am not going to sign up for another surgery anytime soon.

So no video demoing how to make a pop-up yet… just a video of the book. I need to create one showing the book closed and open. So that will come at some point after putting together the exhibit of all the pieces.

The burning bush was a lot of work. I finally put it up on Sunday morning and just knew it was going to fall apart. The back green pom-pom of flames finally fell off during The Lord’s Prayer. That was probably good, so that I could pay attention to what was going on instead of looking at the leaning branch or completely avoiding it by looking up at the chimes. I can’t believe it fell off after surviving the full night. But there is a lot more activity and air circulation going on during the service than in our little apartment. It was a complete relief until I realized I still had The Red Sea to go. OMG!

I have been collecting air pillows that are used for shipping. At first it was just to recycle them. But then Lucy suggested that I use them in my art as an environmental statement. I loved the idea of bags of H20 minus the H2. But when it came down to it, I have already started a plan for another pop-up book. That’s probably a good thing. It’s much more compact and easier to transport when my art projects go on a little tour.