Halsey Public Art Project: the start
Wednesday morning I traveled south to Halsey City Hall for a meeting with the Coffee and Donuts group. That morning the group was there to put forth ideas of “what makes Halsey unique, what is the town known for and how can two artists capture these ideas into 3D wall sculptures.” There are now two of us creating work, myself and Portland artist Bonnie Meltzer. We will both hang on a warehouse exterior wall owned by DLF International Seed. After the first meeting, Hester and I went to talk with the VP of Operations at DLF. What an accommodating office! It will be a pleasure to work with this company. Halsey is the USA base for DLF, while corporate headquarters are located in Denmark (or something along those lines). Halsey is the largest seed producer in the world! Along with seed production, other forms of agriculture are quite abundant around town. The logging industry plus paper/wood pulp mill round out the economic base.
The wall looks like this:
I also took an interior shot to note the spacing and board width for attachment.
The overall length of the building is about 100 ft. Full wall height is 15 ft. I’ll not go past 11 ft since the upper section is fiberglass that allows light into the warehouse. The exterior is corrugated aluminum and is riveted ever 1.5 ft from the ground level up. This is all important information for designing and mounting the work in mid-September. Yes, only 3 months to design, fabricate, paint, and mount! What a challenge!
Today, I ordered a good scroll saw plus stand to make fabrication easy. That should arrive next week. It’s one of those tools I’ve always wanted to purchase but never had a good enough excuse. Now is that time! I also spent time cleaning up space in the office for actual design work. It’s amazing how cluttered the drafting table becomes. A flat surface never stays uncovered for long! Next step will be to figure out silhouette size and how many will be created for my section and ultimately how much material to purchase.
So that’s the start of the wall project. Keep watching for updates of progress as we move through the months until deadline. This will be a very full summer of art!
Art in Rural Communities is a program through The Arts Center of Corvallis, OR.
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
Wow, that’s going to be some project. Can’t wait to see what you design
I’m learning to think of it as smaller parts to cover the larger space rather than a diptych or triptych approach. Such a different way to stretch my brain!
Gosh yes. And you’re making it yourself?
Yep. Call me crazy!😜
Oh all right then lol 😁
yay for an excuse to purchase a new toy!!
Now I have to create room for it! Argh! My household is way too small for all the projects happening.
So exciting – that wonderful wall is just begging to be covered in some great art! As soon as I saw the word ‘seeds’ ideas started forming. Can’t wait to see what you do!
I can imagine seeds would grab your attention! Actually this project will focus on the town. I’m not going to be totally focused on the grass seed idea. I’ll be doing a trip south today to get photo documentation started.
Is that whole wall all yours, and will you/do you cover the entire length? I love a big canvas but the is vast. How exciting! How interesting that you are a major seed growing area, is it just grass seed. I so enjoy your projects. Karen
Originally the entire wall was mine but I chose to allow another artist to share the space. The organizers were having a very difficult time securing a second space. My husband really questioned why I wanted to share my space. “It’s yours and you shouldn’t share with anyone. You always bend to help others. You shouldn’t let someone else steal your thunder.” Oh well, I chose to share so that’s that.
More craziness to come!
I would have shared too, how could you not give the other artist a chance. Also you don’t want too seen as ungenerous to the committee. Plus there is plenty of wall!
Yes, the wall is plenty big for us both! 😊