Re-Eruption of Mt. St. Helens

Exactly 29 years and 2 hours later...join Parallel University and MFA in Paper Maché for a re-eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Monday, May 18, 2009 (at 10:32 am) in the MK Gallery at Portland State University's Art Building.

Opening Friday @ the Pancake Clubhouse: MFA in Paper Maché Graduation Show!!

For their distinguished work in the area of paper and paste, Sarah Savannah Roach and Cyrus William Smith received their Master of Fine Arts in Paper Maché at a cap and gown ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2009 at the Pancake Clubhouse.

José Lerma & Jesús "Bubu" Negrón's corveta de papel maché

A station wagon converted into a corvette, with paper maché!  'The classic family car dressed up into the kind of vehicle suited to express a typical male’s mid-life crisis'.

Gettin Piggy With It - Group Exhibition and Open House, Thursday, April 30th, 2009.

Featuring paper maché piggy banks by:

Lisa Ciccarello, Jen Delos Reyes, Anna Gray, Bethany Hays, Ralph Pugay, Helen Reed, Zachary Springer and Michelle Swinehart

Please join us in conversation about swine flu, learning a new craft, stolen bikes, hard-times, saving-up and growing up.  We urge you to bring money in order to fully participate in this interactive art showcase!

Gettin' Piggy With It features work produced during a workshop at the MFA in Paper Maché Symposium on April 15, 2009.  Participants came together to remake versions of an original piggy bank created by Jen Delos Reyes in the third grade.

Paper Maché Pig by Michelle Swinehart:  The construction of this pig dates back to 1989 at Union Ridge Elementary School.  Under the guidance of my fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Palmer, I applied Paper Mache to a balloon, tuna can, and four egg-carton sections that collectively resembled a pig.  Later, I decorated my pig with purple, yellow, and blue tissue paper shapes.  Since it's creation, twenty years ago, this pig sat in my parent's bedroom, on the edge of their dresser, near a window.  I promised my mom that I would take good care of the pig before taking it to the Paper Mache symposium.

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium

Click to enlarge.

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #6

Saturn Will Not Return

Astrological pinata-bashing with Bethany Hays (Mentor and PSU MFA Candidate) and Katy Asher (29 year old PSU MFA Candidate)

MFA in Paper Maché was so lucky to be joined by Kindred, Hollis and Bethany for the making of our Saturn Pinata.  More from Bethany:

A few years ago, like so many people in their late twenties, Saturn tried really hard to kick my ass. While deep in the turmoil of my own change, I realized that I was surrounded by other people also going through a Saturn in Cancer Return. Shortly after the return was technically complete, a group of friends and I decided to celebrate the passing of this intense event by building a pinata in the shape of Saturn which we would  then beat to a pulp. Through this two-fold action (construction, destruction) we symbolically recognized the power of Saturn in our lives and also marked the end of our deference to Saturn. 

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #5

America's Favorite Home-Made Made Easy

Reception and Book-signing with Cyrus W. Smith (Author, America's Home-Made Made Easy Recipe Book)

Contact Cyrus W. Smith to order your copy of America's Favorite Home-Made Made Easy today!

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #4

MFA in Paper Maché Candidacy Reviews

Theses defenses with Cyrus W. Smith (MFA in Paper Maché Candidate), Sarah Roach (MFA in Paper Maché Candidate), Ryan Wilson Paulsen and Anna Gray (270c Directors)

Out-take from America's Favorite Homemade Made Easy, Cyrus William Smith, Graduate Thesis Project, 2009

Still from Why Noodes, Sarah Savannah Roach, Graduate Thesis Project, 2009

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #3

Mutual Mojo

Round table discussion with Sandy Sampson (Director, Parallel University)

Sandy and I have been talking a lot about our 'sister schools' that are running parallel to our MFA studies at PSU.  We have been talking about Joseph Beuys' concept of 'warmth' as a way to think about the mojo or juju that is in the materials we use for art-making...this is especially great to think about when 'infusing' paper maché with a sort of spirit or vibe.  For our round table Sandy brought two huge garbage cans full of 'scrap paper' from her job with developmentally disabled adults at Project Grow.  We thought that this might be a great source of paper to use for Paper Maché (double-layered magic!), but it was SO nice and we couldn't bring ourselves to use it.

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #2

Gettin' Piggy With It

Workshop with Jen Delos Reyes (PSU MFA Social Practice Faculty) and Zachary Springer (Build Something Together)

In the third grade Jen Delos Reyes made a papier maché piggy bank in Madame White's class. Other than an elaborate tempera painting two baby seals replicated from a photo in an issue of National Geographic that she made with the assistance of her grade 4 teacher, Mr. Garcia, the papier maché piggy bank might with out a doubt be the height of her artistic production. Period.

Zack Springer is currently working towards his masters degree of Fine Art at Portland State University where he has launched his new project, Build Something Together. He has been offering his services to people for about 4 years now. He finds that people are much happier in their surroundings if they have taken the time to build it themselves. He Knows that a lot of people just don't have the time or the skills to build much of anything, so that is why he wants to offer his energy and expertise.

Soundtrack from Montréal-based 'Papier Maché.'

MFA in Paper Maché Symposium, Session #1

Bread and Puppet Theatre's Secret Paste Revealed

Lecture and demonstration with Laurel Kurtz (live from North Carolina)

Live from North Carolina via Skype, Laurel Kurtz led workshop participants through all of the steps of making the perfect paper maché paste.

Pinata Lab!

Many Thanks to Sarah Bay Williams from Pinatalab for offering tips and recommendations during MFA in Paper Maché's 'Saturn Returning' pinata making.  I first heard about Sarah through the Los Angeles Public School, here is her great Pinata-Making class outline.

Also, I am a fan of her 'what has gone out in 2006' pinata featuring Pluto and Donald Rumsfeld.

Tony Tasset's Snowman

Snowman, 2006 (polystyrene, fiberglass mesh, paper maché, plaster, resin, steel, brass, acrylic and oil paint, 48" x 85" x 30")

America's Favorite Homemade Made Easy

Cyrus Smith (MFA in Paper Maché candidate) and I are working on a 'monograph project' which has now turned into a cook-book of suburban cuisine.  Along with fellow Paper Maché expert Sarah Roach, Cyrus illustrated each of his favorite dishes in paper maché.  See below for examples of these recipes (and the stunning samples of food photography).

Pancakes of the World in Space Waffle House

MFA in Paper Maché  at the Pancake Clubhouse! 

Paper Maché, the pancake Clubhouse and Krusteaz come together to create a mini-golf hole for the 4rth Annual Holocene Mini Golf Art Invitational.  Cardboard sourced from neighborhood dumpsters and green biodegradable-fishing-line-stickers used as edging for cardboard forms, (ingenious technique).

Smashed!

The Brain Book Sandwich with Jam was a hit.  Below, MFA in Paper Maché candidate Cyrus W. Smith models the smashed brain.

BRAIN BOOK SANDWICH WITH JAM

On Febrary 3, 2009, MFA in Paper Maché hosted its first workshop, 'The Brain Book Sandwich with Jam' (open-faced).  It was decided amongst our Social Practice crew that we would make a pinata for our party at Southern Exposure in San Francisco.  The concept was loosely based around some sandwichy, fake-edible and smashable version of Grant Kester's Conversation Pieces.  The brain part was for holding candy, gags, conversation pieces and MFA in Paper Maché Manifestos.   See pics below from the workshop and mojo-paper collected from the art department mail room...

Mr. Peanut For Mayor

In 1969, Canadian performance artist Vincent Trasov constructed a human-sized, paper mache costume and took on the familiar identity of Planters mascot Mr. Peanut. Five years later, Trasov took his performance art persona to the next level as he entered Mr. Peanut into the 1974 Vancouver mayoral election, running on a platform of "Performance, Elegance, Art, Nonsense, Uniqueness, and Talent." Trasov posed a "visual question" to his opponents at the debates via tap dance, received at least one celebrity endorsement during his campaign, and in the end, garnered 3.4% of the vote.

There is a lot of info on the Mr. Peanut For Mayor Campaign...you could start with this, this and this. Make sure to look at the Morris/Trasov Archive (Go to PERFORMANCE and then My Five Years in Nutshell) for a slideshow from Mr. Peanut's campaign trail.

MFA in Paper Maché Manifesto

Throughout MFA in Paper Maché, the people's medium, will be taken to new graduate level lows and back-up to hands-on-feeling-the-love-fulfillment-in-your-heart-and-in-your-art highs.

MFA in Paper Maché is low pressure and low-fi.

MFA in Paper Maché encourages collaborations with cardboard cobblers, cabinet-makers and carpenters.

MFA in Paper Maché is the long-awaited re-materialization of the art object.

Used pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, cotton balls, empty toilet-paper rolls, q-tips, egg cartons and styro-foam packing are friends of MFA in Paper Maché.

MFA in Paper Maché will gather people together in a common activity to occupy their hands while their minds are free to be free.

MFA in Paper Maché dares you mulch your paperwork.

Like a quilting bee or a barn-raising, MFA in Paper Maché is a social and utilitarian event.

MFA in Paper Maché advocates the life-affirming pleasures of the creative experience for all.

MFA in Paper Maché is a forum in which to gossip and spread rumors.

Similar to a food fight, MFA in Paper Maché is a form of chaotic collective behavior, in which soggy newspaper is thrown at others in the manner of projectiles.

MFA in Paper Maché is aimless.

MFA in Paper Maché is therapeutic.

MFA in Paper Maché is open as a resource to anybody needing to make costumes, puppets, pinatas and public-art commissions alike.

MFA in Paper Maché wants you to need to make something.

MFA in Paper Maché is influenced by Pinatafesto.

MFA in Paper Maché employs a strict ‘no project too ugly’ policy.

MFA in Paper Maché is inspired by the majestic art of dog-turds rising like cathedrals.

MFA in Paper Maché is free school, (but would love to accept your tuition donations).

MFA in Paper Maché thinks it’s high time for you to get sloppy.

MFA in Paper Maché pushes the envelope, then rips it up.

MFA in Paper Maché says NO! to administrative art-making.

MFA in Paper Maché is carefree.

MFA in Paper Maché is serious.

MFA in Paper Maché is bad, silly, frivolous and liberating.

Looking back...

Shark, by Hannah Jickling in Mrs. Cahoon's Grade 6 class, 1990 (Paper Maché, 2'x8"x4")

Brontosaurus, by Hannah Jickling in Mrs. Zacharelli's Grade 4 class, 1988 (Paper Maché, 1.5'x4"x8")