A Great Weekend...Skateboard Curtain!

(Above: Skateboard, hippie styled beaded curtain...mounted on the doorway to my studio. Assorted beads and "cubes" of broken skate boards on wire. Collaboration: Steve Dingman, Sharon Licata, and Susan Lenz. Donation for SKATE AND CREATE, a charity art event, September 11, 2009. Click on image to enlarge.)

The art season in Columbia, South Carolina has started. There are five one-week shows booked into Gallery 80808/Vista Studios for the coming weeks. This is the space just outside my studio door. This weekend several local artists booked the gallery and hosted a party every night. They manned the exhibit throughout the weekend. I sat quietly inside my studio most of the time....working diligently but happily eavesdropping on the art conversations that floated over the walls. The energy of others is amazing. With such inspiration, I accomplished several things.

First and second....two more Decision Portraits were finished! I've photographed them and written to the "models". These entries will by posted soon; I just let those who posed see the results first. In a day or two, I'll share Recycler and Solidarity.

Third, however, was a particularly FUN project! It is a collaboration between Sharon Licata (another artist at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios), my wonderful husband Steve, and myself. The work was created for the third annual SKATE AND CREATE show scheduled from September 10 - 13. It will be held at..."where else"....Gallery 80808/Vista Studios. I am quite proud to have helped initiate this exhibit. SKATE AND CREATE benefits the non-profit, Pour It Now....an organization trying to raise awareness and funds for new skate boarding parks in South Carolina. Each year skateboards are artistically altered and sold during the exhibit. I sponsored the first and second events. This year, however, I didn't have a "week of gallery space" to donate because I mounted CYBER FYBER earlier this year. Thus, Sharon Licata is sponsoring this year's show by donating one of her "free weeks" of gallery space. Several other artists in our group are creating artistic skateboards.

Sharon, Steve and I collaborated on a hippie-styled, beaded curtain! It actually started years ago. My younger son Alex wanted to make a "skateboard Christmas wreathe" for another charity art event. He asked the local skate shop, Blue Tile, to collect broken skateboards for him. There were dozens upon dozens....more than enough to make a great wreathe. The "leftovers" were screwed into his bedroom wall....until, in a fit of rage, he left home over a year and a half ago. Steve and I finally took apart his bedroom...putting everything (including all the broken skate board pieces) into the attic. Alex participated in the first SKATE AND CREATE event. He made a fantastic digital clock (below). Alex loved skateboarding....so....we finally used all these broken parts. Sharon used her drill press for the holes. Steve cut the boards into small parts. I strung the "skate board beads" together with other colorful and wooden beads and made the curtain. Alex would love it. I wish he knew....but I don't even know where he lives....and he hasn't graduated from high school despite the fact that this should be the autumn when Steve and I thought we'd be dropping him off at the college of his choice.

Regardless, the project was fun. The charity will undoubtedly benefit. The beaded curtain is great! One day Alex might take a "half pipe" to a "grind", turn his board out onto the street and "vert" his way back home. I'd do an "ollie" if he did. Alex will be 19 just after SKATE AND CREATE closes. Click on any image to enlarge.