Snow Bloom

My goal of getting “Bicycle Bloom” installed before the snow fell didn’t quite happen. But we’re close! Anchorage finally had it’s first measurable snow last week and Girdwood got dumped on –with over 20” at the base and over 30” at the top of the Mountain from one storm front. I needed to drive down to Gird last Tuesday to check on the house and shovel the deck which had snow halfway up to the deck rails and with warming temps it got heavier by the minute. Thankfully the roof had slid and the front end loader had cleared the driveway and I got a good workout in! So much for some downtime after Bad Girls, my arms were killing me.

With the snow storm I was feeling more than anxious about my public art sculpture’s final fabrication push and install. SteelFab has the sculpture base plate welded and it is now scheduled for sandblasting any day. I’ll be at SteelFab to weld on the bicycle gears and other final embellish details hopefully next week and then we’ll schedule the crane

company for a pick up and delivery to the site in Mt. View. Our plan is to install the sculpture on an early morning weekend when the traffic is less and the boom crane can maneuver the 20’ tall sculpture to it’s base in front of the Credit Union One building. A slight hiccup in our installation plans was the discovery of overhead telephone and power lines did not get buried with the road reconstruction…and are not scheduled to be buried for some time. I had the crane guys meet me at the site and they felt confident we had plenty of clearance and

should have no problems with our install. These guys know their stuff. After learning that they were the same crew who installed the Anchorage Museum’s “Habitat,” by Antony Gormley, a 20 foot tall flower shouldn’t be too tricky as long as the weather cooperates

for planting a flower –right? I’ll admit even having been surrounded by so many professionals who have assisted me with this sculpture I’ve been pretty stressed about it. I was thinking this week that I’m not sure I have the stomach and fire for the larger works anymore because of all the variables and things that are out of my control. We’ll see.