Hi All,
Greetings! Back from the desert and teaching jewelry at Burning Man
2008. This was another great year, with my theme camp, Oasis 47 being
moved to the Wheel at Center Camp, where all of the interactive theme
camps are offering jewelry making, movies, sculpture, music, etc.
This year was very special as Alan Revere and Nina the winner of the
AJDC new Talent Award joined us in making medallions.
Our theme camp’s medallions, Lady Liberty, designed, cast and
generously donated by Alan Revere, made quite a hit, and we had lots
of repeat visitors from last year finding Oasis 47 at our new home.
This is our third year of making pendants, which as you can see from
the photos was a big hit.
Thank you Alan for your generous contribution of teaching and for
creating “Lady Liberty” for this year’s Burning Man theme, “American
Dream.”
http://picasaweb.google.com/cleverwerx/BurningMan2008JewelryClass#
This is art in the trenches, public art which costs the maker
nothing other than to focus and have a good time. Although the design
of the medallions were the same, all the medallions differed with
each maker putting their own artistic mark using spices like
turmeric, parsley, sencha tea (a big hit from the group who flew from
Tokyo just to be at Burning Man), pink sand and powdered paints.
Attendees came from Australia, a few from Olympia, WA when they
wandered over, made a medallion, ran back to get their whole theme
camp. Others came from France, Poland, UK and Russia. Oasis 47, our
theme camp brought out homemade beer, munchies and we talked, ate and
made jewelry. This kind of amazing spontaneity of energy, excitement
and community for me as a maker and teacher keeps me coming back. The
larger art installations and art cars are incredible as I couldn’t
imagine what kind of wrangling with museum committees it would take
to get these built.
There is no money exchanged at Burning Man as it is a gifting
economy and the beautiful pendants, glass beads made from the neon
glass from the ashes from last year’s Burning Man, wire wrapping,
bandannas, etc. that we were gifted from generous and grateful makes
put smiles on our faces. Each one of these are treasured and hang on
my wall at home.
Although many think that Burning Man is naked hippies in the desert,
it is in reality one of the most extraordinary art festivals under
the harshest conditions in the world. Art in its purest form survives
and thrives here. Attendance was over 50,000 people.
For more on Burning Man see, http:/www.burningman.com
We had a lot of fun and Oasis 47 looks forward to next year
designing a new pendant for the Burning Man’s Theme, “Evolution”. We
are working towards our first two funded projects for 2009 and 2010.
Stay tuned!
k