Last week, Ryland Cook spent ten days in St. Louis as an intern for USM art professor Micheal Shaugnessy. Shaugnessy was the artist chosen as the inaugural solo show at a gallery and artist workspace called The Craft Alliance. Cook, a recent USM grad kept a day-by-day journal for the Free Press to chart the daily progress of building and installing the sculpture show. His first few days are charted in last week’s issue of the Free Press.
Day 6
After leaving Stefanie and Dave’s place last night I returned to the hotel for the first time all by myself, without Micheal. I had grand plans to lie around in my underwear and watch something other than political TV, which is the only thing we watch when Michael is there. However, tonight Michael is in Kansas City visiting relatives, so it was like I had the house to myself.
I jumped into bed to watch my favorite nature programs. The only thing on was Man vs. Wild, and apparently at some point in the episode the guy was going to eat a live snake. I was thrilled to witness this, so I propped up my pillows and eased into my first Palin-free evening.
Unfortunately, I was still pooped from the night before and didn’t even make it to the snake swallowing
.
Day 7
Work today was quite a treat, mostly because I got a full night’s sleep last night. We had a very productive workday that primarily involved weaving hay into the curly beast that we had built in the days before. Now, a day of weaving hay though string is not exactly mentally challenging, nor is it very friendly on one’s hands. As you pull the hay through the wrap, which is the string, your hands and cuticles get thoroughly chewed up. I began taping my fingertips.
Day 8, 9
These days consist of the same as before: weaving. And more weaving.
During the weaving, Michael and I begin installing the large three dimensional wall pieces that he makes.
This involves attaching some metal rods to the wall and then winding the hay lines that the volunteers made. We’d occasionally be interrupted by groups of school kids during this process. They were always fun, inquisitive and enthusiastic about the hay. An elementary school visited and Michael taught them to make bird hats which was, of course, very popular.
The other frequent visitors were news anchors from local news channels. They would interview Michael, and generally ask incredibly dumb questions that would have pissed off any other artist, but lucky for them Michael is Captain-Relax-O and just went with the flow.
One news anchor actually said “Coming up next, an artist who is weaving a giant animal! Find out what kind it is, next!” He then went on to repeatedly call this giant hay spiral a snake. I chuckled uncomfortably and thought that surely a different artist might see a comment like that as grounds for murder.
Through all of the interruptions we eventually managed to complete the installation. After a day of trimming, tying and cleaning, we even had enough time to get out and see some of St. Louis’s local museums. There is only one place worthy of description.
The City Museum in St. Louis may be the best museum in the world. As you pull up to the City Museum, you see a massive, and I do mean massive tangle of rebar and rusty metal. Woven in to this mess are airplanes, a crane, a school bus, metal birds, sea monsters and a maze of thin wire hamster tunnels large enough for people. it turns out, this is the coolest, most dangerous adult playground that you have ever seen; and that is just the outside of the building! Once you get inside the building you will have access to an aquarium, a thrift store, a skate park, a bug collection, a doorknob collection, and architectural accessory collection, a bunch of taxidermied animals, a restaurant, several bars, a ball room, and oh, slides go between every floor. Heaven you say? That’s correct, heaven.
Day 9
I should at least tell you about Michael’s opening. I should restate that Michaels exhibit is the inaugural exhibition at this branch of the Craft Alliance. And not surprisingly, the opening was a great success. Many people attended, Michael gave a really great talk about his process and philosophy, and the gallery director spoke about how nice it was to watch this process in action.
To celebrate the grand opening, there is a huge gala event. It’s what we bought our 20’s era clothes from the local Goodwill for.
The celebration was lavish and lasted into the night. We flew home the following morning. It is so nice to know that the professor I’ve worked with has been so successful here.
It isn’t until this plane ride that I realize that when I get home I’m moving away from Portland and saying goodbye, finally, to USM: I’ve graduated. I’m off to start my own artistic career.