I was invited to produce a public art installation with the participants at the JFNA's next-gen conference Tibefest in Las Vegas this week.
This is the second incarnation of the Wings Installation (you can see the first version here: http://www.adamcourtney.net/pages/wings.html )
This time participants will be invited to add their own meaningful text to a feather. That;s a pretty art school way of saying that they can write on them with a sharpie. What did artists do before the sharpie? I swear, that pen can write on gravel. In order to make the feathers solid enough to write on, I dipped them in a liquid acrylic that coats and has the added boon of making them look like they've been cast in glass.
Along with my lovely art-intern Jen Taylor, I spent a couple of days mixing the chemicals, dipping feathers and hanging them to dry in this special little drying container contraption I built in the studio.
Stage one complete. If you're going to be in Vegas March 6-9th come visit booth 19 At the Mandalay Bay Hotel and make a feather.
I arrived in Las Vegas at 11:30AM on Saturday after my traditional "night of no sleep" that allows me to pass out from shear exhaustion on the five to six hour flights out west. It's a solid good strategy for sleeping on long flights with a few small draw backs. I tend to pack right before I leave so I always forget to bring something. Like underwear. And I show up at the airport (usually before dawn) a little loopy and arrive at my destination kinda fucked up. Sleep on a plane isn't actually sleep. Though I maintain that it's still better than being awake on a plane.
I stayed that first night with the mother of my 2nd high school girlfriend, Jenny who is now married and happy as a clam living in Tucson. [
See these portraits here] Teri is a nurse and moved from Tucson to Vegas a few years ago on the lure of huge stacks of money. Teri is one of those amazing people who's always cheerful even when she's tired or in a bad mood. She's also amazing because she's a nurse in a hospital which is a job that is about as soul crushing and exhausting as anything you're likely to find this side of Fallujah. 12 hour shifts on your feet, no respect from the administration and, you know, dealing with sick people all day.
So Teri, my own personal savior, picked me up from the airport and we grabbed lunch at the locals casino before heading back for a quick nap.
Saturday night was a party for the launch of MTV's The Real World: Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was everything you'd expect, with the cast of the Jersey Shore in attendance and a room full of very hip 12 year olds who were probably in their 20's. I did manage to befriend the coolest person oin the room however, the new Sun Drop girl, Maggie Champagne. I swear that's her real name. We had beers the next night and I checked.
So Sunday kicks off the TRIBEFEST and jews galore descend on Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The whole point of me coming out here is to do this fantastic public art piece at the conference. AJC ACCESS co-sponsor the booth and ROI helped bring me out here so a big thanks to both of them!
I set my booth up, laid out my feathers and spent the next couple of days alternately suggesting, cajoling and pleading with participants to take a feather and write something on it they found meaningful.
It was a mission to get those feathers done. There's a surprising amount of fear and total puzzlement when you ask people at a federation conference, even one aimed at 22-45 year old's, to participate in an art project. In the end though they came through with flying colors. The final piece was amazing. Here's a quick shot of the installation itself and I'm working on editing some video footage of the reactions people had to the piece.
