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.