In 2005, Aaron and I were invited by our friend and talented painter Adam Longatti to submit a piece of artwork for the Quady Winery's annual Reveiller art exhibit.
He offered us the opportunity to install a piece in one of their large wine tanks. We chose the 8068-gallon tank. Aaron came up a title: "Specimen #23".
What follows is a look at the creative process behind this collaboration.
The tank specs.
The Brainstorming
Concept sketches by Rob Paloutzian.
Concept sketches by Aaron Harding.
Concept sculpture in clay by Aaron.
The Construction
The head, made from a plastic bucket and a plastic bowl, and hel together with duct tape and Goop.
The body was a hollow plastic mannequin bought off eBay.
We gooped the head down and covered it with Scuplt-a-mold, kind of a cross between papier mache.
The arms and tail were sewn by Sue Harding from cloth, stuffed with batting, and spray-glued on. The arms were articulated with thick aluminum wire.
He stands upright by virtue of a broomstick shoved up his tail. Ouch.
The body was painted with latex exterior paint, applied with a brush. Meticulous work.
The finished product. The claws were scuplted out of Sculpey and the suckers are just suction cups glued on.
Installation
Specimen #23 on the floor of the Quady Winery. Installation took less than an hour. Yay forethought!
We did not install any lighting inside the tank. We only left one aperture open, and covered that with a sheet of plexiglass, so that it was hard to see anything inside.
We had a flashlight hanging outside the tank with instructions to use it to see inside. This resulted in quite a few startled reactions, which was the desired effect.
Exhibiting at the Quady was a great experience for us and we'd like to thank the Quadys and Adam Longatti for letting us participate. There a good chance we'll have something there next year, too.