It’s been said many times (sung even) … “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” Today, I arrived at the University of Wyoming Art Museum to install new site-specific work. My first day on the job in Laramie seems as good a time as any to launch an artist blog.

I intended to start blogging awhile ago, but art and life, well—there’s only so much time.  Speaking of time, that’s the impetus.  I want to catch and retrieve artistic moments before they slip away into the abyss of lost memories.

To start, I’ll focus on my UW installation, how it came to be and how it comes together. The blog will most likely move two steps forward, one step back, get a bit off track occasionally, just as happens in my life. I imagine my blog as a pastiche, a place to ad lib about time, aesthetics, creativity, nature’s cycles and processes, and ideas, books, that inspire me, art that makes me gush.

. . . and so it begins.

Interstitial: Between Earth and Sky will comprise thousands of feet of monofilament that I’ve hand drizzled with hot glue during the past three months. The strands will be unleashed from their paper wrappers to cascade from wire leads along a grid strung from lobby skylights.

I couldn’t have asked for a more spectacular venue.  Spectacular! Challenging, too. The angled beams that my strands will hang from soar to a height of 32 feet near the entrance, then gradually dip to 24 feet on the far side of the lobby. I’m wondering what sort of “lessons” I’ll learn during the next three weeks.

Quite honestly?  The first day of an installation scares the heck out of me.  I’d been to the museum twice before.  Yet to see the atrium empty, cleared of furniture?  It made me weak in the knees—just for a few moments, before I saddled up the lift and began.  Jittery, but ecstatic, too!

I’m thrilled to create a temporary work of public art for the Wyoming Sculptural Invitational.  The project, initiated in 2008, has featured an amazing roster of artists, including UK land artist, Chris Drury, whose art and writings influenced my own work.

Interstitial: Between Earth and Sky will be the final piece (and the only indoor work  commissioned for the project.)  The installation will be exhibited through December.

I hope you’ll check back during the coming days and weeks as I share posts and images about my art making and whatever else comes to mind. Leave comments, ask questions, like a few posts, and follow my blog.  I’ll enjoy your company.