Gwozdziec Re!konstrukcja (timber framing and painting)

I spent June 13 - August 27, 2011in various towns in Poland, working on the following project:

"None of these extraordinary wooden synagogues survive. The Nazis burned the last of them to the ground in 1939. But, we do have excellent documentation that will allow us to reconstruct one of the most beautiful of these architectural treasures, the Gwozdziec wooden synagogue. We plan to rebuild its polychrome ceiling and timber-framed roof to 85% scale, using traditional tools, techniques, and materials.
The wooden synagogue is a perfect expression of the Golden Age of Polish Jewry during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Gwoździec ceiling and roof, a centerpiece in our presentation of the 1000-year history of Polish Jews, will extend up from the Core Exhibition into the grand public space of the Museum's modern building. The building was designed by Ilmari Lahdelma and Rainer Mahlamäki of Finland, winners of our international competition, the first in Poland for a public institution. From the Core Exhibition, visitors will look up at the polychrome ceiling, while from the grand public space of this modern building, they will look through a cutaway in the roof and see the marvelous timber frame structure within."   - Handshouse Studio

Here's an amazing short video that describes the project perfectly:
http://vimeo.com/trilliumstudios/making-history

The next couple photos are of the timber framing of the log walls and the ceiling structure.  A large group of professional timber framers from the Timber Framers Guild and three groups of students worked on constructing this structure.  Each group of students worked for 2 1/2 weeks.  I was there for the final group of students, so I got to see it finished, which actually only lasted about 30 minutes because the second it was up we had to begin disassembling it to meet our deadline.

 This is a view of the timber framing work site at the Skansen/The Enthrographic Museum in Sanok, Poland.

 

 The erected log walls and the start of the ceiling.

For the second half of the project, the painting part, I was employed as a painting leader.  My job was to make sure that I was painting whilst simultaneously teaching travel groups of students, some of whom have never painted before, how to paint. This section lasted two months.  We traveled to three different very-hard-to-pronounce Polish towns - Rzeszow (pronounced: jej- off), Krakow, Wroclaw (pronounced: wash cloth) - and set up our work space in synagogues. We were trying to stay as true to the technologies of the times as possible - which meant we had to use rabbit skin glue and pigment as paint. 

The first paintings I did were of the unicorns.  The way we would paint the animals was to look at a black and white photo (the only photo reference that remained from the past) for value, and pretty much guess which colors to use.  Granted, the guesses were based on a now-dead artists description of colors and a sort of incomplete color chart he painted.

 Here's the black and white photo I used for reference.

 I also painted the bull, ox, and all the ropes.

 In this photo you can see how the wood of the original synagogue shifted pretty significantly.

 Leo.

There was a wall of fourteen different kinds of flowers, with each flower occurring twice so all the painting leaders and a few students were assigned flowers just so we could be sure they'd get done.  Here are mine, with the strawberrylilac being my fave:

 

The finished sections of part of two (out of four) walls.  I go back next summer for three months to finish them all.

 the timber framing blog: http://mcnorlander.wordpress.com/

the painting blog:  http://gwozdziecpainting.blogspot.com/

A friend let me borrow his amazing camera and now I have the closest I'll ever get to professional photos of my bison.  These were taken at the Ann Marie Sculpture Garden and Art Center in Dowell, Maryland.  That space has weddings in it every now and then, and rumor has it that some drunk bachelor rode my bison.. and it survived!  After these photos were taken it was moved/squeezed into a storage space in Philadelphia.  Hopefully I'll be able to get it into a couple of shows before the monthly payments of the space way me down.

 

 

Late Night Yard Sale Flier

 

Late Night Yard Sale Flier, 11"x17", sharpie, 2011.

Unfortunately, this yard sale was pretty much a bust because it rained the whole day and night, it sure as hell wasn't because it wasn't well advertised (my friend and I put up 37)!

 

THE BIG AMERICAN BISON INTO THE AMERICAN RAM VAN CRAM

I submitted my bison model to the show Supersize: Bigger is Better? at the Ann Marie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center in Dowell, MD a few months ago.  It got accepted and the whole cramming and uncramming process led me to believe that the answer to the question proposed in the show title is: no.  My boyfriend and I drove the bison to southern Maryland, camped in Virginia (by that I mean slept outside for about 4 hours on some gravel in a national park) and then spent a few hours the next day unloading the bison and reassembling it with the help of a couple more nice people.  The sculpture garden is incredible; the Southernish folk that run the place are REALLY nice; there is a massive indoor gallery; and the whole thing pretty much reminded me of the deCordova Sculpture Park in MA.

The front half of the bison just casually on the sidewalk with a couple of my unpaid slave workers friends.

We ended up having to break a little something off to actually fit it in there, but hey that's no skin off my back since the fur was going to cover that part anyways! you gotta skimp somewhere.

I got to ride 11 hours with an iron horn 2 inches from my face!  Didn't once slam my head into that thing! ;)

Once the bison was crammed in there, there wasn't much room for anything else, including getting out of the van.

done done and DONE

My review lasted 15 minutes (it's supposed to be 1 hour) because all of my reviewers said "This is amazing. I have nothing else to say" AND I won the Helen Blaire Crosbie award aka $1000 AND I can now be called a college graduate.

American Bison/Prairie House, 76"x39"x130", red oak, cast iron, handmade felt, 2011.

actual bison in progress

SICK CUSTOM A-FRAME

I kept the bison undercover in the woodshop for the entirety of its construction.  This is a shot of it's shoddy neck and head construction that wouldn't be visible. 

Each student is allowed 6 cubic feet in the senior show.  The bison turned out to be 3.5' x11' and one of the gallery people thought it was too big.  It did get in the show and my convincing footprint/space holder probably explains why........

Yeahhhh huge gallery mess!  I got the bison in there at around 5pm and finished assembling it by 8 am the next day and only because two of my friends stayed up the entire night helping me apply the "finish" (feed n wax and dirty metal shop rag) and putting on the felt.  I used old memory foam to bulk out and shape the head. Half of it had the finish on it at this point.

one of the fourteen bison cross section drawings

Evidence that art students still sometimes(very rarely) use skills that plain ol' regular college students use.  This is the tallest/widest/most complex cross section drawing out of the whole bison and also bears the most weight.  All the measurements of the drawing were multiplied by 5.3.  This drawing is about 15" tall so this cross section is actually about 6'5".

blanco buffalo

The finished model.

American Bison Model, 14.5"x22", 1/8" bass and balsa wood, uncarded felt, wax and a whole lotta superglue, 2011.

bison model

The steps of building a model of a 6.5'x11' timber framed bison I'm going to make this semester.  It will be half covered in uncarded felt with cast bronze eyes, horns, hooves, nose and mouth.

I accidentally superglued my lips and tongue for the first time in my life while making this model.

The first time I made the neck I spaced it wrong and it ended up too long, so I had to tear the whole thing off and remake the sections to be asymmetrical like they actually would be.  Please note my superior clamping method.

The naked model with a professional backdrop.

I finally got around to taking good photographs of Wrist Deep over a year after I made it on my last day of it being in my possession.  I had to give it up to the MassArt annual auction on Friday.