Blown away by the amazing results from last weekend's Rotto Grotto grotto workshop at John Michael Kohler Arts Center! Thanks to the organizers and participants. Attendees were able to make their own personal grottoes from Fiberglass grotto shells I created. Participants brought many of their own materials that had personal significance to them . I’m really pleased with the varied and creative results. I hope to hold some more workshops in the future, so please stay posted on my instagram @rottogrotto and facebook page .
I made these back in the spring. I don't have a purpose for them yet, just getting back into making 2-d collage. Could be a nice postcard set?
Doing some major catching up here! I finally have a real studio space at Dubuque's new maker space, Key City Creative Center , and while major life changes have gotten in the way of me being able to put in major time (yet), I have been able to make a good chunk of progress on some of the tubs. I also recently sold one to The Smokestack in Dubuque which is on display in their new "pocket garden". The interior of the tub still needs to be finished, and as per request of the owners, I will be filling the interior with broken mirror pieces, and pennies will cover the archway of the tub.
I'm a bit late in posting this, but this past holiday season I was very honored to be the chosen artist to represent the state of Iowa on the Pathway of Peace Tree as part of the National Christmas Tree display in between the White House and the Washington Monument. Thank you to the Iowa Arts Council for all of their support. You can read their article here
It's probably about time that I've made a proper update about the progress of the bathtub grottoes.
Through my connection with Danielle Stowell, director of DubuqueFest (our annual art festival in which we will be creating bathtub grottoes live with the public this May) I was connected withTim Hitzler, who is a teacher at a local alternative high school and a reclaimed woodworker. He also happens to be my neighbor, which is pretty darn convenient.
Tim has been helping me by creating wooden stands for the bathtubs and allowing me to use his studio space. We are going to create 3 bathtub grottoes altogether. I plan to complete 1 grotto before DubuqueFest and working on the other two with the help of the public during DubuqueFest. (I'm also planning on doing a grotto demo and donation collection during an Antique Market next month- more details to come!)
After DubuqueFest, the grottoes will stay in the public park for another month or so and then hopefully eventually be moved to local community gardens to be enjoyed by everyone for years to come! I've been getting some pretty amazing donations of items for the grottoes and have also purchased some things from antique stores, flea markets, and thrift shops. This grotto falls somewhere in between a true grotto and a mosaic- the items have to be fairly light. I'm been lucky enough to get a hold of quite a few Dubuque and tri-state pinback buttons to infuse the bathtubs with as much regional flavor as I can.
