Snow Day!

It's a snow day!!

Snowman

The Snowman who sits at the end of my driveway has held up to the weather and various animals for over 8 years. He is made from balls of old poultry wire covered with concrete, rebar, and ceramic tile.

Art in Motion at The Morris Graves Museum of Art

Art in Motion one-of-a-kind artist mannequins.

Untitled piece by Monica Schill currently on display at The Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA

Bid on my piece and others at Mannequin Masquerade on Wednesday, December 10th at 7 p.m. a live auction with the proceeds benefiting the many programs of the Humboldt Arts Council. All sculptures will be on display in the Rotunda Gallery at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA. For more information go to: http://www.humboldtarts.org/Exhibitions/artInMotion/artInMotion.html

New Work Area

Good morning! Here are a couple of shots of my new temporary work space. I love it. It's an old green house that we will be taking down as soon as I am done with Encased in Concrete 88. So, it has great lighting and is warm in these cold winter months.

Encased in Concrete 88...Back in a Flash!!!

The preview at Back in a Flash in Garberville went great. Lots of people came by to see and give feedback. Leo and I moved 13 of the smaller pieces down for the show. 4 mosaicked and 9 plain. The best reactions came form children ,who sat on them and even kicked them to see what would happen. I'm inspired to finish and excited about the up coming show at the Morris Graves.

Encased in Concrete 88 at Back in a Flash!!!

I will be showing a preview of several of the Encased in Concrete 88 pieces at my daughters store Back in a Flash 825 Redwood Dr. in Garberville, CA on Friday Dec. 5th from 5-8pm. Come by and take a look.

Garbage Pillows

Garbage Pillows 2004 approximately 36 x 36 x 16 inches each
ferro cement & garbage.

As the stuffing to give them shape, each
garbage pillow is filled with non-recyclable garbage, collected
from my own household over a 6 month time period. Then,
each is encased in a layer of concrete to preserve it. My
intent is to show how much space this garbage would take up
if it had actually made it to a landfill.

Rubber Duck

Rubber Duck is made out of rusty chicken wire and concrete.

Halloween 2008

I got a little distracted by Halloween this week, which has been fun. With the show date pushed until May I've been able to slow down a little. Still, I managed to finish 5 pieces, numbers 71, 45, 31, 5, and 18, all are concreted and ready to show. Also, I wanted to let people know that in December there will be a preview showing of several of the pieces from Encased in Concrete 88 at Back in a Flash in Garberville, CA. I'll have exact dates and times as the date gets closer.

New Dates

New dates have been set for the "Encased in Concrete 88" showing at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA.
The show will now be opening on May 2nd, 2009 and run until January 3rd, 2010.


#46

October 20th. & 21st.

Yesterday, I worked on grouting and mosaicking. I was able to finish another mosaic piece (#75), completely tiled the smallest of my pieces, and worked on the tile work for 3 others. This week I'm going to start the tile work on the biggest piece (3-4 feet in diameter).
Today, I wrapped several bags of garbage with wire to get them ready for concrete.
Tomorrow, I'll be back to concrete work with my friend the cement mixer, and then later in the day I'll be doing more tile work.




This is my smallest piece #46 (12 inches in diameter) ready to be grouted.







Garbage wrapped in aviary netting ready for concrete.

Encased in Concrete 88

11 are completely done now, with only 77 to go! (one was to big to move over into the photo area)
I' ll be grouting today, so another mosaic piece will be done which feels good since they take the longest to complete. I'm in the process of setting up a covered area to work in when the rain starts later this week. The goal with next week is to start get 12 or more done per week, so that the concrete has enough time to cure before moving them to the museum in mid December.

Christmas 2005

This piece is made up of 5 concreted shapes. They are filled with the non-recyclable garbage from Christmas morning 2005. Bows, wrapping paper, plastic wrap, styrofoam packaging...

First Mosaic Ones Done!

Well it took a few days more than expected to have the time to grout (life happens), but finally I have the 1st 2 mosaicked pieces (there will be 22 total) of Encased in Concrete 88 done.
#7








#22








Also, on Saturday I received a Honorable Mention in the 50th Annual Fall Redwood Art Association exhibition for my painting The Bird House.

Encased in Concrete 88

Today was to wet to grout, but it was a wonderful day for photos. So, here are a couple of new photos of
Encased in Concrete 88.

Encased in Concrete 88

The last few days have been busy ones. I now have 6 pieces completely done including one of the very large pieces (34 inches at its widest). Also, I've been mosaicking, and now have 3 pieces ready to be grouted tomorrow. At this moment there are 65 pieces (plus the 6 that are done) that are in some state of the process, 18 bagged, 10 wrapped in wire, 31 partially concreted, 6 tiled. I'm also getting my publicity photos together and writing an artist statement for the Morris Graves Museum of Art. Tomorrow, I will try to publish photos of the 3 pieces that I'll have grouted.


#15 22x34" filled with non-recyclable garbage, wrapped in recycled poultry netting, and encased in concrete

Art in Motion

Art in Motion one-of-a-kind artist mannequins.

Untitled piece by Monica Schill currently on display at the office of Philip Arnot, Attorney at law 302 N. Street Eureka, CA 95501

Bid on my piece and others in a silent auction while on display at local businesses, or attend Mannequin Masquerade on Wednesday, December 10th at 7 p.m. for a live auction with the proceeds benefiting the many programs of the Humboldt Arts Council. All sculptures will be on display in the Rotunda Gallery at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA in November. For more information go to:
http://www.humboldtarts.org/Exhibitions/artInMotion/artInMotion.html

Gloves

Rubber gloves in the garden. When I wear out a pair of rubber gloves I fill them with concrete, and place them in my garden.

Pyramids

Pyramids 2003 24x60x24 inches each

This is a set of 5 pyramids made from the metal mesh removed from one of those huge old satellite dishes. I then filled each Pyramid with shredded office paper from our local school. Each was encased in concrete of a different color: red(faded to pink), blue, yellow, white, and black.






These are still in my yard and have held up to years of weather. One was slightly damaged though after being knocked over by our horse when he tried to use it to scratch on.

One Done!!

Yesterday was a good day!

I finally finished one of my Encased in Concrete 88. Number 27/88 is done (they're not in numerical order, I have a can with all of the tags in it, and as I finish one it gets whatever tag I pull out). Currently, I have 47 pieces in various stages of doneness (wrapped in wire, tiled but not grouted, partially concreted, partially tiled), so it felt so good to have one reach completion.


Work in progress.

Mosaic Pillar

Mosaic Pillar, 2004, 48x12 inches

Ferro-cement shell filled with packing peanuts, and then tiled with ceramic floor tile. So far, I have made 3 of these, one is at my home, and the other 2 are at Persimmon Garden Gallery in Redway, Ca.
The plan is to make eventually to make a total of 40 of them.

Tile, Tile, Tile...

Today, I decided to take a break from concrete work. I spent part of my time breaking up ceramic floor tile with a hammer. The rest was spent doing mosaic work on several of the pieces for Encased in Concrete 88. Tomorrow, I will be back to concrete work in the morning.








As, of today it looks like at least 42 of the 88 pieces will use recycled wire for their wrapping. The rest I will have to use new wire (aviary netting and poultry netting).

Pinata

Pinata before.








Pinata after being encased in concrete, and tiled with tiny tile (3/8 inch tiles)

What's in it?

People always want to know what's in my sculptures. Well, the current project Encased in Concrete 88 has a little of everything. Here is a partial list of non-recyclable garbage that has been collected over the last few weeks to put inside these pieces: old toothbrushes, used wooden matches, toilet paper wrappers, band-aid wrappers, insulation, paper cups, mexican chocolate wrappers, old dog toys, remay ground cover, cardboard milk and 1/2 & 1/2 cartons, rubber gloves, holey socks, sand and cement bags, styrofoam packing material, some pieces of plastic that the dogs dug up in the back yard, tar paper, broken window glass, and the list goes on and on.

Redwood Art Association

The Redwoods Art Association is having its 50th Annual Fall Exhibition
September 18 - October 18, 2008 at 527 4th Street, Old Town Eureka.
Arts Alive! Saturday, October 4, 6 - 9 pm
RAA Member Reception before Arts Alive! 5 - 6 pm with awards at 5:30
Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, noon - 5 pm

My painting The Bird House (36x48" acrylic on canvas) will be included in the show.

Encased in Concrete 88

Today I work on several different aspects of my project. I mixed up a batch of concrete and applied it to 6 different pieces. It can take 4 -6 applications to cover one piece in concrete. I have to allow one side to harden before rolling it over to work on the next.




Working concrete into wire surface.




Next, I wrapped 4 more bags of garbage with wire.

Then, I started on the name tags for each of the 88 pieces. They are cutout of recycled 1/2 inch cooper pipe that I have cut into 1/2 inch pieces, and flattened with pliers. Each one will have my name, the number of the piece, and the year on it. So far I have all 88 cutout and flattened, with 26 of them numbered and ready to go.


Ex: M. Schill
1/88 08






Tomorrow, I'm hoping to work more on the concrete application, and set up my outside mosaicking area. A few of the pieces are so big that I can't get them into my studio, so I'm setting up a shaded area outside that I can work in.

Work, Work, Work...

My friend the cement mixer, and a few pieces ready to be mosaicked.

The Beginning of Encased in Concrete 88

January-June 2009 I have an exhibition at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA. The piece I will be showing is called "Encases in Concrete 88" the show will be in the Melvin Schuler Sculpture Garden.

Encased in Concrete 88 is made up of 88 individual pieces. Each piece is a bag of non-recyclable garbage (insulation, roofing material, wrappers, twist ties, old socks, over used dog toys, the list goes on and on) the sizes vary from 1 foot to 3 feet in diameter. Each bag is wrapped in wire (so far about 40 are covered in used poultry fencing and aviary netting). Then the bags are encased in concrete. 22 of the pieces will then be mosaicked with tile collected from a local tile shop (their leftovers that would otherwise have been thrown away), and tile left over from other mosaic commissions that I have done.

The idea is to give a representation of the space that this many bags of garbage would take-up in a land fill and to give an option for dealing with them.

Milk Jugs

Milk Jugs (5 pieces 17-32 inches)

Years ago, when after saving the plastic milk jugs for a year from my family of five, I wanted to recycle them, but our local recycle would not take them (happy to say they do now). So, that led to the art piece "Milk Jugs". I crushed the jugs then wrapped them in old poultry wire. Next they were covered in concrete. To this day they still sit in my yard as a habitat for wild lizards.