Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Beginning

The Spiral of Life, An Installation by Ginny Baughman

This blog will be about my art installation created November 2013 at Upper Arlington's Concourse Gallery. But I feel I have to start at the beginning...

It all strated in August of 2011 when I received this email from Lynette Santoro-Au the Gallery Director at the Concourse Gallery:


I hope this finds you well. 

We've had a cancellation for our installation show in the Concourse Gallery for November 1-30, 2011. I got your names from the Ohio Arts Council online directory and hope you'll consider applying for this opportunity. 
Attached please find the details. 
Feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. 
Yours sincerely, &c.
Lynette Santoro-Au
Arts Manager


So I sent this proposal to the gallery in hopes of getting an installation:



The Life Spiral

Installation Proposal by Ginny Baughman


Through my artwork I want to promote a dialogue about important issues in everyday life by exploring ideas and concepts that are close to my heart. I am interested in the figure, in particular the feminine figure, as it relates to different aspects of everyday life from motherhood to global warming. I work as an author, poet, or musician creating narrative that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I pull on my own experiences. I allow my artwork develop as I work, weaving a story that leaves the conclusions up to viewer’s own interpretation.
My idea for an installation for the Upper Arlington Concourse Gallery involves a narrative about life and family. I am interested in representing life and how we grow. How we begin very small, almost nothing and then grow to adulthood, but yet it seems like we never really grow up. We are always someone’s child or someone’s parent. In my personal life I am dealing with adult children and how to let them go out into the world on their own. I am finding out that no matter how old they get, they will always be a part of my life and I will worry about them.
I want to use the image of a spiral for this show. The spiral image seems to fit well with my theme and also in the space in the Concourse Gallery. The spiral has a variety of meanings from rebirth, to the cycles of life, to a symbol of a spiritual journey all of which fit with my theme. I would like to create an installation of a spiral form in the center of the gallery that radiates out into the room. This spiral will be filled with small objects that represent childhood through adulthood. The center or beginning of the spiral will have tiny non-descript objects such as buttons or pieces of wood. Then as spiral grows outward the objects will become more descript, such as small childhood toys like dolls and cars and then work its way into adult toys such at golf tees, baseballs, and footballs. On the otter edges of the room, I would like to hang a clothesline that will have pictures of children of all ages clipped to it with clothespins (clothespins have a special meaning of childhood to me). I would like to invite the community to fill this clothesline with their own pictures of their sons and daughters at any age. The Concourse Gallery seems like the perfect place for this installation, because of the square space that will be perfect for the spiral and it also has a separate space for the clothesline as well.
I would love to have the opportunity to do a large installation expressing my thoughts and ideas. Working in Upper Arlington I have noticed that it is a very neighborhood/family based community and I believe that my installation idea would speak directly to this base.
I had the chance to do a small installation many years ago and I really enjoyed it. It was about my life and I kept adding to it until it looked like a large balloon (I have included pictures of this with my images). My mural at COSI in 2010 was also like an installation, because I worked on it directly on site. I really enjoy fitting my artwork into a designated space and I would love the opportunity to do more work like this! 

In Oct. 2011 I received this email from the Concourse Gallery:
I hope this finds you well.

The visual arts committee met and did not choose your installation proposal at this time.  They liked the concept especially its connection to the community and propose to schedule the installation for 2014.  In the meantime, they hope you will submit work for the July 1-August 22, 2013 show whose theme is nature.  Please respond to these proposals when you have a moment. 

Yours sincerely, &c.
Lynette Santoro-Au
Arts Manager
I had to reply...did you mean 2014? And Lynette would reply: Yes we always book at least 2 years in advance. I was so excited, but I put my ideas on a back burner since it was so far away.
Then in April of this year (2013) I received this email:

I hope this finds you well

We had scheduled your installation show for 2014, but I’ve had a cancelation for our November 1-29, 2013 show and wonder if your work would be ready a year earlier? 

Yours sincerely, &c. 
Lynette Santoro-Au 

Since I have another show next year, I was happy to agree to do the installation this year instead of next. This is my updated proposal for the show from April of this year:


A Spiral of Life

An Installation Show by Ginny Baughman


Through my artwork I want to promote a dialogue about important issues in everyday life by exploring ideas and concepts that are close to my heart. My installation for the Concourse Gallery will be a narrative about life and family. I want to represent life and how we grow from birth to death. We begin very small and then quickly grow to adulthood. It seems like we never really grow up, we are always someone’s child or someone’s parent. Presently I am dealing how to let my adult children “fly the nest” go out into the world on their own. They will always be a part of my life no matter how old they get, because I will continue to be their parent and worry about them.
We begin very small, from almost nothing and then we grow to adulthood, but yet it seems like we never really grow up. We are always someone’s child or someone’s parent. I am interested in representing growth of life through development of our interests. I want to use a spiral to explore this theme, because it has a variety of symbolic meanings all of which fit with my theme: from rebirth, to the cycles of life, to a spiritual journey.
My plan is to create an installation of a spiral form in the center of the Concourse Gallery that radiates out into the room. This spiral will be filled with small objects that represent childhood through adulthood. The center or beginning of the spiral will have tiny non-descript objects such as buttons or pieces of wood. Then as spiral grows outward the objects will become more descript, such as small childhood toys like dolls and cars and then work its way into adult things such as sports and office equipment. The spiral will continue until it becomes almost nothing again which will represent death.
On a recent visit to the Concourse Gallery I noticed that the sunlight comes back and forth across the gallery throughout the day. I thought that it would be interesting to do something in my show to catch the light of that sun as it travels across the room. My first thought was a something like a sundial coming up from the center of the room. Unfortunately upon further consideration, I’m not sure that something coming up from the floor will catch the light. So instead I think I might have to hang something from the ceiling to catch the light. I need to come to the gallery to do some experiments to be certain how best to catch the sunlight as it travels across the room.
On the outer edges of the room, I would like to hang a clothesline that will have pictures of families clipped to it with clothespins. Clothespins have a special meaning of childhood to me. They mean the hanging out the laundry with my mother on a beautiful sunny day. My first thought was to invite the community to fill this clothesline with their own pictures of their sons and daughters at any age. After discussion with the Gallery Director, we have decided that I will have a booth the Labor Day Arts Festival this year and ask children to make pictures of their families for me to hang in my show. I will then hang them from clothesline in my show or I might hang them from the ceiling like prayer flags. I plan to buy colorful paper and oil pastels for children to create these pictures with. My hope is to get enough pictures to cover the entire gallery.
I also plan to include some other artwork in my show. My plan is to have two three dimensional paintings in the front of the room and two large paintings on either side of the gallery about family. One of the paintings I already have finished is called Eve and Adam, which seems appropriate since they are the original “parents.” I have three more paintings to think about and finish before the show.
I also hope to include two large “book” type artworks about my family. I would also like to include some family “books” about other families as well. I am proposing two classes at Upper Arlington for children to make large “books” to include in the show. I am attaching the description of these classes that I sent to Upper Arlington Parks and Recreation.
The Concourse Gallery in Upper Arlington seems like the perfect place for my installation for several reasons. First of all because of the shape of the space: the square space of the gallery will be perfect for the spiral in the center of it and the outside space around the gallery should be perfect to hang the clothesline or the pray flags. Secondly because of the type of community in Upper Arlington: working with students in my art classes in Upper Arlington I have noticed that it is a very neighborhood/family based community and I believe that my installation would speak directly to this base and I hope that it will be understood very well by them.


In September of 2013 Upper Arlington offered me a booth at their Labor Day Arts Festival to collect Drawings for the show:

 










 I had a great day meeting all the families and seeing the kids create pictures of their families.

To help pay for this show In August of this year I decided to apply for Greater Columbus Arts Council Grant. I discovered that it was quite a process. I didn't actually submit my request until September because of all the work that it entailed which included a budget of what I was going to spend. Here is the proposal for the show that I sent with my application for the Grant:

I am a central Ohio artist. In November I am having my first ever installation show at the Concourse Gallery in Upper Arlington. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to stretch my artistic bounds and create a statement through an installation based on a theme. It will be a narrative about life and family. I want to represent life showing how we grow from birth to death though the development of our interests. This show comes from emotions about family that I’m dealing with in my own life and I hope that it will speak to others too.


I want to use a spiral to explore this theme, because it has a variety of symbolic meanings that all fit my theme: including rebirth, to the cycles of life, to a spiritual journey. I plan to construct a spiral in the middle of the Concourse Gallery to represent life, from birth to death. I will use small things for this spiral, beginning with small buttons, beads, rocks and pompoms and moving on to childhood toys and then to adult items. I am also going to “house” the spiral in a tent frame that will represent a family house. Just outside the house will be shoes of all sizes to also represent how we grow.


I want to also include some of my paintings in this show as well. I plan to create two new large paintings on the theme before the show begins. I am also going to include two of my three dimensional artworks, which have already been created in the show as well because they fit the theme of family.


Since this show is about family I would like to include pictures of families in my show. I will hang pictures of families from the tent frame and clotheslines. Upper Arlington has offered me a booth at their Labor Day Arts Festival this year to ask children to draw pictures of their families for me to hang in my show. My hope is to get enough pictures to fill the gallery. I am also planning some children’s classes in the fall in Upper Arlington to create family books for the show as well. These two events will help me to extend my theme and include the community in the creation of my show. 


I believe that this show will be perfect for me and for this community. Upper Arlington seems like a community that is very neighborhood/family oriented and I hope that my installation will speak directly to this base and be understood and liked by everyone. This show will also be the perfect vehicle for me to express my feelings about a topic that is so important to me: family. I’m excited to see how this community will interpret my show. If it goes well, my hope is to propose the show to other galleries in other communities. It will be exciting to see how different communities interpret the show.

On September 19, 2013 I received this email from the GCAC informing me that I received the grant:

Dear Ginny:
On behalf of the Greater Columbus Arts Council and its Board of Trustees, I am writing to congratulate you on being awarded an Artists in the Community Supply Grant through the City of Columbus/GCAC grants program.
To view your award amount, log in to your GoArts home page.
In the next week or so, you will receive a copy of your grant acknowledgement. Please review the document, sign both copies and return one as soon as possible. Any special conditions, notations or restrictions will be noted on your grant agreement
Once your signed acknowledgement has been received, you will receive a disbursement of your grant award. You can expect to wait up to thirty (30) days before receiving your check.

With this grant, I received $475 toward my show. I waited until I received confirmation of the grant to buy things for the show. 

The only problem was that the check itself didn't actually arrive until almost a month later, which would have been only one month before the show. So I had to put most of what I bought on my credit card and then pay it off later when the check arrived.

I was still very grateful to receive the money. I know that I spent well over the amount of the grant, so I was so happy to have it to supplement my funds. This was the first grant that I've received, hopefully it's only the beginning!

Here are pictures of some of the supplies that I bought with my grant:


 I decided to make my dining room into my studio for this show:

Well this is the beginning...next I will post pictures of the installation of the show...


 


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