tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10743811480318871952024-03-14T07:01:25.502-07:00Zach Springerupdates of processesZach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-64443084969651728642010-04-26T10:08:00.001-07:002010-04-26T10:08:55.559-07:00Build Something Together Workshop Series THIS WEEKEND<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2FvjQEolovQYfc8H8fu7gZe3HXfG1TS1MHLctNsRNb-dlhT7stOdofLVK_iM8tHMIaJ0wFA3dl32VVW6paG8y-5aC6g-a68eoM1juMi0MR1ZZiFjCFhAwVL8b2javHFSwzQ1iFlkm08/s1600/8x11poster.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2FvjQEolovQYfc8H8fu7gZe3HXfG1TS1MHLctNsRNb-dlhT7stOdofLVK_iM8tHMIaJ0wFA3dl32VVW6paG8y-5aC6g-a68eoM1juMi0MR1ZZiFjCFhAwVL8b2javHFSwzQ1iFlkm08/s400/8x11poster.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464494261416149234" border="0" /></a>Build Something Together Workshop Series this weekend at SEA Change Gallery, 625 NW Everett Street PDX. Come check it out!<br /> <p>The workshop schedule is as follows:<br /><strong>May 1 – Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.1</strong><br /><strong>12:00</strong> Sandwich Making with Crystal Baxley<br /><strong>1:00</strong> Micro Terrariums with Vanessa Robertson-Rojas<br /><strong>2:00</strong> How To Ask Questions with Ally Drozd<br /><strong>3:00</strong> Talking to Strangers with Sandy Sampson<br /><strong>4:30</strong> Raft Building with Connie Hockaday</p> <p><strong>May 2 - Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.2</strong><br /><strong>12:00</strong> Collaborative Knitting with Elysia Contreras<br /><strong>1:00</strong> Book Binding with Dasha Shleyeva<br /><strong>2:00</strong> Easy Planter Boxes with Katherine Ball<br /><strong>3:30</strong> Cat Play Structures with Hollis and Kindred<br /><strong>8:00</strong> Zoo Bombing with JP Huckins</p>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-49931417329571737812010-03-04T17:16:00.000-08:002010-03-04T17:18:56.120-08:00Moving onHello out there. First, I would like to say if you read this blog please tell me. I have a feeling that no one in the world reads this blog, so if you do email me <a href="mailto:zach@craftandconcept.com">zach@craftandconcept.com</a>.<div><br /></div><div>I have just finished working a new website for <a href="http://buildsomethingtogether.com">buildsomethingtogether.com</a> and I will be using that as my primary blog from now on. Unless people actually read this, in which case I will continue down this road.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks!</div><div>Zach</div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-73320534958989317932010-02-24T13:11:00.000-08:002010-02-24T13:39:38.806-08:00Birdhouse painting, and recap on entire project.This project was brought on because I sent home fliers to all of the students advertising Build Something Together and asking parents to help their children write a proposal for a treehouse or something their kid wanted. None of the parents got back to me but the PTA classroom representative got ahold of me and asked to do an artists residency in the classroom. I was asked to do a project that would be sold at auction to bring in funding for the school.<br /><br />I did some brainstorming with the students and we came up the idea to build a birdhouse condominium where each student would design an individual birdhouse that would come together to form a community. The PTA put together a poster advertising the Birdhouse Condominium Project, it was placed outside of the classroom so every parent would it every morning they dropped their kid off. <div><br /></div><div>At the time they wrote up the poster I was also writing a short grant to the K-12 Committee to ask for funding. The poster was also used to ask for volunteers and a $5 donation to bring together funding, so the funding was being approached from two angles. </div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPvPzkSCCbhbC9DnJV-dUCT2Q7y7A6o5hCk22zquNkIVWppvUIhNN5YnTUujZ-1dtAChfEXoUDiXTOVhQ5m6e6xEsTlljJ7HzBLUcO41MO3pIlEsOamfOG0Qu0dwChH2iHp5PNBLLt28/s1600-h/IMG_3921.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDPvPzkSCCbhbC9DnJV-dUCT2Q7y7A6o5hCk22zquNkIVWppvUIhNN5YnTUujZ-1dtAChfEXoUDiXTOVhQ5m6e6xEsTlljJ7HzBLUcO41MO3pIlEsOamfOG0Qu0dwChH2iHp5PNBLLt28/s400/IMG_3921.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441922345830994354" /></a></div><div>After getting all of the birdhouses ready I was ready to take them to the first graders and have them paint on their designs.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvXh2VmokL-M8Btooo_eMsiNx8YsA9ylsQhZn9hHagPKQ9cmxhp6UpoKRsQWtBH1E1SAj2YgMwHO3ILadXRd2YwhbqCySLbH6g6-SSppOODRNa2MmeOEXb4N0insIvaqqPNt1bq2vqz8/s1600-h/IMG_3817.jpg" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFvXh2VmokL-M8Btooo_eMsiNx8YsA9ylsQhZn9hHagPKQ9cmxhp6UpoKRsQWtBH1E1SAj2YgMwHO3ILadXRd2YwhbqCySLbH6g6-SSppOODRNa2MmeOEXb4N0insIvaqqPNt1bq2vqz8/s400/IMG_3817.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441922343346991762" /></a>There was a whole group of parents waiting to help me, so my hands weren't all tied and was able to consult students and help them most accurately redo their original drawing.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bo5-njMoZkTrUe0-OYk40EUF1-y8Qbxw_8e7fZ18aawXloRmPySVcLEcDeO1jOuq4nhKIzgbJuoLCDm921OaE1E4PbhSZ7ZUKQTmxOr3d3qpzzQqQDjsVh3Znb9ss1Bo20RfwqB4IyY/s1600-h/IMG_3829.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bo5-njMoZkTrUe0-OYk40EUF1-y8Qbxw_8e7fZ18aawXloRmPySVcLEcDeO1jOuq4nhKIzgbJuoLCDm921OaE1E4PbhSZ7ZUKQTmxOr3d3qpzzQqQDjsVh3Znb9ss1Bo20RfwqB4IyY/s400/IMG_3829.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441922368707161746" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsa3mfwwLf3qCBJQF58u6p2a_xGXabQ0LEO2L2gnEcFzUuNMwrmoTde87JLhcbPU9-4lifQyTIBTV84gNzg3qoJKNk6JYQTi7dYdZ98erQdQD1-iA_Iof52XgQ68WRZZxH4rVEflM_ko0/s1600-h/IMG_3862.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsa3mfwwLf3qCBJQF58u6p2a_xGXabQ0LEO2L2gnEcFzUuNMwrmoTde87JLhcbPU9-4lifQyTIBTV84gNzg3qoJKNk6JYQTi7dYdZ98erQdQD1-iA_Iof52XgQ68WRZZxH4rVEflM_ko0/s400/IMG_3862.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441922361705026850" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCrQa6b4RsDqlyHBWg3JYEuNlMFxQfI9FETCbK-MNmxjNlrHPlm5w3beLPnPOwoSuP1C5HfohKSiBomOxyGdaUbbxD1E_R52AzKMnKoxf9-UdhEv9JxBDiwtHmTGKNOS2HcMeF0gXWsrU/s1600-h/IMG_3876.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCrQa6b4RsDqlyHBWg3JYEuNlMFxQfI9FETCbK-MNmxjNlrHPlm5w3beLPnPOwoSuP1C5HfohKSiBomOxyGdaUbbxD1E_R52AzKMnKoxf9-UdhEv9JxBDiwtHmTGKNOS2HcMeF0gXWsrU/s400/IMG_3876.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441922353397754578" /></a>It was a great day of working with these guys, and I feel like they created some wonderful birdhouses. When I get some more pictures of the completed objects I will post them as well.<br /><br /></div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-66658174055181598512010-01-22T16:20:00.001-08:002010-01-22T16:28:06.039-08:00A new developmentA couple of months ago there was a call for proposals to be part of a show called Training Room in Kansas City. The show's description was:<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">"CP seeks proposals for temporal, site-specific activities for the Training Room, a project organized by Michael Schonhoff as part of his upcoming exhibition You’re Such A Good Sport (Paragraph/Project Space, March 19 - May 6, 2010), which explores and mines the visual language of sport, sports culture, and gamesmanship. For this project, Project Space will become a publically accessible site for short-term (1-2 day) projects that exemplify ideas of “training” or “practice,” and are inspired by or address the subject or language of sport(s) in some manner. Proposed activities might range from using the site as a short-term studio, or for an installation, presentation, performance, and/or event. Artists will be responsible for providing all necessary equipment, props, or supplies, and returning the room to its original condition for the next artist."</span></i><br /><br />I thought it sounded like an interesting show that I wanted to be part of, but it was at the same time as my residency in Toronto. But then I started thinking that my residency in Toronto was a perfect example of a type of practice, so I sent in this proposal:<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#666666;">"During the first two weeks of Training Room I will be doing a residency at the Free Gallery in Toronto. For the residency I will provide my skills as a free handyman to people in Toronto, the project is called Build Something Together. I did the same project at the Greenlease Gallery in Kansas City last year.<br /><br />While in Toronto I will be posting all of the building activities online multiple times a day with Twitter, YouTube, and a blog. After the first day of documentation viewers will understand how the Build Something Together service provides a practice of skill sharing and relationship building.<br /><br />For Training Room I would like to place a computer connected to the internet in the gallery. The computer will update every time I post something and gallery viewers can watch my routine and track the results. On March 28, 2010 the residency will end and the computer will be removed from the gallery.<br /><br />My residency in Toronto is from March 14-28.<br /><br />The length of my presence in Training Room would be from March 19-28."</span></i><div><br /></div><div>My proposal was accepted and now the residency is more interesting than what I had first imagined. The remote gallery connection and the individual project grants of $120 are two awesome developments for this!</div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-35486445918282855212010-01-21T22:38:00.000-08:002010-01-21T22:52:55.296-08:00First graders!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMB3WDx3-js314TcQqfBTPMxZkXfIvUWEejrcYb7VwcOYxUJyDKr-6jd_6FNFSKJOOC4hDCvkcEDPk39Yu0tBPnT_cpu8UWTFA00IJxzGdmO0n5GkXWYjqYh4LpkgctfcmaLxQZivIS0/s1600-h/IMG_2563.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMB3WDx3-js314TcQqfBTPMxZkXfIvUWEejrcYb7VwcOYxUJyDKr-6jd_6FNFSKJOOC4hDCvkcEDPk39Yu0tBPnT_cpu8UWTFA00IJxzGdmO0n5GkXWYjqYh4LpkgctfcmaLxQZivIS0/s400/IMG_2563.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429451757219593346" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">I kept working with the same group of first graders that I worked with last quarter for my practicum, but this time I am making art with them! </span></span><!--StartFragment--><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">The project the students decided on is to make individual birdhouses that come together to make a bird mansion. Each student has designed their dream birdhouse, I drew them all in Sketchup and went back to them to make any final changes. Here are some pictures of their drawings next to the ones I did in Sketchup. </span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><br /></span></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCshyphenhyphen0YH-T_odwXbA6m-k96ZpoueYxXZIwIP83jI1XDE25r_W9cF7FPtyDw9wC2yE0p7nG28IBFDYycpkTS7OtYt3coxz4XjL4mbIBwH0eXMTIovMMY_Bki800GZHwkzGWqRMz7dL1OLw/s1600-h/IMG_2540.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCshyphenhyphen0YH-T_odwXbA6m-k96ZpoueYxXZIwIP83jI1XDE25r_W9cF7FPtyDw9wC2yE0p7nG28IBFDYycpkTS7OtYt3coxz4XjL4mbIBwH0eXMTIovMMY_Bki800GZHwkzGWqRMz7dL1OLw/s400/IMG_2540.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429453377388323490" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yhsSLV3GuZLVhs1ih4oGC_DC1oDkNk8T31uRRszI85W65561Ka9TCx4VvMAlL4LNoqTO2uy_Of51B2kDMFFgtwnRRSxae8yu9x8PAnT0i2GEYzoxPO9q3Rt9tSWVFJNnoDuR-BpuCpA/s1600-h/IMG_2553.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yhsSLV3GuZLVhs1ih4oGC_DC1oDkNk8T31uRRszI85W65561Ka9TCx4VvMAlL4LNoqTO2uy_Of51B2kDMFFgtwnRRSxae8yu9x8PAnT0i2GEYzoxPO9q3Rt9tSWVFJNnoDuR-BpuCpA/s400/IMG_2553.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429450985138833026" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_eIeKf4Fx6ovbzDXeAIeBZJjXHH1qFVIH7-NrRRrB_-DlpkX3XFm9vXrcEkOH1qdle3KZaBA3hQQAzg-9RhXYl8CYrKqoQRKp7pucuY8xr4m_guZGwiQKwNmpTSwoLAQYg3DYOMsS1c/s1600-h/IMG_2549.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:right;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_eIeKf4Fx6ovbzDXeAIeBZJjXHH1qFVIH7-NrRRrB_-DlpkX3XFm9vXrcEkOH1qdle3KZaBA3hQQAzg-9RhXYl8CYrKqoQRKp7pucuY8xr4m_guZGwiQKwNmpTSwoLAQYg3DYOMsS1c/s400/IMG_2549.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429450981816975586" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsH_XYgdhnSvEUW7zie8wmsjrNNRIh9MroLwyKnk9WQ3twGQU73yE4HIUkX1N6FfewwztJXlCHwNc1p0KSbFWKSVWXNP9BOzFO9Qal5ughKe0vJRYIMEZy3_XZMQe7rsg0zF2UOS1eM8/s1600-h/IMG_2545.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:left;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHsH_XYgdhnSvEUW7zie8wmsjrNNRIh9MroLwyKnk9WQ3twGQU73yE4HIUkX1N6FfewwztJXlCHwNc1p0KSbFWKSVWXNP9BOzFO9Qal5ughKe0vJRYIMEZy3_XZMQe7rsg0zF2UOS1eM8/s400/IMG_2545.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429450962125616690" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisV1blfIh6NKTdXHreMVkhYDOSnFHh3YSI-smWiGqmOQzf9gAawrm-z2ToaxA1ecRiNsQfZh0ZUj2y3t41EqOnoRHlqAJUO0PP6sWwOae-esecCSz4stLw_KRIVHF5QqBFwjDaTTLq044/s1600-h/IMG_2541.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:right;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisV1blfIh6NKTdXHreMVkhYDOSnFHh3YSI-smWiGqmOQzf9gAawrm-z2ToaxA1ecRiNsQfZh0ZUj2y3t41EqOnoRHlqAJUO0PP6sWwOae-esecCSz4stLw_KRIVHF5QqBFwjDaTTLq044/s400/IMG_2541.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5429450953218225650" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-56316364295690811982010-01-14T01:08:00.000-08:002010-01-14T01:12:26.565-08:00Residency at Toronto's Free GalleryFrom March 14-28 I will be doing a Build Something Together residency at Toronto's Free Gallery. Each person who participates with me will receive a budget of up to $120 for their project. The curator just posted a call for participants on akimbo, <a href="http://www.akimbo.ca/submissions/?id=17796">check it out for more info on the </a><a href="http://www.akimbo.ca/submissions/?id=17796">residency</a>.Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-26951063956167214972010-01-08T13:14:00.000-08:002010-01-08T13:37:40.545-08:00Winter quarter<div>What a break! My mom flew me into Vegas for 5 days so we could celebrate her birthday together, and then we both flew back to Tyler, Texas for Christmas with our family. We had a great time, but Elysia was still back in Portland so I came home to spend Christmas and her birthday together. Elysia and I exchanged gifts on Skype with our families and did our own thing, it was probably my best Christmas since I was 10. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then school started and I had to get my head on straight again. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am teaching two classes at Portland State and an art class at Laurelhurst Elementary. One of the classes at Portland State is a introductory sculpture course with 22 students and the other is a design/build course focused on alternative energy with 10 students. Both the college and the elementary classes are putting me in the same position as Build Something Together did, so maybe this is just another continuation of my process.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also decided to apply for a job with Teach For America. It would be great to have a job with them when we go back to Kansas City. For now all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to see the blogs for my classes you can visit them: <a href="http://3dpsu.blogspot.com">http://3dpsu.blogspot.com</a> and <a href="http://altenergypsu.blogspot.com">http://altenergypsu.blogspot.com</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Take care</div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-46336748903424521822010-01-03T09:54:00.000-08:002010-01-03T10:09:48.252-08:00Classes start tomorrowThe Alternative Energy Design/Build course is a go! Thank you all for helping me get the word out, it helped a lot.<div><br /></div><div>Both of the classes I am teaching this quarter will have a blog that each student will post to once a week. So if you are interested in what is happening in class, check out the blogs!</div><div><a href="http://3dpsu.blogspot.com/">http://3dpsu.blogspot.com</a> - Intro to 3D Design</div><div><a href="http://altenergypsu.blogspot.com/">http://altenergypsu.blogspot.com</a> - Alternative Energy Design/Build</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope everyone has started their New Year off on a good foot. Take care</div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-64446553496101425402009-12-05T10:17:00.000-08:002009-12-05T10:24:45.821-08:00Design/Build Alternative Energy Class at PSU<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"><table width="700" border="0" align="center"><tbody><tr><td><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><strong class="c" style="font-size: 36px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">Design/Build Alternative Energy</strong><br /><span class="cb" style=" ;font-size:12px;">Class with Zach Springer of Build Something Together<br />Mon/Fri 10:15-12:35 in 4th Ave Building #40-09<br />Portland State CRN# 46337</span></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><strong>Make machines that can capture energy from running on a treadmill or riding a bike!</strong></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">Each day will be divided into two parts: class time and shop time. During class time<br />we will discuss ideas around the implications of alternative energy, sustainability, and<br />self-sufficiency. Shop time will be used for learning how to use tools and making projects.<br />No prior building experience necessary.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">All students will host workshops on building their machines at the Sea Change Gallery,<br />and all projects will be on display in a group show.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">Required texts: <a href="http://instructables.com/">instructables.com</a>, <a href="http://makezine.com/">makezine.com</a>, <a href="http://boingboing.com/">boingboing.com</a>, <a href="http://youtube.com/">youtube.com</a>.<br />$40 shop fee for each student.</p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><strong>Questions?</strong> email <a href="mailto:zach@craftandconcept.com">zach@craftandconcept.com</a></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; ">Hope to see you soon!</p></td></tr></tbody></table></span>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-57195833109625206872009-11-30T23:27:00.000-08:002009-11-30T23:31:06.611-08:00Bean Bag Toss in classI made two bean bag toss games to be played in class, here are some videos from the first game.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9bdX4xm4Gk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m9bdX4xm4Gk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/khITlwi4-Zk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/khITlwi4-Zk&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-39779821678642684072009-11-06T00:09:00.000-08:002009-11-10T17:11:38.259-08:00My time in 1st grade<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWc_BIrZ89vLZVqRFv8Rp5XsuhnyJ7Zup0hFOLQ5eGHkGdtn76UTYgsReZQ8Xw5z-kaqF_tNucfQTWF4oVFTV38bjd34h-dZUIXComZOQ0hubKkuuX6fdzRkgAChE3gjM-EmCHSld71c/s1600-h/1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWc_BIrZ89vLZVqRFv8Rp5XsuhnyJ7Zup0hFOLQ5eGHkGdtn76UTYgsReZQ8Xw5z-kaqF_tNucfQTWF4oVFTV38bjd34h-dZUIXComZOQ0hubKkuuX6fdzRkgAChE3gjM-EmCHSld71c/s320/1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402645867610538898" /></a><br />This quarter I decided to take a graduate level education course as an elective. The class requires 30 hours in a public school classroom, and I was assigned to work with a first grade class. For my thirty-hour practicum I have been working in a first grade classroom of Laurelhurst Elementary School.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_UTM7gaG7pb8c1t_0Nu9D8rhkeU0AaYRPpP-3tpXKT-f6eahI-kghu590z9I_W_vQmiYiEZphjkOcPni0EwoZANlwTVow8w6pb73ltED-_wulZpk9Ao-xIep7WCB4ILrdEduEF_q93E/s1600-h/3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL_UTM7gaG7pb8c1t_0Nu9D8rhkeU0AaYRPpP-3tpXKT-f6eahI-kghu590z9I_W_vQmiYiEZphjkOcPni0EwoZANlwTVow8w6pb73ltED-_wulZpk9Ao-xIep7WCB4ILrdEduEF_q93E/s320/3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402645872455093874" /></a><br />The school goes from Kindergarten to 7th grade and has 573 students. There are 26 full time teachers, which is a 22:1 ratio of students to teachers. The school’s diversity is 7.2% Hispanic, 6.5% Black, 5.6% Asian, 1% Native American, and 79.8% White. Only 15.4% of the students get free or reduced lunch, and there is 1 migrant student.<br /><br />The school is located in the middle of a nice neighborhood where house prices range from $350-650k, and the medium household income is $35,755. A whopping 92.2% of the population has a high school or higher degree, and 47.1% are in management positions. Only 4.1% are unemployed, and 10.3% are below the poverty line. The median age of this neighborhood is 36.5 years old.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1e3Mxqxamq9KvY6IWGWIdIFZnqO-dU1KgMm2PUQcBNyYXY-qUFvOoziwW4up_zky7LRXNN_-hGmJRaRxRPCu7yEjH6W7rNFa8R2pL8ns7HrX1FEEA1aX5vcGt88CDtiUQrQT_StrUtyE/s1600-h/4.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1e3Mxqxamq9KvY6IWGWIdIFZnqO-dU1KgMm2PUQcBNyYXY-qUFvOoziwW4up_zky7LRXNN_-hGmJRaRxRPCu7yEjH6W7rNFa8R2pL8ns7HrX1FEEA1aX5vcGt88CDtiUQrQT_StrUtyE/s320/4.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402645876273834834" /></a><br />Laurelhurst Elementary School’s mission statement is to be “a safe and caring community where everyone works together to create academic excellence for lifelong learning and social responsibility.” Parent participation is encouraged in all classes so that lessons don’t stop at the door, but continue to their home life as well. Laurelhurst also recognizes that students learn differently, so multiple teaching methods are used to accommodate each student’s individual needs.<br /><br />Each day before school parents will bring their children into the classrooms and help them get ready for the day. Most of the time that includes putting their lunch boxes in the community tub, making sure they have all of the right things in their folders, and help with the morning worksheets. The first day I didn’t know what to do because of all the parents in the room. I didn’t want to interrupt anyone, but I knew I was there to help the students. So I decided to walk around the classroom to see what was going on, and I noticed a few students doing their work alone.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskrsJacaBnYIUZ8yrDryWlB0-W-3dDFXy_sMKSws9pTfTQYpKcLvihpyHsrCrEkyLaK8Gr54grkB4dflMY0buu65B0EGYjGt2iqw7WK0ONBMQyzBi_kKf4gCD5WLUuFW6vpZY0LIt-n8/s1600-h/5.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskrsJacaBnYIUZ8yrDryWlB0-W-3dDFXy_sMKSws9pTfTQYpKcLvihpyHsrCrEkyLaK8Gr54grkB4dflMY0buu65B0EGYjGt2iqw7WK0ONBMQyzBi_kKf4gCD5WLUuFW6vpZY0LIt-n8/s320/5.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402645883096287058" /></a><br />One of the students who was working alone was a girl named Anne, she was trying to get attention from all the parents around her desk but they were preoccupied with their own kids. I decided to help her and see if she had done all of the things the other parents had done for their own students, and she had. Anne told me her mom couldn’t come into class in the morning or afternoon because of work, which was always the case in my own life as well. After the bell rang all of the parents left the room and the worksheets were put in their folders, the day had started.<br /><br />For the next three hours I was asked to mentor a few specific students, one was Anne, and the others were two boys named John and Isaac. I was told John liked to write his letters backwards, Isaac needed to learn how to focus, and Anne needed a male role model because she didn’t have a father. I was very surprised to hear the request for Anne; I had no idea elementary teachers thought about their student’s home life in relationship to how they treated their students. It was an interesting request but I didn’t ask questions and went to work.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrs-Q7ywR_Dms0hhLBO84RRuSxvgirNFWfW0lthK_gQKelPXsLeq3ozGbopAe9h_UrZ06ltOIqW-eSRNCCw5qTK-mTlMuxHOdfprWQ7tcm453cS90zZd-VxtKadUTM36BW31reHuL60XI/s1600-h/6.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrs-Q7ywR_Dms0hhLBO84RRuSxvgirNFWfW0lthK_gQKelPXsLeq3ozGbopAe9h_UrZ06ltOIqW-eSRNCCw5qTK-mTlMuxHOdfprWQ7tcm453cS90zZd-VxtKadUTM36BW31reHuL60XI/s320/6.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402645887605902338" /></a><br />During story time I sat next to Isaac and John. They were buddies who liked to distract each other and anyone else around them. I spent the entire time trying to figure out how to be quiet yet separate the two, or make them pay attention somehow. At first I would ask one to move up, but then the other one would kick him in the back, or he would figure out how to secretly move back by appearing to stretch out. The next time I threatened to send them up by the teacher, but that only worked for a minute or two and then they realized I didn’t want to interrupt the story—so they started back up. My efforts were useless and probably only caused more of a distraction for the rest of the class. Anne was sitting by the teacher and had no choice but to pay attention, however I was just a stranger to these boys and they didn’t feel the need to respect me. It was hard to get too upset because I was the same way as a kid, and still am when it comes to sitting in reading groups.<br /><br />The next activity was story writing. Each student could write about whatever they wanted, and could start by drawing a picture. John and I got a clipboard and went to work in the reading area. He said, “I don’t have any ideas,” so I asked him what he did the previous weekend, but he couldn’t remember. I kept trying to pull ideas from him but quickly saw he was trying to use up the writing time with thinking and talking, so I recommended we just write about babies. The teacher was right; John liked to write his letters backwards. Almost every letter was backwards, and even after we corrected them he would continue to write them backwards. I recognized that he would start to write letters the right way, but would correct himself and do it the wrong way—he was playing a trick on me. So I let him continue to write backwards until he got tired of that and the letters started to grow in size. At first the letters were an inch tall, then three inches, and then a half the page. John had written a few words, but most of them were completely unrecognizable. Again, I felt like my efforts were useless. The activity ended and the students put their writing into their folders.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNYCf6DDQiwqBPrzvvhRtFmg4h-FKDR_wvSANQC5Ft7vywhGGgx5xJqMpdtk6krcBzWlNq0u3ZlQVbftJJZYahB4QXEX5moChlIacU89oL1naNMmx_Jp5lhjio8IZNdpmWP_NgLp5tZdM/s1600-h/7.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNYCf6DDQiwqBPrzvvhRtFmg4h-FKDR_wvSANQC5Ft7vywhGGgx5xJqMpdtk6krcBzWlNq0u3ZlQVbftJJZYahB4QXEX5moChlIacU89oL1naNMmx_Jp5lhjio8IZNdpmWP_NgLp5tZdM/s320/7.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402646024166226482" /></a><br />Finally the teacher announced recess! I was so happy to hear those words that felt like one of the students, but of course I was a student—I was there to learn about these kids. My attempts of mentoring didn’t seem to be going anywhere, but I wasn’t going to give up just yet. On the way to recess Anne came up and grabbed my hand, I quickly told her not to do that but the teacher said it was “OK,” so I let her walk me out to the playground. I guess she didn’t have many friends that day, so she stayed and told me all about herself. At first she told me about making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and how tall her cousin was in relation to me. Soon she began telling me about how her dad abused her mom, and why he wasn’t around anymore. She asked me about my kids and I told her I didn’t have any, but I showed her a picture of my fiancé and told her we weren’t ready for kids just yet. Anne didn’t want to see the picture, but after looking said, “I wish I could be your guy’s kid.” I had no idea what to say, but I assumed this is what the teacher wanted to happen so I felt like something had been accomplished. Recess was over so we gathered up the equipment to carry inside.<br /><br />The three students I was asked to work with were the ones who were working alone that morning. I assumed Anne’s reason for her mom not coming into class was the same for the other two, and of course I could relate to that with my own experience. It was never fun to see all of my classmates enjoying time with their parents while I was stuck alone, and it probably reflected the way I acted in school after the parents had left. These kids aren’t stupid and don’t have attention problems, but they have to stick together or else they will feel like outsiders. Maybe that’s why they act up during story time, in order to show the rest of the class that they are a team and will support each other.<br />Creating a disturbance alone is much different than having a support system behind you, and the same is true about going to school in general. Anne might not have many friends but now she has a mentor who is on her side, and now she might call in sick less. This class is a microcosm for that neighborhood, and when we as teachers can rationalize student’s behavior in that way it becomes easier to understand what is happening. John and Isaac aren’t just troublemakers, they are a team that has to stick together to make it through—just like the parent’s who come in to help their kids start the day, these boys count on each other for support.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgmhre459hBbPwygBzZle3vzR_L4Zk8J0UTqifFS7iw2xXeHS1UYTck50DaVhzzIWYdg4dJ_MpUSf4O6mChp4LjXoI5f_3pz1jElLUyxGQpWPhyphenhyphenScyv2mMKlUInO3i2M0i634XpcCVjog/s1600-h/8.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgmhre459hBbPwygBzZle3vzR_L4Zk8J0UTqifFS7iw2xXeHS1UYTck50DaVhzzIWYdg4dJ_MpUSf4O6mChp4LjXoI5f_3pz1jElLUyxGQpWPhyphenhyphenScyv2mMKlUInO3i2M0i634XpcCVjog/s320/8.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402646033988457234" /></a><br />My suggestion is that we use these students as an example of collaborative learning, and recognize the benefits behind such educational models. In my interview with the first grade teacher she said that students are less willing to work with each other than 20 or 30 years ago, or maybe the form has changed. Did parents come into the classroom 20 years ago to get their students started? If not, could that be part of the problem? I ask myself these questions knowing the flipside is not having as much parental involvement in education, so are we seeing the middle ground? I don’t have the answers, but it’s useful to have questions when it comes to things as important as school and society. Our school system is extremely flawed, and no one person is to blame. If we want future generations to have it better than us we are required to continue thinking and not settle down.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv73tad0kjHnNcCTvzyilLSLCiO2L8AqWXs48WHswk2xKow_hFw5d3XyFzrYWBfWz2_wAs2xNCCPBm7vigdQTmw-b7AC9byIJwCEDj20ENM-MEIuwHLsO6EKS7k1QPGlw2qXhJ_5Vw574/s1600-h/9.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv73tad0kjHnNcCTvzyilLSLCiO2L8AqWXs48WHswk2xKow_hFw5d3XyFzrYWBfWz2_wAs2xNCCPBm7vigdQTmw-b7AC9byIJwCEDj20ENM-MEIuwHLsO6EKS7k1QPGlw2qXhJ_5Vw574/s320/9.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402646037030609394" /></a><br />This experience has taught me that by understanding so called “problem children” it is easier to approach over arching issues such as the falling student participation within classrooms. We as a society tend to listen to the better behaved, but it doesn’t seem fair to do that any longer. School districts unevenly disperse money to their schools and people get upset, as teachers should we have this same attitude towards our students? The answer is clear, if we want people in control to start behaving ethically, we must do the same. We are the ones in the classrooms, so why not set a good example and show these students they have an equal voice, even if they do write their letters backwards.Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-52620209361882833502009-10-05T12:48:00.001-07:002009-10-05T13:08:28.941-07:00Summer overviewThis summer has been an exciting one. It was the first time of my life where I was able to work for myself most of the time. Before school let out last spring Harrell had asked me to help him with a project in Aspen Colorado. The project was to make a 4th of July float for the Aspen Art Museum to put in the parade. Harrell and I worked out an idea of what we wanted to make and started in on the construction. For more information on the project please visit Build Something Together.<br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdyuZ7VL8aOxwcRV7QwW-q0LCfkYkFp8FXSQv8cDiLXyWsLGhfMW7_j27UBjiKIuK348onSLbDhoFax2dxw_8WMdCYMbP7AsbzxgeALR5tPPHT7Bj9fiuKUCMD4mAm-VsULo66RQPUns/s1600-h/IMG_0176.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkdyuZ7VL8aOxwcRV7QwW-q0LCfkYkFp8FXSQv8cDiLXyWsLGhfMW7_j27UBjiKIuK348onSLbDhoFax2dxw_8WMdCYMbP7AsbzxgeALR5tPPHT7Bj9fiuKUCMD4mAm-VsULo66RQPUns/s320/IMG_0176.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208214610409282" /></a></center><br /><br />After Aspen I came back to Portland and started helping a local artist, Becca Bernstein, construct a tree house in her front yard. The project was done with Build Something Together and took about a week to finish. It was a great project that has earned me a lifetime supply of jams, jellies and syrups. <br /><br />By this point in the summer Elysia and I were able to go on our Midwest Tour to see all of the families. The first stop on the trip was Tyler Texas to see my mom, grandparents and high school friends. Mom put me to work painting her house while one of my best buddies, Cooper, was there--so I hired him to help. Cooper and I got the house painted in a few days and celebrated by going to see Inglorious Basterds two times on opening day. Elysia met me down there after a week and we spent the rest of our time there with family. Grandad and I did a project together about his birth house where we sketched what he remembered of the house and turned it into a 3D model. After the model was drawn we went to the house to see how close we had gotten. Results from this project are now up at the Autzen Gallery. <br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5UX5cZRnhXm6sdWMKCYHXq1Fnahw010pf7zbtjAEUTHaMhLAuqtFavIRDSXqMzTE4_UULapeTRUU1QJXxpdVMUa-trhwZXAPeifSryuEHUpI94EPJQ4OO_Ftj8Fu4LMnXejW4doTqQAA/s1600-h/IMG_3509.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5UX5cZRnhXm6sdWMKCYHXq1Fnahw010pf7zbtjAEUTHaMhLAuqtFavIRDSXqMzTE4_UULapeTRUU1QJXxpdVMUa-trhwZXAPeifSryuEHUpI94EPJQ4OO_Ftj8Fu4LMnXejW4doTqQAA/s320/IMG_3509.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208232629136850" /></a></center><br /><br />Papa and Grandad also took Elysia and I to the Oil Museum in Kilgore and to the New London Museum. The Oil Museum was an incredible place that described the big oil boom of Texas in great detail. The last section of the Museum was built up to look like a small town square area that had seen better days. The middle of the room was made to look like a mud pit road with horses, cars and people all trying to break free from the mud. One each side of the road were stores you could go into. There was an old grocery store, machine shop, print shop, barber, drug store, etc. Each of the stores was made to look exactly how they would have in the late 30’s. After seeing it I was inspired to send in a proposal to bring the Print Factory down to print there.<br /><br />The New London Museum is dedicated to the New London school explosion of 1937. The story of this explosion is incredible and because we saw it after going to the Oil Museum it made even more sense. Both of the museums were about the late 30’s, but one was about success and the other was about destruction, both resulting from the discovery of oil. Grandad told me this was the largest explosion to date when it happened, and it was also Walter Cronkite’s first big story. I highly suggest reading the wiki link above to learn more about this. Another cool thing about this Museum was that my great cousin had a show there a year ago to show his life long collection of autographed memorabilia from famous people around the world. <br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0U3JBIJ4lnaaU_HSNgNEjZq1ioSxeoGzDQ6q5OTBKiKyxt9RzkywUSCEW_UrCH22cV3HGuD3vkcubdwlJXTcJy3_bFFWAwSDHGbiSxnYY3ucPfMoD2FyNVTmVsYzvn25RUMWvZVY0UXU/s1600-h/IMG_3498.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0U3JBIJ4lnaaU_HSNgNEjZq1ioSxeoGzDQ6q5OTBKiKyxt9RzkywUSCEW_UrCH22cV3HGuD3vkcubdwlJXTcJy3_bFFWAwSDHGbiSxnYY3ucPfMoD2FyNVTmVsYzvn25RUMWvZVY0UXU/s320/IMG_3498.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208229508988850" /></a></center><br /><br />After Texas, Elysia and I rode with mom up to Kansas City. We stayed there for a couple of days and got on a plane headed to Elysia's hometown of Minneapolis. While in Minneapolis I worked on getting some wood blocks carved out for the Print Factory at the Portland Art Museum and Elysia made some new Aprons for the Print Factory Crewmembers. Other than that we spent most of our time around Elysia's parent's house hanging out with everyone. We continued our 3-year ritual of going to the Minnesota State Fair, but this year we seemed to run out of steam a lot quicker than last year and I wasn’t able to win a big bear from the carnies. <center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVCkK2rW6I5DPGWMPBuyx4H_uHcquhH5_nyL2GbrfTDJslEJ6pcU3bhGCUZNKwXaWN1ZjJbN6-l4R0ngGS50ialoHecBCcYd4LAHnP87kXwZyXDsNZiK7_VdHm4A9qyzH0ypII5BarXk/s1600-h/IMG_0092.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqVCkK2rW6I5DPGWMPBuyx4H_uHcquhH5_nyL2GbrfTDJslEJ6pcU3bhGCUZNKwXaWN1ZjJbN6-l4R0ngGS50ialoHecBCcYd4LAHnP87kXwZyXDsNZiK7_VdHm4A9qyzH0ypII5BarXk/s320/IMG_0092.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389207508284992770" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo80C_fW3ir9d3_vinIcF0u0yHxKUYdth3P2QPR1AojjzSUJ5RVbTo8m9IKGskisxc49Tt8GJz9jmi165iwl2oVHFB1Zx4ki2GgxYCboS7-fGzPnKpo2wLjJTAOD4ii2Zb4NLtWbOyStM/s1600-h/IMG_0082.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo80C_fW3ir9d3_vinIcF0u0yHxKUYdth3P2QPR1AojjzSUJ5RVbTo8m9IKGskisxc49Tt8GJz9jmi165iwl2oVHFB1Zx4ki2GgxYCboS7-fGzPnKpo2wLjJTAOD4ii2Zb4NLtWbOyStM/s320/IMG_0082.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389207492300063730" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2OdDe7kgIFa2Vuw7U1eDVO8edcfgAi2mqyHgEUkkiC0VZCHg48SeyLTqjtQR0lrIj4aVVdmArhDlpeVHnwZ_gZuBCz0-b_Zf3P65M0zA0atS7OOnUnG-qXqNrzHcTqZqJDx-4RF_n44/s1600-h/IMG_0086.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp2OdDe7kgIFa2Vuw7U1eDVO8edcfgAi2mqyHgEUkkiC0VZCHg48SeyLTqjtQR0lrIj4aVVdmArhDlpeVHnwZ_gZuBCz0-b_Zf3P65M0zA0atS7OOnUnG-qXqNrzHcTqZqJDx-4RF_n44/s320/IMG_0086.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389207503959991682" /></a></center><br /><br />When we got back to Portland we were in a mad dash to get everything ready for the Print Factory at the Portland Art Museum. Jesse and Will flew in from Kansas City to help with the event. It was nice to have a couple of my best friends out to visit us, and be part of the big West Coast Print Factory unveiling. The Print Factory handed out 50 free counterfeit tickets to the Art Museum starting at 6, and after we were done printing those we moved inside the sculpture garden to continue printing site-specific plates. In the end we handed out over 300 prints and had a very good time.<br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMa4jrzuGxJDfMkl_ZR1C798bSQCH8S1vwmPN5DTJpyTwCNbdP9yoJbTQBFEYcvlfUBA5QkLeO29ztw8KQYQ2eiWkR100DVSU35gC0P1hW8gA9potjY0b3vCOLsEEBcwPoet3FwwZL0c/s1600-h/IMG_0121.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMa4jrzuGxJDfMkl_ZR1C798bSQCH8S1vwmPN5DTJpyTwCNbdP9yoJbTQBFEYcvlfUBA5QkLeO29ztw8KQYQ2eiWkR100DVSU35gC0P1hW8gA9potjY0b3vCOLsEEBcwPoet3FwwZL0c/s320/IMG_0121.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208211647707426" /></a></center><br /><br />Right after that event the Print Factory Crew flew back to Kansas City to be part of the Belger Cartage’s 90th year anniversary celebration. Jesse works as the Art Preparator at the Belger, so he knew everything about the event. Out front there were two craines, one was holding a 1930’s fire engine 5 stories in the air under the classic Western Auto sign, and the other was holding a massive American flag over the train yard. We all made blocks relating to the Belger and their machinery, which went over extremely well with the crowd of Belger employees attending the celebration. <br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8kdcOgZ7IWnvvgfyEFGnHTM7k9DzJD2Xb7TrbhrU4NSgrwquigXMw5q0bbXDxr7_wGXhb0Ki3nzUJh3OsuaHTDxCxnqkbpKyAOJX8FHJ5YJkWQzR3XDe1s5srgHdbSb2O7c1xJXpqVg/s1600-h/IMG_0192.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw8kdcOgZ7IWnvvgfyEFGnHTM7k9DzJD2Xb7TrbhrU4NSgrwquigXMw5q0bbXDxr7_wGXhb0Ki3nzUJh3OsuaHTDxCxnqkbpKyAOJX8FHJ5YJkWQzR3XDe1s5srgHdbSb2O7c1xJXpqVg/s320/IMG_0192.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208222764022802" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA3Dntv5GavrQrI_BiCoxdT-3rlboHPNbYND46rXlMje6brR4SwxXL1RthjkoSY3ABjjSYQsYrlRdH-0ZtdluUmAxVFCGwzeHhbgNpnxNAQZ-b75sbdXymCW1HGaq12cWNEB0ASN0WsE/s1600-h/IMG_0203.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA3Dntv5GavrQrI_BiCoxdT-3rlboHPNbYND46rXlMje6brR4SwxXL1RthjkoSY3ABjjSYQsYrlRdH-0ZtdluUmAxVFCGwzeHhbgNpnxNAQZ-b75sbdXymCW1HGaq12cWNEB0ASN0WsE/s320/IMG_0203.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389209868402681458" /></a></center><br /><br />So that was my summer in a nutshell. I don’t feel like it was wasted working a part time job or running up my credit cards trying to live the unemployed lifestyle. It was an excellent experience that I am excited about trying again next summer.<br /><center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFbM5kBWIeJHd9fhCb0u8bpzJHztfeWxzOXo77IWUVuLqYiAZL7vpHc3cZ9j_nUCeL-7A-2-44yHvgzLQWiGMhbPSMrRnq3226g-DMwKqZIdS3A6_wvsPJ8pEeXb8NrjBJNB6XI2InTas/s1600-h/IMG_4994.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFbM5kBWIeJHd9fhCb0u8bpzJHztfeWxzOXo77IWUVuLqYiAZL7vpHc3cZ9j_nUCeL-7A-2-44yHvgzLQWiGMhbPSMrRnq3226g-DMwKqZIdS3A6_wvsPJ8pEeXb8NrjBJNB6XI2InTas/s320/IMG_4994.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389208809864306306" /></a></center>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-35111110460282336582009-05-21T10:25:00.000-07:002009-05-21T10:26:43.781-07:00MFA Graduate Project ProposalDuring my first year in the Social Practice MFA program I have focused on the development of a project titled Build Something Together. The project is way for me to offer my handyman skills to people who are trying to build something that they do not know how to do alone. By inviting people to propose projects to me I am able to understand their vision and work with them to create it. This project stems from a desire to meet new people through the act of manual labor, and to understand different approaches of education.<br /><br />When I was interviewed for the graduate program I was asked why I wanted to attend this program and my response was that I wanted to learn how to teach. The first book Harrell Fletcher recommended to me was We Make the Road By Walking by Miles Horton and Paulo Freire. The book is a conversation between two educators who were able to listen to communities and respond to them through activating an education model that was specific to each place. After reading this book I realized that teaching was not something I could not learn from going to graduate school, but it was something I would have to be actively doing in order to understand it.<br /><br />Build Something Together has completed a handful of projects in the Portland Area, including a Raft Museum, a rooftop garden, and fixing a girls bed from squeaking. Build Something Together was also invited to be part of a show in Kansas City where I created a two-week residency to help individuals and families from surrounding areas. The residency was an intensive 10-hour a day process that resulted in 14 projects and multiple interviews.<br /><br />In Deschooling Society Ivan Illich says that in order to move beyond the monopolized school education we must eliminate all schools and begin to learn from each other in self-directed ways. This model of education in our daily lives is one I relate to, and one that I believe is being developed through the model of Build Something Together. People’s nature is to learn, and by placing students in a school all day they are not able to put any of what they are being told into a context they can relate to, and therefore are not learning anything that can be used outside of those walls.<br /><br />So how can educational models such as Build Something Together sustain themselves while not having a direct relationship to the institutions they are critiquing? My concern comes at a time where it is obvious that the capitalist society in which we live has many repercussions that are not sustainable and are leading us into a deep depression. I believe people will start to see the lasting value of sustaining our desire to learn by enacting creative ways of education throughout our daily lives, and in doing so are creating communities based on sustainable relationships to each other.<br /><br />In my second year I want to continue practicing with Build Something Together and begin to understand how this kind of a model can continue to function beyond graduation. In the act of Deschooling it is important to recognize the downfalls of public education and not get trapped by the monopoly. I want to understand this more, and I will only be able to understand it once it is put into action.Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-24068684824814985732009-05-12T10:20:00.000-07:002009-05-12T23:17:37.914-07:00updates<span style="font-family:arial;">A lot has happened since the last time I updated my blog, sorry for the long delay. Here are a couple of recent developments..</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >Build Something Together in Kansas City</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">From March 14 - 28 I was in Kansas City for a residency with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Greenlease</span> Gallery at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Rockhurst</span> University. During my time there I was able to help 16 people with various projects. Some of the projects included updating a chicken coop, building a compost bin, and making a water collection system for a rooftop. All of the projects turned out great and there were few hang ups.<br />This <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">experience</span> also gave me a couple of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">opportunities</span> to talk about my work on the radio and on a little documentary film series. If you are curious what those look like check out: <a href="http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kcur/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&sid=16&id=1500626&pid=77">radio</a> and <a href="http://www.rockhurst.edu/services/gallery/index.asp">film</a>. I never realized how hard it would be to talk about the work while having either a mic or video camera in my face, but was lucky enough to find out.<br />At the end of the project I realized how much I really enjoyed doing work like this in my home town. Before coming out the the Social Practice program here at PSU I had been making public art in Kansas City, but I had never worked directly with community members. This project let me see a new side of Kansas City I had never experienced before, so it was successful!<br /><br />Here are some pictures from Build Something Together in Kansas City:<br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAUPksKAcQYwxsRD2Peh9Mo9RaTZJBbRZSKqHW33TUMyNIGsc2N02fPf0AUgVAIITf6QrTYGuLDZfAC6VhuHKMe6QBBM1KQxuHCaj9h2z2GTIkAduSeR5ejpsf23dbWUi4mqPLJrKGC8/s1600-h/IMG_2188.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAUPksKAcQYwxsRD2Peh9Mo9RaTZJBbRZSKqHW33TUMyNIGsc2N02fPf0AUgVAIITf6QrTYGuLDZfAC6VhuHKMe6QBBM1KQxuHCaj9h2z2GTIkAduSeR5ejpsf23dbWUi4mqPLJrKGC8/s320/IMG_2188.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994436859456530" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">installation view<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWJi4UF7eNSu6VFW54Ar3vnE0j4-xc24Z_BZCBbT_m3QyVoVK7gRnss42_lX8zhJwHuFutsLVKFzaqUvMRiVUPBbfYJJLkVgs0FJarISAD0Q1y6eJvkZADio9CYhF3NaIiSf2-gZvuQ4/s1600-h/IMG_2184.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIWJi4UF7eNSu6VFW54Ar3vnE0j4-xc24Z_BZCBbT_m3QyVoVK7gRnss42_lX8zhJwHuFutsLVKFzaqUvMRiVUPBbfYJJLkVgs0FJarISAD0Q1y6eJvkZADio9CYhF3NaIiSf2-gZvuQ4/s320/IMG_2184.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335188316652311714" border="0" /></a>installation view (project documentation was added to right wall throughout residency)<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHbFosBgkI0FIZp2IFOCwfBb-d6gi51rlZhuhPEB-QvCo48vyTM2nCpHIuH3dn4u93PITIQM5aWYt3GU168pomMA-cUxMn7O2A5PScB7Hbq45aDL1KM2lcnuYD6ag2JteA8nvjmcxWpYw/s1600-h/IMG_2772.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHbFosBgkI0FIZp2IFOCwfBb-d6gi51rlZhuhPEB-QvCo48vyTM2nCpHIuH3dn4u93PITIQM5aWYt3GU168pomMA-cUxMn7O2A5PScB7Hbq45aDL1KM2lcnuYD6ag2JteA8nvjmcxWpYw/s320/IMG_2772.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994611240125378" border="0" /></a></span><br />new sign for The Review<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzND3DPNtJXw0ZJ_gn_0Mb6Mwe6Uf3rYyfmEuN-ulHoWPq8hejuHLCif1Gcxo9XHfNiVaM633yuYSET3PGA7gu0KhwXNlJZDycgGLq-herenY4MSEf3zU-gHAJFhG-IRFU50Fkz2QeXY/s1600-h/IMG_2723.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzND3DPNtJXw0ZJ_gn_0Mb6Mwe6Uf3rYyfmEuN-ulHoWPq8hejuHLCif1Gcxo9XHfNiVaM633yuYSET3PGA7gu0KhwXNlJZDycgGLq-herenY4MSEf3zU-gHAJFhG-IRFU50Fkz2QeXY/s320/IMG_2723.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994612106493026" border="0" /></a></span><br />Tatum Birthday Party dive<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQwFKn1IUjwELc3HkjzSljmGzujxMJionY3fgrsINNLthWAWBHHInUL1McLXl99mkST7KNecUp3Dm1zbgGd4tjGnhMYeUFXbIUKeh3JR8rHI5EkP07MKcpN99UojY_tLcHiL6AwVq-uk/s1600-h/IMG_2513.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZQwFKn1IUjwELc3HkjzSljmGzujxMJionY3fgrsINNLthWAWBHHInUL1McLXl99mkST7KNecUp3Dm1zbgGd4tjGnhMYeUFXbIUKeh3JR8rHI5EkP07MKcpN99UojY_tLcHiL6AwVq-uk/s320/IMG_2513.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994613178095698" border="0" /></a></span><br />swinging Mary's students<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj87AvxqAm4ch0SJbiKAK_2q9sn-I_wE29lMqmo_ZgkQrxUutosUXO3w9AAGXFv2bZeBBRmFG3wFOITjfvjQbGLhR-rV-9Kkrbf0Bk73cWuP7ks8TqkuHfeMBjdwDNDFFPvgXfTQZzZqk4/s1600-h/IMG_2429.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj87AvxqAm4ch0SJbiKAK_2q9sn-I_wE29lMqmo_ZgkQrxUutosUXO3w9AAGXFv2bZeBBRmFG3wFOITjfvjQbGLhR-rV-9Kkrbf0Bk73cWuP7ks8TqkuHfeMBjdwDNDFFPvgXfTQZzZqk4/s320/IMG_2429.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994608323270754" border="0" /></a></span><br />making instruments with Mary's students<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNNdwDQmkjzNg4UhtpIndV4u-JDxsYeJc9_SkqC8YH9W2cPs1lneH268MTAmILkhrAgOSAxg7W2wc5zV1hX2D97dizs_2LzIB_sYWUyv96Ie8y5hYgs-g5S3IaccbzSiBPfnRC0kzS14E/s1600-h/IMG_2291.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNNdwDQmkjzNg4UhtpIndV4u-JDxsYeJc9_SkqC8YH9W2cPs1lneH268MTAmILkhrAgOSAxg7W2wc5zV1hX2D97dizs_2LzIB_sYWUyv96Ie8y5hYgs-g5S3IaccbzSiBPfnRC0kzS14E/s320/IMG_2291.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994610023270290" border="0" /></a></span><br />Karen's rainwater collection system<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl2EDBH201xkMjysMkgI5nCOKYGy2jFdGxj7SSaJ5DeuWFQXly0aXXPGiQHPLBOERSAdcRte3jiuimxmwOVhxgPzJ3PXBgaq_Yx0haIcVnAhykx2tvKENsDBMX-G38UhZM3Vk-6XOMdoI/s1600-h/IMG_2233.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl2EDBH201xkMjysMkgI5nCOKYGy2jFdGxj7SSaJ5DeuWFQXly0aXXPGiQHPLBOERSAdcRte3jiuimxmwOVhxgPzJ3PXBgaq_Yx0haIcVnAhykx2tvKENsDBMX-G38UhZM3Vk-6XOMdoI/s320/IMG_2233.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994439160323602" border="0" /></a></span><br />Terri's mask<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ti8QF1wUTCrHd_LNnEucmFdg43jsOQfEYXQE9jhB7Eyf9x-YNrR-QbOXWQLhN7w-EyNyC7vPzULP0bn9j68icVVM6tvaUVBrFkjD0nsXEZiuzwDjxghPbLlwoiMgpr-ox1GEjBW58HE/s1600-h/IMG_2107.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ti8QF1wUTCrHd_LNnEucmFdg43jsOQfEYXQE9jhB7Eyf9x-YNrR-QbOXWQLhN7w-EyNyC7vPzULP0bn9j68icVVM6tvaUVBrFkjD0nsXEZiuzwDjxghPbLlwoiMgpr-ox1GEjBW58HE/s320/IMG_2107.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994434517100274" border="0" /></a></span><br />Ivanhoe Neighborhood Public Art<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARnLaZ-2bYqmSkPrRhZfdFDzYwFbfWzOin_NSjuHQz7EXfbkF98SAcmUggky9RjofHM5qOzpo4jwznRFnqFBO37mXIJUBlkpWqio5yKUVzlWcSaaiX_51bPAR6ouVjLkohYKMBEwB3SY/s1600-h/IMG_0095.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjARnLaZ-2bYqmSkPrRhZfdFDzYwFbfWzOin_NSjuHQz7EXfbkF98SAcmUggky9RjofHM5qOzpo4jwznRFnqFBO37mXIJUBlkpWqio5yKUVzlWcSaaiX_51bPAR6ouVjLkohYKMBEwB3SY/s320/IMG_0095.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994427730938754" border="0" /></a></span><br />Ivanhoe Neighborhood Public Art<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRXiouWBGO1LaOGV1-UJRV3ZyAqJ5GeDuZ46w2LSu1Z3IX6Ey12PlD481uUKXB397Q9eB22JK2me1-tbp7rlYgQrZmD2VWAGXP3HTPHtcyEIuxLddYucyn9qcooAFZFmepNHpqE4BIPKQ/s1600-h/IMG_2033.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRXiouWBGO1LaOGV1-UJRV3ZyAqJ5GeDuZ46w2LSu1Z3IX6Ey12PlD481uUKXB397Q9eB22JK2me1-tbp7rlYgQrZmD2VWAGXP3HTPHtcyEIuxLddYucyn9qcooAFZFmepNHpqE4BIPKQ/s320/IMG_2033.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994431560778674" border="0" /></a></span><br />Drew and Charlie's shag pad<br /></div><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />More about the project in Kansas City can be found on <a href="http://buildsomethingtogether.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">buildsomethingtogether</span>.com</a>!<br /><br /></span> <span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">YWCA Rooftop Garden</span><br />So after a bit of waiting and crossing my fingers the project at YWCA has gone through! We had been waiting to hear back from the city to see if our rooftop could handle the additional weight, but after we got approved the lumber was ordered and delivered. Ever since the lumber was <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">delivered</span> I have been working on the roof any time I get a free moment. Here are some pictures of the project.</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCJ8XBi57iG7s3EbNfAA3_XvmXMUUaA_p3t2Vwe_idzdwhQeao7pmVd6VJaYIxpbsj3oo3Hqvn6Pmz7g-twSdLmvmsb2Y5IKh4creWPMY-es-1HX3uziGZdBXlc3jh0rxCzZlqNkafvI/s1600-h/IMG_2954.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCJ8XBi57iG7s3EbNfAA3_XvmXMUUaA_p3t2Vwe_idzdwhQeao7pmVd6VJaYIxpbsj3oo3Hqvn6Pmz7g-twSdLmvmsb2Y5IKh4creWPMY-es-1HX3uziGZdBXlc3jh0rxCzZlqNkafvI/s320/IMG_2954.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994772158267490" border="0" /></a><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Base coat</span> of Rebecca's Mural<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDNvHPjzAFo9E_P-8zz_a4hkNiifyVukWFf6tpdnLpTFgUVtMKgDG86TvUDnjh2qziHf9-r_YIPdZjUlRitjQrRlsfPIWH3mKCok6DLarwzLmHSuX_BMFtClyftaNqu2lDjAAY_Gs5EE/s1600-h/IMG_2953.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDNvHPjzAFo9E_P-8zz_a4hkNiifyVukWFf6tpdnLpTFgUVtMKgDG86TvUDnjh2qziHf9-r_YIPdZjUlRitjQrRlsfPIWH3mKCok6DLarwzLmHSuX_BMFtClyftaNqu2lDjAAY_Gs5EE/s320/IMG_2953.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994767930117602" border="0" /></a><br />Some picnic tables and planter boxes<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNIWvDCt-6uo61y0CrNU8tgVYz5QW_cK4pHD4BHg44r0_UdLPY3IN0vYJUMvMfMQcM_5R4_DLZxFupub58P1tGMe1mgWk51y1IOiP6E-zGzycADg8CawE2OM4CfzxNR0d_j7k5ZbpghA/s1600-h/IMG_2877.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyNIWvDCt-6uo61y0CrNU8tgVYz5QW_cK4pHD4BHg44r0_UdLPY3IN0vYJUMvMfMQcM_5R4_DLZxFupub58P1tGMe1mgWk51y1IOiP6E-zGzycADg8CawE2OM4CfzxNR0d_j7k5ZbpghA/s320/IMG_2877.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994766331841122" border="0" /></a><br />9 finished planters<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIYN4XB3jQf9EeRCkoOw9f2Qk8Fa_HnwQ5USBi3OSYNz7xvrNAYTpdLcoMbQerTsZCogGiY0SiF5wuMNsJ2W154TlM4JtfBCfcDwOYHHnWn23zI0AUmzPjt70Z7nplyj5F1w93vPEfM8/s1600-h/IMG_2874.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEIYN4XB3jQf9EeRCkoOw9f2Qk8Fa_HnwQ5USBi3OSYNz7xvrNAYTpdLcoMbQerTsZCogGiY0SiF5wuMNsJ2W154TlM4JtfBCfcDwOYHHnWn23zI0AUmzPjt70Z7nplyj5F1w93vPEfM8/s320/IMG_2874.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994761934890594" border="0" /></a><br />Portland weather<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWL-lKiUF7SDrHQWaCFu6hK8ymJDhxnZSrGko-L4kACRnUe4uvxQqAJ5GXkUXRWHs3GBt7M9H3kEcMM53zWaey_a5PWfjIa2X1LcGjtryO_sVJNOqf_YboeFI_wBE8Jn5gmZ0Mq9zRw8/s1600-h/IMG_2871.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKWL-lKiUF7SDrHQWaCFu6hK8ymJDhxnZSrGko-L4kACRnUe4uvxQqAJ5GXkUXRWHs3GBt7M9H3kEcMM53zWaey_a5PWfjIa2X1LcGjtryO_sVJNOqf_YboeFI_wBE8Jn5gmZ0Mq9zRw8/s320/IMG_2871.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334994764198128722" border="0" /></a><br />Wood pile and planters<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">So now that I have updated I will try to keep on top of it from now on! Take care<br /></div></div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-41656740925692589552009-02-22T20:37:00.000-08:002009-02-22T21:07:53.179-08:00Long distance advertisingWhile I was in Kansas City over Valentines I found out the Build Something Together residency I proposed for INDA:5 in the Rockhurst University's Greenlease Gallery went through, and funding was secured. So yesterday when Katy canceled working on her backpack, I started getting ready for Kansas City. The first and most important thing to do at an early stage for the project is advertising, so people can get their proposals in to me and everything isn't last minute. I had already talked to my girlfriend, Elysia, who is still living in Kansas City and asked her if she could flier a bunch of surrounding neighborhoods, and she was fine with that. However, I know she is very busy with her BFA Thesis, and since she is not my only connection in Kansas City I decided to utilize the other people.<br /><br />The advertising took a few different forms:<br />(50) 11x17 posters,<br />(50) 8.5x11 fliers,<br />(150) fliers in envelopes addressed to "Would you like to build something together?"<br /><br />I got all of the posters and fliers printed at Kinkos, and printed all of the envelopes at home. Each person on my mailing list got a handful of materials to post around their neighborhood or stick under peoples' windshield wipers. <br /><center><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGo1NP7KtY2Iz5o0fwUWwczCzU7xJO9JhZQp1JPRQ60L3OBZ-jgor40u0Sf2inRQLkpHxmu5XWdBTFJ91W9RpQOq1t00f74MpNAaUz_LmfaCEfl-TIf35Urb59PgBR5GgQ1-XSutj1SxQ/s1600-h/Library+-+7015.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGo1NP7KtY2Iz5o0fwUWwczCzU7xJO9JhZQp1JPRQ60L3OBZ-jgor40u0Sf2inRQLkpHxmu5XWdBTFJ91W9RpQOq1t00f74MpNAaUz_LmfaCEfl-TIf35Urb59PgBR5GgQ1-XSutj1SxQ/s400/Library+-+7015.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305851851354538706" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioaanP_rFoYr8bejkbpIec8H1mMLrkmQEUOcz_FbKDgIGd_5o7WpAlNcQjNW77MpQ8kcBF-4D1W9H07Sb631X7Vq14rwI-R2wpNXgBvnrPQKE6wnf4N6U08i-_TbGJtCQpPznLU84s8Ok/s1600-h/Library+-+7018.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioaanP_rFoYr8bejkbpIec8H1mMLrkmQEUOcz_FbKDgIGd_5o7WpAlNcQjNW77MpQ8kcBF-4D1W9H07Sb631X7Vq14rwI-R2wpNXgBvnrPQKE6wnf4N6U08i-_TbGJtCQpPznLU84s8Ok/s400/Library+-+7018.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305851854187958034" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0EV4zUVm3khT9xMZJOoY8AMe5iWl9nKZsFW3KSJoLNb2dys5dCMDaz2AEy4eBnRY1t59MVAFUfmLgwCuQDqLCI7NcGcuYj9teoPQCNd4N4I9OCW9gNQ7n3POF8ox8Nk-575VViD4XyI/s1600-h/Library+-+7020.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-0EV4zUVm3khT9xMZJOoY8AMe5iWl9nKZsFW3KSJoLNb2dys5dCMDaz2AEy4eBnRY1t59MVAFUfmLgwCuQDqLCI7NcGcuYj9teoPQCNd4N4I9OCW9gNQ7n3POF8ox8Nk-575VViD4XyI/s400/Library+-+7020.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305851852853328754" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdib5ioOz6ZNKSLuhG469SYFLcSDwRTlWhPoBRsOBcNIx8ZecQv5L_-ry32vTw2b34it5GbaUgNQ6WSf_ivQ8SkQxQtfG7jQgKjfrOHikiIFi8LAA-pWFMxx3f6as40Tmj1os5VlBOkQ/s1600-h/Library+-+7022.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmdib5ioOz6ZNKSLuhG469SYFLcSDwRTlWhPoBRsOBcNIx8ZecQv5L_-ry32vTw2b34it5GbaUgNQ6WSf_ivQ8SkQxQtfG7jQgKjfrOHikiIFi8LAA-pWFMxx3f6as40Tmj1os5VlBOkQ/s400/Library+-+7022.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305851856970038034" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-DpYlVedwR1m15TT2Mqbqq2mUiRKfXsI_rf38SJVE4zAeZ7wlkpmpBaPvBFWHe8pkLymowytA9jHBrf1ThrTN2Ja8bKmJlDv4wKl6tptmDbukAtMttTmd40zH9cGF29s58tleYD0faAc/s1600-h/Library+-+7024.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-DpYlVedwR1m15TT2Mqbqq2mUiRKfXsI_rf38SJVE4zAeZ7wlkpmpBaPvBFWHe8pkLymowytA9jHBrf1ThrTN2Ja8bKmJlDv4wKl6tptmDbukAtMttTmd40zH9cGF29s58tleYD0faAc/s400/Library+-+7024.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305851860430443698" border="0" /></a><br /></center><br />I really hope this technique works! To help track results I started a map on Google where I put all of the original addresses I mailed to, and then as proposals start to come in I can add additional points to the map.<center><br /><iframe width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&s=AARTsJpnW4z6ll78aWrPIfYmBsmAHBT5nA&msa=0&msid=113159559754182226425.00046384aa1e454c4a9c1&ll=39.133256,-94.674683&spn=0.511312,0.878906&z=10&output=embed"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=113159559754182226425.00046384aa1e454c4a9c1&ll=39.133256,-94.674683&spn=0.511312,0.878906&z=10&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small></center>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-41103867903493528802009-01-27T10:25:00.000-08:002009-01-27T10:46:20.156-08:00Build Something TogetherWhen I moved to Portland one of my main concerns was losing all of my friends, and not being able to work with them anymore. After a couple of months my girlfriend, Elysia, came out to visit me and when she left I realized my concern was valid, I had not been collaborating with my friends since being in Portland.<br /><br />So, when Elysia left I realized that if I started a simple website listing all of my skills and some info on previous collaborative projects, I could probably find some people in Portland to work with. <a href="http://buildsomethingtogether.com/" target="_blank">BuildSomethingTogether.com</a> was born!<br /><br />On Monday I sent out an email to the general public advertising the new version of <a href="http://buildsomethingtogether.com/" target="_blank">BuildSomethingTogether.com</a>, and more proposals came in. I am very excited about the progress this project is making locally, and I am looking forward to working with everyone I can possibly work with.<br /><br />Do you want to build something together?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdFSSDi5xWwIJsN9G_O24HEAlj9EZMPBPynhm3kMq4wZ2sP_FG9y6qrSWjbtC9SYCLC6WiZyTqUN7bYXrxk-cLLhfiotvtrjQSoFe-FOcUlN9pPzP-tPotF7OBMz_1ZVLqZIVuuH6zEQ/s1600-h/Library.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 399px; height: 374px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWdFSSDi5xWwIJsN9G_O24HEAlj9EZMPBPynhm3kMq4wZ2sP_FG9y6qrSWjbtC9SYCLC6WiZyTqUN7bYXrxk-cLLhfiotvtrjQSoFe-FOcUlN9pPzP-tPotF7OBMz_1ZVLqZIVuuH6zEQ/s400/Library.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5296045242620792386" border="0" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-73513637451723400122009-01-12T12:10:00.000-08:002009-01-12T13:13:03.339-08:00Proposals and winter breakSince November 25th I have been traveling quite a bit and working on submitting proposals. My traveling consisted of going to Lincoln, Nebraska for the Thanksgiving holiday. While in Lincoln I was able to spend time with my girlfriend, Elysia, and her family. We went to a Husker game and saw a 57 yd field goal, a school record! Elysia and I drove to Kansas City for the weekend after Thanksgiving. My dad's side of the family live in Kansas City, so I got to spend a little time with them and go sledding with my niece and nephew, Alex and Taylor.<br /><br />I flew back to Portland to wrap up finals and have a review of my work in the Social Practice Workshop. During my review I spoke quite a bit about Build Something Together, and one of the suggestions was to submit the project as a residency proposal to galleries who were in need of a handyman. Luckily I had just been invited to submit a proposal for a show in Kansas City that would be celebrating the fifth year of the Interdisciplinary program at the Kansas City Art Institute, where I got my BFA. My proposal can be found at <a href="http://www.craftandconcept.com/zachspringer/proposals/INDA5.pdf">/proposals/INDA5.pdf</a><br /><br />I had also told the YWCA that I would have their proposal in by the time I left for winter break, so I wrapped up some final details and reduced the budget considerably. The final proposal can be found at <a href="http://www.craftandconcept.com/zachspringer/proposals/YWCArooftop.pdf">/proposals/YWCArootop.pdf</a>. As of right now we are still pretty unsure of the weight bearing limit and cannot move on with the project until everything is stamped by the engineer.<br /><br />After those two main proposals were sent off and finals were complete I began talking to Anna and Ryan of <a href="http://specialprojectspress.org/">Special Projects Press</a> about a project where the Print Factory would publish a document explaining how to build a printing press. When I got back to Kansas City I was able to talk to Jesse and Will about this publication, and they were both very excited.<br /><br />My winter break was spent split between a week of Kansas City, a week in Tyler Texas and a few days in Minneapolis. Every day I was able to spend a lot of time with someone in my family, and some friends. It's so awesome when you get to go home and talk to your old high school friends about their lives and see that we are all doing pretty much the same basic things but in different directions. I can already see that trips like this one are what will make me want to move back to the midwest. It is so nice to see the family whenever and for however long I want.<br /><br />Hope your holidays were also fun!Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-68269610164636414112008-11-25T21:11:00.000-08:002008-11-25T21:14:13.917-08:00Public Social UniversityLast monday we hosted a workshop series in the Portland Downtown Public Library and I was able to use my Printmaking workshop as a chance to unveil the West Coast Print Factory. Check out Kaia's daughter Jessica printing!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxSWxoq0ho54pp9iSvfCdbF7N_6w529iat4RDWljfL0m8V4JlQmQRQYyyhEVINdGZ62nMrmhpNJLDFK47JdXG7f6ty6MgrXZjNERxDYZ47YfJPwubMPsg0c-IGw11HvJF2bMGe58Yv2g/s1600-h/Library+-+6202.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxSWxoq0ho54pp9iSvfCdbF7N_6w529iat4RDWljfL0m8V4JlQmQRQYyyhEVINdGZ62nMrmhpNJLDFK47JdXG7f6ty6MgrXZjNERxDYZ47YfJPwubMPsg0c-IGw11HvJF2bMGe58Yv2g/s400/Library+-+6202.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272830134780945554" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-35589817671183630992008-11-22T18:54:00.000-08:002008-11-22T18:56:37.921-08:00Press Complete!The Press is complete! I am so happy to have finished the press in a little over a week and just in time for the Public Social University (PSU) workshops on monday. Time for a beer in celebration.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg426qpkCwxGJR6CHKurYwS9yWNDWByEqXswBM7cpi6HhXj6dlVoYmNtOqnKssbZtuNcjYNgC0V6Vel8FX0rF7SZuM40slxJiVpJOVIsLbh2I8BTXU-x84Noq80gYZ6X-_bjpAJ8G_-zIA/s1600-h/Library+-+6200.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg426qpkCwxGJR6CHKurYwS9yWNDWByEqXswBM7cpi6HhXj6dlVoYmNtOqnKssbZtuNcjYNgC0V6Vel8FX0rF7SZuM40slxJiVpJOVIsLbh2I8BTXU-x84Noq80gYZ6X-_bjpAJ8G_-zIA/s400/Library+-+6200.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271681002582930434" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyK8wXY7Ni_nUWOIGxM0AWqxklpnKe46aOSvOAlL4WZZnEktPFAwTtiQdM1b7aKEXsEFeJ5g0ASnIyCVw1wWXvcyTltryNrd7Zmaj3nsv81raxLAWVKsHJjLg3CJHqlUFu9EHnnoLTzY/s1600-h/Library+-+6201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyK8wXY7Ni_nUWOIGxM0AWqxklpnKe46aOSvOAlL4WZZnEktPFAwTtiQdM1b7aKEXsEFeJ5g0ASnIyCVw1wWXvcyTltryNrd7Zmaj3nsv81raxLAWVKsHJjLg3CJHqlUFu9EHnnoLTzY/s400/Library+-+6201.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271680999774952866" border="0" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-17925925618450331782008-11-21T23:10:00.001-08:002008-11-21T23:21:53.821-08:00Press updateToday I woke up and headed out to Forest Grove Iron & Industrial Supply for some steel. When I got out there I started explaining what I was building and they were very interested. They offered to roll some steel for me to help make the large crank. I went into the shop and started talking to a guy about a vacation he just went on to pick up a wife, but then I moved on to watching the steel get rolled. The machine he was using to roll the steel was the exact same design as the press but instead of two linear rollers there were three in a triangle configuration. It turned out to be a worthwhile adventure out to Forest Grove, I will be sure to get out there again.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ASvY7AlaYWTjp_KXQ6tGQT_RkY1mUq5X12SruxpjNbVjZ5VCz4LNhKDa6-mOCQpGJt0z2ApTJ9w5xRe3-RCghjecIZmRBH5V0ozgUi1C4urtSQMmt5z-rV4YoOarG0__garIcdvIx3c/s1600-h/pf8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6ASvY7AlaYWTjp_KXQ6tGQT_RkY1mUq5X12SruxpjNbVjZ5VCz4LNhKDa6-mOCQpGJt0z2ApTJ9w5xRe3-RCghjecIZmRBH5V0ozgUi1C4urtSQMmt5z-rV4YoOarG0__garIcdvIx3c/s400/pf8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271376062472854786" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">The main mechanism in detail<br /><br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflobqY1MXLlVKV2yj4i50OtlMSabf-87Ldo26mqIRITSV7Zl5JvMZfdI8TVfA-KaSxIfUNruNJOtXGQvOmKdyR_esQ5YctsOBzqKKLPWoywI1bZUG9iLvp8jz2_dkinrfFCopk1JTPX4/s1600-h/pf7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflobqY1MXLlVKV2yj4i50OtlMSabf-87Ldo26mqIRITSV7Zl5JvMZfdI8TVfA-KaSxIfUNruNJOtXGQvOmKdyR_esQ5YctsOBzqKKLPWoywI1bZUG9iLvp8jz2_dkinrfFCopk1JTPX4/s400/pf7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271376061830742674" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">All together without the cranks--will be working on that tomorrow.<br /></div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-18097418637766755222008-11-21T01:46:00.000-08:002008-11-21T02:21:04.605-08:00West Coast Print Factory UpdateEarlier this month I found a guy, Bill, on craigslist who milled his own wood and sold the lumber as a hobby. I went out to his house in the Columbia River gorge and fell in love with the area. Bill and I hung out for a little while and I bought some maple from him for the construction of the West Coast Print Factory. We talked for awhile about the previous printing presses and I showed him the Automini.<br />When I got back to Portland with the wood there was nothing I could do with it because of the drama happening around the shop here at PSU. So I called up Bill to see if he would let me use his shop to cut out all the parts of the press. He said "of course" when I asked, so I thought I would give it a shot. Last friday I went out to his shop and got to work. <br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6HbR6tW1C7N_9idjm2eDQhtHWarfTfDFSdBR8U4qdM1EVpa7KrLKpO5CcAw5CL_Tr9fvgry9tDShJIs6bc2yaAc1QpROJcLe17chgasIcCJi_5KrNV2Ke3kM8ZL4l-plays40p85ekw/s1600-h/pf+parts.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM6HbR6tW1C7N_9idjm2eDQhtHWarfTfDFSdBR8U4qdM1EVpa7KrLKpO5CcAw5CL_Tr9fvgry9tDShJIs6bc2yaAc1QpROJcLe17chgasIcCJi_5KrNV2Ke3kM8ZL4l-plays40p85ekw/s400/pf+parts.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271053019672040642" /></a><br />I was there for about 7 hours laboring over the table saw and drove back to Portland to do the first glue up. For the weekend I continued to work on the press and got to about here<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTEOLSjhWWaeHpeRv-iPYZP-_sGXBQmZIupqe8PkKLRZxjLlC4aN8CWBnaBNOSm282ed2kslI1JDOhg9mP3g2u0HthxtQhg-Z4T7BU_edv4q_JZiWu6RiXlCte283bEf4tpxy_izUfnA/s1600-h/shop1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTTEOLSjhWWaeHpeRv-iPYZP-_sGXBQmZIupqe8PkKLRZxjLlC4aN8CWBnaBNOSm282ed2kslI1JDOhg9mP3g2u0HthxtQhg-Z4T7BU_edv4q_JZiWu6RiXlCte283bEf4tpxy_izUfnA/s400/shop1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052264337216530" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgYVQPjU9ok0sqY3gcGwI40mqhgiN8feUpt3ERRklN-maAvhS2oGxbVWzmUw5kM1X5mPmpBFNjMb8pIAqPpyMMX3Ae96ZcbNQfOoncP60JKXzSmul1_y2uYZnVqKqoC3szLaPS4EpAAk/s1600-h/pf1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgYVQPjU9ok0sqY3gcGwI40mqhgiN8feUpt3ERRklN-maAvhS2oGxbVWzmUw5kM1X5mPmpBFNjMb8pIAqPpyMMX3Ae96ZcbNQfOoncP60JKXzSmul1_y2uYZnVqKqoC3szLaPS4EpAAk/s400/pf1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052264314297058" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKumGkznOHU2IOgDfwSL9DyT7lV40oIGCsMQcKmhBFr6jXu_X4aTCKmFIN57VG6DJ-CzGxE3xJZsJ_nlPrLLw_MPGNkqhkCIzITyzUSzW_kc6sOh6gG0HNrciCY-TNmhc1BUpjcpqSDos/s1600-h/pf2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKumGkznOHU2IOgDfwSL9DyT7lV40oIGCsMQcKmhBFr6jXu_X4aTCKmFIN57VG6DJ-CzGxE3xJZsJ_nlPrLLw_MPGNkqhkCIzITyzUSzW_kc6sOh6gG0HNrciCY-TNmhc1BUpjcpqSDos/s400/pf2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052264112613666" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEDKyDzRGTG0Y8PhRSst0ZuEjdvizJXB8ZprcQSNIPQVDjJsWFRnHV5TgPGZfYgOnFr46-gAo7PWa1RMNHNWuH3tkPV6VBVrdD2Qq66lHWX_PKwXnT30y8Pi_kFRbHNlJ8hGFlmQJ_GU/s1600-h/pf3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtEDKyDzRGTG0Y8PhRSst0ZuEjdvizJXB8ZprcQSNIPQVDjJsWFRnHV5TgPGZfYgOnFr46-gAo7PWa1RMNHNWuH3tkPV6VBVrdD2Qq66lHWX_PKwXnT30y8Pi_kFRbHNlJ8hGFlmQJ_GU/s400/pf3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052269148680450" /></a><br />I got home from my last class earlier today and began working. The two towers are fully assembled and the finsh is drying. Tomorrow I will put it all together and start designing and building the adjustment levers for the end of the main roller shaft and the top of the two piece of all thread.<br />Ill keep this updated.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2Me6XnKtwnR6WkhrOddzg6cq4UA3MOuO_HFzcfmnwlb6ueB8DeLRHgznlha6EpNn0xsmtTRh3MCa0wghYFSM1EbkzHZQa9h-pyZa-fOvWb30M7zfwposy1AGVgROIC4z9IUh6FTWADo/s1600-h/pf4.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA2Me6XnKtwnR6WkhrOddzg6cq4UA3MOuO_HFzcfmnwlb6ueB8DeLRHgznlha6EpNn0xsmtTRh3MCa0wghYFSM1EbkzHZQa9h-pyZa-fOvWb30M7zfwposy1AGVgROIC4z9IUh6FTWADo/s400/pf4.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052568257413778" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sJ1iyPYiHMFmnzHsIiTWej07VwSbJybdpGujktbb48xhje1AZBKQL2rccCe47gqRxAL-7S7iVB5Fyo8h81DXRTC803t2qp9p-4cDUCJmWnLYexP5yDYOFI1niafEFOS9GlurAMyWTKQ/s1600-h/pf5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5sJ1iyPYiHMFmnzHsIiTWej07VwSbJybdpGujktbb48xhje1AZBKQL2rccCe47gqRxAL-7S7iVB5Fyo8h81DXRTC803t2qp9p-4cDUCJmWnLYexP5yDYOFI1niafEFOS9GlurAMyWTKQ/s400/pf5.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052270427342802" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSQxoGYKXu1BZ5yPSWCukDAM7Q1_wqG6rrc_9qLhHcoY9FqZG9aP4Ujkr5cSG1w-udjA1NwwpAl8WJSJS4HY__dWqqGZS-r4sICkQr3p1DycJQdoYqwpvFJDioU5e-7h_0L798NKD3nc/s1600-h/pf6.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 263px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNSQxoGYKXu1BZ5yPSWCukDAM7Q1_wqG6rrc_9qLhHcoY9FqZG9aP4Ujkr5cSG1w-udjA1NwwpAl8WJSJS4HY__dWqqGZS-r4sICkQr3p1DycJQdoYqwpvFJDioU5e-7h_0L798NKD3nc/s400/pf6.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271052577149856834" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-46254618479162117702008-11-02T16:05:00.000-08:002008-11-02T16:17:53.346-08:00YWCAA couple of weeks ago I was forwarded an email from Janette at YWCA asking if anyone would be interested in painting a mural or doing something on a rooftop space. Janette and I setup an appointment and I went to go check it out. She told me they were wanting the roof space to become a communal area with garden boxes, so the after school kids could see vegetables growing in the middle of Portland. The space looks like:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPNgeIZf6T_LuDRIUTeJE_v1kXaIMD6oXKTJBO-KZnV0E1RBtc5duAgq4w3SeQ-dfj95oNcMASAIRw3YTeFUa3SmhcGkuhtlAvz9GueqrRrVraDoQf32uXzp374639BGK2AvkdqaEV4Q/s1600-h/Library+-+6011.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPNgeIZf6T_LuDRIUTeJE_v1kXaIMD6oXKTJBO-KZnV0E1RBtc5duAgq4w3SeQ-dfj95oNcMASAIRw3YTeFUa3SmhcGkuhtlAvz9GueqrRrVraDoQf32uXzp374639BGK2AvkdqaEV4Q/s400/Library+-+6011.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264216730006422434" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwdrF4hUSUcSE0KSHM0sbuY9B0ujRt5irk6QYoejaBXX6841lj_HpWThRxVSYTH3ALWDN8EgUpSCJAZkz7UfaqeCI6CO5C2JS3XBZzdcgEDDOy1t6flU5UFuH_AN3UB_s3Bihij6Df0CI/s1600-h/Library+-+6010.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwdrF4hUSUcSE0KSHM0sbuY9B0ujRt5irk6QYoejaBXX6841lj_HpWThRxVSYTH3ALWDN8EgUpSCJAZkz7UfaqeCI6CO5C2JS3XBZzdcgEDDOy1t6flU5UFuH_AN3UB_s3Bihij6Df0CI/s400/Library+-+6010.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264216727674842850" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6fFaxwQraIk8NPiEsniE7Z0yuMTpDYQD40Y7FHJ1KReNkhjw927UDLWHyRoJ-Pf3aZLJT1YJQ59fqdqt2t3OfRRFhQqi0P0NVke-NauamqAbl93Qnnc_Fh3PH00XV3zQB42uXq2sN5Fs/s1600-h/Library+-+6009.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6fFaxwQraIk8NPiEsniE7Z0yuMTpDYQD40Y7FHJ1KReNkhjw927UDLWHyRoJ-Pf3aZLJT1YJQ59fqdqt2t3OfRRFhQqi0P0NVke-NauamqAbl93Qnnc_Fh3PH00XV3zQB42uXq2sN5Fs/s400/Library+-+6009.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264216724640226450" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTkWZSwP9XpLU_V2LLe6c6_shESQlbLxjN4EtFPnLhka4garnmxuovsvpO69UQmg3e1HOioeBsTHQfecbaYIEPYb1xuUHgKpelwu_ylw-KHMST45kC9EV6geOpoQK4csiCsOL0j577XWI/s1600-h/Library+-+6008.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTkWZSwP9XpLU_V2LLe6c6_shESQlbLxjN4EtFPnLhka4garnmxuovsvpO69UQmg3e1HOioeBsTHQfecbaYIEPYb1xuUHgKpelwu_ylw-KHMST45kC9EV6geOpoQK4csiCsOL0j577XWI/s400/Library+-+6008.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264216719734800594" border="0" /></a><br />I measured the space and reproduced it in Sketchup, adding some garden boxes. If you know anyone who is interested in painting over the pink walls to make a mural relating to the space, please contact me! Or if you would like to attend a moss graffiti workshop--get ahold of me, we might be using that as a form of wall covering and you can test your skills with us!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhguZAjNnvoOPAWVR9tTjBIOUAvM9SPIH1OQq1n2yawWl2-syGeYrPrJJ3ek4x6QFkKYMV6Jrx5iX5nzGALoNpeM2-45I9yHjXx6pGavm_yeXnxAz8hjZR5TBOU0r09hEuyMeNMUE3hX4k/s1600-h/ywca.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 195px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhguZAjNnvoOPAWVR9tTjBIOUAvM9SPIH1OQq1n2yawWl2-syGeYrPrJJ3ek4x6QFkKYMV6Jrx5iX5nzGALoNpeM2-45I9yHjXx6pGavm_yeXnxAz8hjZR5TBOU0r09hEuyMeNMUE3hX4k/s400/ywca.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264218739718741986" border="0" /></a>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-48920467664875081212008-10-28T22:26:00.000-07:002008-10-28T22:32:30.892-07:00New site launch!I am happy to announce the launch of <a href="http://buildsomethingtogether.com/" target="_blank">BuildSomethingTogether.com</a><br />The website is being used as an announcement that I will be helping people again at my new home in Portland, along with info about the service and myself! Check it out, and don't leave without asking yourself what we could build together!Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-51714397289622688352008-10-28T01:46:00.000-07:002008-10-28T01:47:43.098-07:003 questions, 3 answers<span style="font-weight: bold;">Why do I work in the social as a medium?</span><br /> The first things I ever made with serious intentionality were pieces of furniture. When I was making furniture I knew I was in charge of people's comfort and it was my goal to never forget the user but to also leave some creative residue with the structure. During my first years of art school I began making very formal, aesthetic based objects, which were meant to spark something for the viewer. Maybe I wanted to talk about cultural issues or the feeling of being in a boat, but I really had no idea what to talk about because, unlike my furniture making experience, this seemed like a one sided discussion. Making things that meant something to me but nothing to anyone else was doing an injustice to my role as an artist. So I kept thinking back to my furniture making and came to an understanding of why the dialogue between the user and myself was so important.<br /> That summer I decided to take a job with the Grand Tetons Lodging Company, giving guided horseback tours around the National Park. I had never ridden a horse or dressed like a cowboy before, but I wanted to learn. I realize now that when I gave up acting like I knew what I was doing, people actually respected that and wanted to help me. During that summer I gave numerous tours around the park and met a bunch of really interesting families. I realized that once you level the playing field to where anyone can join in, the experiences become more unique and gratifying for everyone. When I gave my tours I would talk about our immediate surroundings and the things they were paying to hear about, but I would always ask each one in the group to tell us something about themselves and by the end of the trip it seemed like a group of friends arriving back at camp. By the end of the summer I knew my art practice would have to reflect this experience, if not become this experience.<br /> When I got back to Kansas City and started school I immediately began working on the Tools for Adventure, which consisted of a canoe, a tent, sleeping bags, and packs. These tools were to be used on adventures I would be taking with another person. At the time I realized if I were going to be giving adventure trips, I would need to learn how to shape the experience in a way that the person with me wouldn't feel like I was the guide but just a friend, and they were actually the guide. This distinction was very important for me because I felt everyone should feel the same sense of discovery that I had felt while walking alone through the Tetons.<br /> I use this story as an example because it helps me to realize why I do work in the social. I work in the social as a medium because I want to have real experiences with people, where I can learn from them and engage in a activity we both participate in. The people I work with help illustrate truly democratic communities and that is not something I could do on my own.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">To what end? What are my goals or desired results?</span><br /> My work with the community serves as a valuable asset to the understanding of collaboration and how that can work in everyday life. By showing people that they are inherently creative and have a voice I hope to emphasize their individual importance to their surroundings. I want people to realize that neutrality is not something that allows for sustainability within communities, and by voicing your creative input you are helping to strengthen your community. I hope that working in this way will help to revive creativity within our everyday lives.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why do I position what I do in an art context?</span><br /> When I look at the history of art making it is very clear that art provides groundwork for flexibility and growth within the artist and their work, and with those fluxuations comes social and political change. I feel very strongly about making the artistic process an open dialogue so everyone can participate and make those changes together. I believe Buey’s was right in saying, “Everyone is an Artist,” but I also think intentionality is important if you do claim to be an artist.<br /> Art also serves as a great tool to frame my process, and helps for every aspect to become a metaphor, which can be related to everyday life. It is easy to step back and observe a sculpture for all it is worth, but it is much harder to separate yourself from an experience of participating in an artistic event, which might not be considered art at all.<br /> Andrea Zittel said something like, “being an artist allows for more freedom and the ability to act more quickly than others on issues they find important.” I really like thinking about my practice in those terms.Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1074381148031887195.post-4327280293423788242008-10-15T22:33:00.000-07:002008-10-15T23:39:19.634-07:00Field trip and other goodiesLast weekend the MFA program went on a field trip to various art related locations. Friday morning we all piled into our vans and off we went. <div>First stop was at a Mia Lin piece called "Land Bridge" which consisted of a pedestrian bridge over the highway, which she didn't even design! This piece was one of four installed around the area, but we only had time for one. I was very impressed with the rain water runoff recycling system which fed all of the native plants on the bridge, other than that I felt the $16 million could have been spent in a more productive manor.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUF-EBZzO-gC-vMOpxDxGXvMjzlRV5R8hNXak9XX-i92CYwZqIvBo1i6YqyLgQj1UrRwNmkQYA_JbQoH6WCYumCkfWT0vds4q2w4iHAXBSGg3hlEIPG19nQGJiZkE_bwY5F8LDPkZbQ4/s1600-h/mialin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWUF-EBZzO-gC-vMOpxDxGXvMjzlRV5R8hNXak9XX-i92CYwZqIvBo1i6YqyLgQj1UrRwNmkQYA_JbQoH6WCYumCkfWT0vds4q2w4iHAXBSGg3hlEIPG19nQGJiZkE_bwY5F8LDPkZbQ4/s400/mialin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257631646487294114" border="0" /></a>Katy and I thought this image was pretty funny..<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8SLl9thrkauWc_AWF0ktTmeyX7DLm9XsBy20GYVkU1nTbGAX98qcvM33j9x2W8NUbKtfc3G8o4T9C0Vn5YeybMFE8WjtkQxYgIiAPW4CHNFVG5aBA4LGxQmRQgdZmvtYyHC71UKgDFxk/s1600-h/mountainfence.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8SLl9thrkauWc_AWF0ktTmeyX7DLm9XsBy20GYVkU1nTbGAX98qcvM33j9x2W8NUbKtfc3G8o4T9C0Vn5YeybMFE8WjtkQxYgIiAPW4CHNFVG5aBA4LGxQmRQgdZmvtYyHC71UKgDFxk/s400/mountainfence.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257631829537371442" border="0" /></a><br />Second stop was at the Maryville Museum of Art. We were given a nice introduction the museum by the currator and then we walked around for a bit. I was able to record a film playing of a Serpentine Dancer in 1906 and get pictures of 5 really great photographs.<br /><center><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YogIrdKOySM&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YogIrdKOySM&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></center><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhelW-sfWhaOllowjo_DyN7hhyMxUjXGC1u1gwMs-SRLRnRLpZuGnzxU_zvEvsx04pbk9Y4miyrnGqydwOcojctsTGwV3TeiKVj378Hq_xop2W-7Is_LZ7LTYm8Dn24ZpSQ3YV0yfBd5w/s1600-h/oldbikers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhelW-sfWhaOllowjo_DyN7hhyMxUjXGC1u1gwMs-SRLRnRLpZuGnzxU_zvEvsx04pbk9Y4miyrnGqydwOcojctsTGwV3TeiKVj378Hq_xop2W-7Is_LZ7LTYm8Dn24ZpSQ3YV0yfBd5w/s400/oldbikers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632183181578722" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyit0kDwZ_RdHIhKhjb1aQXquus5FHcA12dC4xe5DbozmdzHbYm_hec0HdeaaE2rjxDdS6R-O1SDNJz8W00rL7Wmf5fhoEYQEXhGBnL2EjBW9y_eKIzU8hvfBwsgqGaWj3WlMECYOHfkM/s1600-h/shadowart3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyit0kDwZ_RdHIhKhjb1aQXquus5FHcA12dC4xe5DbozmdzHbYm_hec0HdeaaE2rjxDdS6R-O1SDNJz8W00rL7Wmf5fhoEYQEXhGBnL2EjBW9y_eKIzU8hvfBwsgqGaWj3WlMECYOHfkM/s400/shadowart3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632738446653122" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ehWUYBeim8lc3fRuIA50nAQFM46_SE6ivCkyhO0wuO4DfU3oRbiAEJzhNwSexQloa2Yi2N9l24p4u92Uy2KVaVXzcWCxGTzLKeaDzi4qJXy3Yi-rQIZrv0ca7YXIVNaiqLd2rReeK1Y/s1600-h/shadowart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ehWUYBeim8lc3fRuIA50nAQFM46_SE6ivCkyhO0wuO4DfU3oRbiAEJzhNwSexQloa2Yi2N9l24p4u92Uy2KVaVXzcWCxGTzLKeaDzi4qJXy3Yi-rQIZrv0ca7YXIVNaiqLd2rReeK1Y/s400/shadowart.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632203718540818" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoPLF2W6n8EJXLGbP3aLcz9llITHNOLy0FI_PxMua9w7n0GcIvmXiv-_bCCnQkO9vj9CzwXx5vf3mYm6rb2F9_4rUE663Zl7vP2Lp5614s2-MuLrOBwMNqGryLyNF_jQccmQV1ZFdMMg/s1600-h/shadowart3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqoPLF2W6n8EJXLGbP3aLcz9llITHNOLy0FI_PxMua9w7n0GcIvmXiv-_bCCnQkO9vj9CzwXx5vf3mYm6rb2F9_4rUE663Zl7vP2Lp5614s2-MuLrOBwMNqGryLyNF_jQccmQV1ZFdMMg/s400/shadowart3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632242388778946" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7TwtQMgFgDm9aKvlRxz2UzNMt23WSJeFaJkxRsGcwH5Rrs16dGO8oz_BGnXoVDQU6XRLXJik_pDaoXtKeZnIxXjAYMW3D0grhzvO4zxqwkwB-zgjtt4VVq3OyGDKQmMjf03gxAJpo1Q/s1600-h/shadowart2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE7TwtQMgFgDm9aKvlRxz2UzNMt23WSJeFaJkxRsGcwH5Rrs16dGO8oz_BGnXoVDQU6XRLXJik_pDaoXtKeZnIxXjAYMW3D0grhzvO4zxqwkwB-zgjtt4VVq3OyGDKQmMjf03gxAJpo1Q/s400/shadowart2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632251954937778" border="0" /></a><br />Outside of the gallery I found Connie and Hannah teaching a peacock about Social Practice with free food, and I also was able to get a great panorama of the view.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhcjnYZFn1Nw2meG-V81ODFHBWEAoQdpy6ejalBahnOE9veX_CVrRHiuhTN6eRoBkuD6UCcQUBJ5PgycjEsT1WfCquxMMwF76RcO7Gs-GfV-lo-H0uCFTHP9001i2bts0cIldg-S1ifg/s1600-h/conniehannah.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhcjnYZFn1Nw2meG-V81ODFHBWEAoQdpy6ejalBahnOE9veX_CVrRHiuhTN6eRoBkuD6UCcQUBJ5PgycjEsT1WfCquxMMwF76RcO7Gs-GfV-lo-H0uCFTHP9001i2bts0cIldg-S1ifg/s400/conniehannah.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257631364538066370" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3sLN3k614wIX_b0caVkTci0pPWC4ty3eVlt7zT1Bax_8FFIEF14tg3RQNs-AMzBZfrIHOJs3bUtJ5Jd1nKUhDe6B8z9THCz2mGCWdZHen7xhB0FS_2Du3gfgIw3w5o-Nyjvmh1RiNxQ/s1600-h/fieldtrip.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD3sLN3k614wIX_b0caVkTci0pPWC4ty3eVlt7zT1Bax_8FFIEF14tg3RQNs-AMzBZfrIHOJs3bUtJ5Jd1nKUhDe6B8z9THCz2mGCWdZHen7xhB0FS_2Du3gfgIw3w5o-Nyjvmh1RiNxQ/s400/fieldtrip.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257633984023935826" border="0" /></a><br />Down the road 4 miles there is an exact replica of the Stonehenge cast from concrete. This was a definite highlight of the trip because I got to climb on some rocks and play around with everyone. I was also able to get another great panorama looking over the Columbia.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2mLIKvNJndIKsloEUe7QChr33r40hmVKEbrtXJcTxHDYhA2VVQp3fWD1GpOB94qumpEJkuft8mwrbm00qLYk3OppUK0MB7RfcgqLzKbEdqPy9ad3SnsUyNwlCxOXD0qq8FUzJX3ZaWc/s1600-h/stonehenge.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2mLIKvNJndIKsloEUe7QChr33r40hmVKEbrtXJcTxHDYhA2VVQp3fWD1GpOB94qumpEJkuft8mwrbm00qLYk3OppUK0MB7RfcgqLzKbEdqPy9ad3SnsUyNwlCxOXD0qq8FUzJX3ZaWc/s400/stonehenge.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257632990808744994" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCt1DcWuyD-keK73HVqYbae6kF-tVqtbyWGNM_tvXqXBUY3Dyomn06k6NRtzYHtpJa3xBhJDAlPecyhzQZK77eVh7mUIywOGNed8M8jZA__NHzmanEdMm4GGUgZIs5ROgfUunT-gBbZGg/s1600-h/fieldtrip1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCt1DcWuyD-keK73HVqYbae6kF-tVqtbyWGNM_tvXqXBUY3Dyomn06k6NRtzYHtpJa3xBhJDAlPecyhzQZK77eVh7mUIywOGNed8M8jZA__NHzmanEdMm4GGUgZIs5ROgfUunT-gBbZGg/s400/fieldtrip1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257633985967684130" border="0" /></a><br />Third and final stop for the first day was at Crow's Shadow. We met Frank and he told us all about the mission of Crow's Shadow which is to help Native Americans print their artwork with a master printer and make money from it. That is very abbreviated explanation so check out <a href="http://www.crowsshadow.org/" target="_blank">www.crowsshadow.org</a> for more info! After a bit of drinking and losing at Hearts, Eric announced he would be going to the Casino up the street and asked if anyone wanted to join in--of course I did and so did some others! Rachel, Vanessa, Miles, Eric and I went to the casino and I was the only one to walk away with more money than I started with! That was nice, sorry guys!<br /><br />The next morning we went to James Lavadour's studio and talked about his current body of work and played with his very friendly dogs, Abby and I forgot the other one's name..<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpfKuTAsHv_HiQZCuoxVlhbW1P7L0Kz0_4R1y2vfaJ2-IitnuMn1r1nHtnj-Xwmgq3E5Nq8PbdFiQoRkwErhfKTXkeGI0Kfk6iDpm1sByAB_qaLRtGJ2SVHC9OLwPVLD4nmtKaDyNsrw/s1600-h/jamesl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkpfKuTAsHv_HiQZCuoxVlhbW1P7L0Kz0_4R1y2vfaJ2-IitnuMn1r1nHtnj-Xwmgq3E5Nq8PbdFiQoRkwErhfKTXkeGI0Kfk6iDpm1sByAB_qaLRtGJ2SVHC9OLwPVLD4nmtKaDyNsrw/s400/jamesl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257633512189320370" border="0" /></a><br />Then we drove into Pendelton to get breakfast. This town was very interesting.. I didnt know the lipstick was her symbol but my oh my does it do justice for her representation of american women everywhere!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMz_nNohawfOBeSE4bK4M_9NHQ-d08lOFzQ4yyGG-ddVU-Sjtz4nQsNLf3StbuPEpgUAC-9ym_kT84rDFoiRtsA9pkam5s1jiCx2pP4W6qt0RuiayaVN69yNjyUOk-WiRxG8G8YxjxPSc/s1600-h/palin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMz_nNohawfOBeSE4bK4M_9NHQ-d08lOFzQ4yyGG-ddVU-Sjtz4nQsNLf3StbuPEpgUAC-9ym_kT84rDFoiRtsA9pkam5s1jiCx2pP4W6qt0RuiayaVN69yNjyUOk-WiRxG8G8YxjxPSc/s400/palin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257633510681191266" border="0" /></a><br />Then we headed back to Portland! I had a great time on the trip, it was a great way for me to see the bueatiful landscapes Washington and Oregon have to offer, and not too far from home! The trip also gave us all a chance to relax and get to know everyone a little better.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX3srbkPTYXT2lisZqn9VoJzpBPlAQxmHM5i_rrgsQ8LFLLDGYSfOFpbanhh65YGnD49W96SAO6V9CXoVdCJL0phZMzu10KXDDRrVcpWsyqRKHu6ITcKXyYxg3_UJY2TWSPHLphmL2AGs/s1600-h/fieldtrip2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX3srbkPTYXT2lisZqn9VoJzpBPlAQxmHM5i_rrgsQ8LFLLDGYSfOFpbanhh65YGnD49W96SAO6V9CXoVdCJL0phZMzu10KXDDRrVcpWsyqRKHu6ITcKXyYxg3_UJY2TWSPHLphmL2AGs/s400/fieldtrip2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5257633730582444530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></div>Zach Springerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08466011256980095678noreply@blogger.com0