Spine-Taneous: Making The Piece

Spine-Taneous is the next show on the horizon (less than two weeks away).  It is the brainchild of Eileen Eiterheim.  She brought in Dr. Martin Stine and me early on to help flesh out the project.

Essentially, Spine-Taneous is a collaborative experience that pairs an artist (or student-artists) with a Chiropractor (or Chiropractic student). As a team/group we develop a concept for a piece and then we create it.

Here is the sketch I presented to Dr. Tara Pratt ( a link to her practice ) at our first meeting at Antonella's Pizzeria.  Underwhelming, eh?

Concept in motion.

We wanted to create a blend/hybrid between a tree and a spine with all of life's stressors weighing down on the spine/trunk.

So we got a big ole, sheet of paper (A huge THANKS to artist Tami Schmidt!), laid down rough squares of masking tape, and started to draw.  4 people and a lot of charcoal.

We also used erasers to make white marks in dark patches of charcoal.

It's important to 'motivate' young artists/workers with the proper administration of a 'face-squeezing'.

Along the lines of the John Steinbeck quote, "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.', I brought in a 'ringer' to assure this project would be a success.  Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present: Taylor Bennett.  Taylor was a student in my Life Drawing class this past semester at Black Hawk College.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present what Taylor can do with charcoal and a piece of paper.....

Here's an image of Taylor erasing (making white marks on a surface covered with charcoal) a spine.

Some more images of the mayhem that weighs upon us both literally and figuratively.

The image is starting to take shape.

Once all of the drawing was completed, we removed the tape (which took roughly 30 minutes) to reveal a loose grid of white lines/shapes.

The long shot up the piece from the bottom.

Taylor Bennett, Dr. Tara Pratt, and our 'well-charcoaled' mark-making assistant!

So here's the initial 'concept' drawing....

And here is the finished product (turned 90 degrees so it could even fit on the wall in the studio).

4 people.  5 hours of work.

I think this face pretty much sums up the creative experience for the day.

Spine-Taneous, the one-night-ONLY show is Saturday, February 1st from 6-9pm on the third floor of the River Music Experience Building (RME/Redstone Building).  THAT SAME NIGHT (on the second floor in The Redstone Room) will be the farewell performance of Jim The Mule.  Not an evening to be missed!

Coming soon, images from other Spine-Taneous projects and behind-the-scenes set-up images for the show!

For more information about the event Eileen has even made a snazzy Facebook page ( HERE ) and even a website ( HERE ).