During the late 80’s and the 90’s I did a lot of site specific installations which were very large and complicated. They were designed to immerse the viewer and be perceived from the inside out. (See the Installations link on the menu for examples.)
The “Mixed Media” works here were a conscious attempt to edit those installations into more specific pieces within defined parameters. The “Mixed Media” works were designed to be experienced from the outside in, rather than, from the inside out (as the installations had been designed).
The first piece here “Ford”, 1993, started with a deep childhood memory. I knew somehow I needed to make the inside of a 1949-50 Ford, as seen from lying on the floorboard and looking up at the inside of the lighted interior. I also needed to hear the sound of running water there (but not be in the water). When I was later explaining this piece to my mother she related a story that defined that memory.
From The Amarillo paper, Headlines “FOUR KILLED, 65 HURT IN AMARILLO TORNADO. PANHANDLE CAPITAL HEAVILY DAMAGED. Amarillo, Tex., May 16,1949 — (AP) — A skipping, whip-sawing tornado chewed up a four-square mile area in southern Amarillo last night, killing four people. About 65 were injured. It was the first destructive tornado in the 62-year-old history of this Panhandle capital of 102,000 people. Capt. Polk Ivy of the Texas Highway Patrol, state liasion officer in the disaster area, said local officials predict damage will total “something over one million dollars.” The Reconstruction Finance Corporation declared the stricken section a disaster area.Dawn found Red Cross and volunteer workers still picking their way through acres of shambles. It looked as if a big kitchen mixer dipped in, stirred everything up, and then spewed it around.
Although many sections of Amarillo were hit, the tornado’s most destructive blow fell on the southern area dotted largely with new homes of veterans. A near cloudburst — and hailstones as large as a man’s fist — added to the damage.”
I was just two years old when this tornado hit Amarillo. My mother and father were concerned about my grandparents and decided to get in the car (a 1949 Ford) and drive to their house across town to check on them. Yeah, it wasn’t a good idea, but it didn’t end badly for us (or the grandparents). My mother said we were in an intense thunderstorm and that sheets of water were pounding the car. She became alarmed and wrapped me in a blanket and put me on the floorboard of the car (for my protection). She spoke to my father who was driving and asked him to go ahead and get moving. He said he had the car floored. They were literally driving into the strong winds and rain of this killer storm.
So, fast forward to 1993 and I needed to make the lighted inside of a 1949 Ford, which I did make from the pages of a dictionary (the defined world of adults). I mounted the Ford on a ladder that has been modified to look like a building. On the outside of the building are the words “See Dick Run” (quoted from my first grade reader). Leashed to the “ladder/building/school” is a coyote made from children’s shoes and other clothing. He has learned to sit like a good boy and pay attention to his lessons. I never quite worked in the sound of running water into the piece but I still remember it. The title “Ford” is meant to be a noun and a verb.
