Made Here: Reflection prep continues with sewing and starching

Our work on Paid in Full! continues as installation day nears. Skills I only touched on in high school home economics class growing into valuable tools in my art. I am excited about the possibilities opening up with these newly honed skills. New ideas for puppet construction and fabric sculpture are brewing. 

Serging is satisfying

Sewing letters to the dyed banners

Hanging starched banners to dry

Letter/word jumble

Work day on "Paid in Full!" for Reflection:Made Here

Started work on our latest Made Here project we are calling paid in full!

Concept sketch

Dyeing sheets (photo credit: Erin Lavelle)

Cutting letters from fabric

More about Made Here

Pirate Ship Flag

Chapin & Chapman Pirate Flag

Sarah and I designed and made a pirate flag for our neighbor's front yard pirate ship. I will post a photo showing the flag on display!

Pirate Ship!

Sneak peek of our Intersections: Made Here commission

It's a busy time for art collaboration. May Day Parade preparations are ongoing and we made great progress on the many elements of our Intersections:Made Here commission.

Heavy materials lifting at the downtown site load in (thanks Tom!)
Photo: Credit: Erin Lavelle

The wonders of glue and paper

She takes shape

Mysterious objects and projections
Photo: Credit: Erin Lavelle

More about Made Here
More about May Day

It was a weekend of creating

Art was on the mind this past weekend as Erin and I began work on our Intersections:Made Here commission. I also brought my family to the In the Heart of the Beast May Day build where we made puppets to wear when we march the parade on May 3rd.

Concept sketch for No Loitering! our commissioned work for Intersections: Made Here

Creating the form for the lantern figure  (photo credit: Erin Lavelle)

On to May Day preparations...

We chose to join the "and still we rise" section of the parade

Mom and Dad create flower costumes

It's a family affair!

More about Made Here
More about May Day

Nighttime Post - Behind the scenes: Part I - The idea

Posting some behind the scenes info from my last few collaborations...

It all started on a cold Sunday afternoon in November (2013) with a tour of potential project sights along West River Road in downtown Minneapolis. Erin and I convened to the warmth of my apartment and began talking about how to activate the locations and sketching out various ideas for a project. 

We eventually settled on some sort of "Post Office."

Over the next several weeks we met to narrow down the options and distill the final idea into a presentable concept. Then we split duties with Erin mainly writing the proposal and me mainly sketching out concept art. 

The fruits of our labors...

Initial Proposal Description

Nighttime Post, a collaboration between artists Anthony Chapin and Erin Lavelle, is a participatory arts project that responds to the fear of the dark and the disconnection it brings by delivering ‘messages of light’ from citizen to random citizen throughout the night, illuminating the bond between strangers. On the special occasion of Northern Spark, we project a new image of our nighttime city as a place of engagement, creativity, warmth and communication, and we offer dreams for each other and our surroundings.

Concept Art

Tent, lantern, and flag concept for Nighttime Post

Postmaster concept for Nighttime Post

Postmaster with desk, typewriter, and lamp concept for Nighttime Post

Courier and case concept for Nighttime Post

Bicycle with lantern, horn, and headlight concept for Nighttime Post

To be continued in part II...

Nighttime Post is a collaboration with artist Erin Lavelle. The project was originally conceived for and commissioned by Northern Lights.mn for the 2014 Northern Spark Festival. 

Ely Winter Festival Snow Carving Symposium

Participated in the Ely Winter Festival's Annual Snow Carving Symposium this weekend. This is my third year at the festival and second year working on a carving. Our team started with an 8x8x8ft square block of snow as a starting point and scavenged as many large blocks from other teams to extend our tentacles from the base. Great fun and looking forward to next year!

Sarah working on the tentacle swirl

Taking shape

Looking rough at the end of the first night

Day two

Just some details left at the end of night 2

Wrapping things up on day 3

Pretty good resemblance

Face detail

Team effort!

More photos here.
More about Ely Winter Festival.

Prep for snow carving weekend in Ely, MN

Maquette from sketches done in 3 hours

Maquette view from above

Maquette (rear view)

Maquette scratching tentacle detail

Bedlam Theatre's 10Fest Spring 2013

Back in June of 2013 I did something new. Performing on stilts with actual lines to memorize! The Bedlam 10fest is a series of 10 minute plays. In this iteration we had the theme of work with what you've got. It was a pleasure to participate in this delightful piece!  

Una Leccion para Volar, "A Flying Lesson" 

by Clairbel Gross

Crow puppet designed & performed by Anthony Chapin 

Backdrop and lighting design by Anthony Chapin

This is the story of growing up and losing the ability to have flying dreams. The audience follows a young girl’s quest to get her flying dreams back.  A bilingual script will incorporate puppetry, movement and music. With Catalina Hotung, Tony Chapin, Bill Hewitt. Creative support by Lelis Brito.

The backdrop was sewn together sheets spray painted with imagery from the story. Our stage was outside of the Mixed Blood Theatre.

 Bill, Catalina & Claribel

 Yeah...I'm a BIRD!

 The stilting crow

Post show wanderings

Full cast

More photos here

For more info on Bedlam's 10Fest (now called Short Shorts) check out Bedlam Theatre.