Part VI: Kansas City miscellany.

At the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art:

Maintaining the Claus Oldenburg shuttlecocks.

Airbrush works best, he says.

Cricket cages in the Chinese wing.

School field trip below El Anatsui.

I've never seen so much Venetian plaster in one place.

Joseph Cornell lobster ballet.

Students' work stations:

Street:

Eaves.

Bike rack.

Grasses.

Graffiti.

Graffiti.

The Bellicose Church.

Part V: Critiquing, being critiqued.

My time here was spent teaching workshops, lecturing, and critiquing individual student's work. In addition, I invited them to critique my work toward the end of my stay. I found their insights valuable and incisive.

Collaborative drawing exercise in a class. 

Well done!

Printmaking critique, sophomore and junior years.

My hosts. 

At my own critique in my KCAI studio.

Book pages.

Artist Laura Berman, who teaches printmaking and book arts.

Lauren McGill, student; Miguel Rivera, printmaking chair.

Book; netting and relief print.

Broadside.

There is an American persimmon tree outside the building! As an inveterate forager, I am thrilled.

Part IV: Working. Playing.

The electropounce machine is a remnant of analog technology in sign painting, used to transfer drawings to billboards or signs. I use it as a drawing method; it burns tiny holes in paper with a spark at high voltage. 

I also have access to a full print shop and two experienced and very helpful printing techs, Kelly and Liz.

This is the beginning of a new body of work, hatched at this residency.

Vermilion study.

Vermilion toothpick drawing.

Vermilion transfer paper, electropounce drawing.

Electropounce and vermilion transfer drawing.

Detail.

Sculpey and netting studies.

Installation; netting and black paper. 

"TEH", relief print on tulle netting.

Cheesecloth in printing studio...

Part III: Good bathtub karma.

I'm staying in a carriage house behind one of the Kansas City mansions that has been converted into administrative offices for the Art Institute. There is a big green hot tub in the living room, two armchairs and a refrigerator. But no kitchen. Also, there is a bedroom.

Crazy stonework characteristic of old houses here. This is an administrative building for the Art Institute.

Green hot tub!

Bedroom under the eaves. 

And if you don't want a bath in the living room there is another bathtub.

And while we're on the subject of bathtubs: they have figured prominently in my travels as an artist. Below is a room I rented in Amsterdam on the way to the Bulgaria Biennale in 2011. It had only a bed and a big patriotic orange bathtub.

Lloyd Hotel, Amsterdam. Stay there. It's also an arts center.

This is the bathtub in Sofia. A classic.