Yearly Archives: 2012

So, We Keep Moving Forward

So this is the hell or high water mark, where time is crunching and stakes are raising and winning is not enough. The project is moving faster and gaining steam, I have a series of fantastic new team members and planners. Amazing foundations are actually seeking me out, to become part of the project. But [...]

First Photos of the Finished Golden Wings

 

The City Rises

“Of course, we are people who ride in steel boxes daily, where the smell of our humanity is not uncommon to us… you are the city that inspires me. You rise to everything that meets you.” – Kathleen Griffin                                   [...]

One Butterfly Down, 16 to Go

“You imagine, when you start a project like this, that one day you’re going to turn a corner, and it will all come together.”  – Kathleen Griffin Somehow the emails from Humankind got lost in outer space the last few days so I am just finding out now, the first butterfly is out of the [...]

Only Forward, Like the Shark

“I have a saying in these meetings, ‘only forward, like the Shark.’” – Kathleen Griffin I am sitting across a desk at Skyscraper, watching Charles Connelly, Jr. He has been on the phone with Canada for an hour, finding us the right sized steel part to conform the the current engineering drawings and making sure [...]

Photo: The Artist and Her Wings

  The Artist as Model: Kathleen Griffin poses with her large-scale wing drawings at Couture Fashion Week, an event hosted by Black Tie Magazine at the Waldorf Astoria in September.

Do It Like Michelangelo

“First, you draw a picture the size you would like the sculpture to be, then poke a million tiny holes into the contour lines of the drawing…”   On October 1st I got an email from Kate at Humankind – the molds are done, the first  butterfly should be out of the mold and ready [...]

Photos: Making the Prototype

As detailed in the previous post, here are some images of the making of the first butterfly protoype at the Humankind workshop in Philadelphia. Thanks again to Kate and Joel from Humankind, along with Charles P. Connelly, Jr. of Skycraper and everyone at Bermco for all your hard work – and all the work that [...]

Philadelphia Freedom – Making the Prototypes

August 20: I arrive at Humankind in Philly to work with Kate and Joel. Kate and I will be finishing the butterfly patterns in foam and then wax and then they will be laying them up in epoxy resin around the steel, which was constructed by Bermco Steel and overseen by  Charles at Skyscraper. We [...]

Step Two: Do a Lot of Bad Drawings

“This piece lingers in a border space, something that is real and yet still feels like you are only seeing it and then finishing it or making it real in your head. Like a piece of poetry made real, crystallizing for a minute.” I began drawing butterflies about six years ago. They just started popping [...]