13 November

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.

11 comments:

Peter said...

Wow, Woo HOOO, and other noises of amazement! The 20 foot flower looks fantastic standing up there in the workshop. What an achievement! I like your understated "first measurable fall of snow". Here, anything that is in enough quantity to form a small snow ball is measurable! 20 inches at the base and 30 inches at the top of the mountain sounds like snow to me!
Nice to catch up again with what you are up to. I've been slowly gathering momentum here with work and also with the blog... and it is all starting to roll out again!
Best Wishes, Peter

cookingwithgas said...

WOW! I am impressed! You are wonder women in my book!
Forget about that snow- you get that flower in the ground!

Tracey Broome said...

Yes, noises of amazement here as well. I am SOOOOO impressed with you! that is going to be a fantastic sculpture when it goes up. I love the pics of your house in the snow, puts me in the holiday mood. Hey, thanks for the comment on my blog, I really like what you said! Your price input was very helpful!!

cindy shake said...

Love you guys :o) xox

Anonymous said...

That is such a cool looking sculpture! When it's installed and the pride kicks in and the nerves go down I bet you will want to do another one. Awesome looking, I wish I could see it in person.

ang design said...

look brilliant and i love the working shots....planning and coordinating a build takes all together different skills from designing eh?!! cant wait to see the planting shots :))

DB Stewart said...

Fantastic. I think I want your life.

Mr. Young said...

Outstanding piece of work! Can't wait to see pics of it installed!

Patricia Griffin Ceramics said...

Wow, that is a very big deal. Major installation! Looking forward to more progress pics. Congrats Cindy!

Christine--RHP said...

Cindy--that sculpture is amazing!!! so cool to see it before it's installed....

oh, and the snow. well, knock yourself out. can't say I envy you...

Linda Starr said...

Oh how wonderful your sculpture is, it looks fantastic and will be even more stunning to see after it is installed. I kwow I read here about it's size, but seeing it completed it truly is amazing. I see where you are coming from about the stress of it all, perhaps you'll feel much better after the install. I don't envy you all that snow, I know when we lived near Mt. Lassen we had a major snowstorm and the same day our little snowblower broke, it was 980 shovel fulls to do our drivway; neither one of us coudl do that any more. I miss the quietness and white beauty when it snows though.