burner art

Art Beyond Burning Man – Making, Thinking, Understanding

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Building art for Burning Man always seemed to be part of my yearly cycle. I love what I have been a part of creating in Black Rock City; I have grown up and cut my teeth building art out on that remarkable desert canvas. Over the last several years, though, I’ve found myself bringing more art to life out here, “beyond the fence.” Thanks to the efforts of so many, we can now cite several instances of Burning Man art in lots of cities around the world.

Zoa Crew Photo by Kim Sikora

At FLUX we have created 12 works of art in our 4 years of existence. This is something we are truly proud of. We’ve successfully made interactive art accessible to a wide audience, and we use this art as a platform to engage people in the core values we have cultivated as Burning Man artists. Our works have been experienced by people in Oakland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and now, San Francisco. Sometimes, we are so busy building we forget to take a moment to celebrate and share what we’re creating. In this case, we are celebrating our newest interactive sculpture, Carousel.

read the complete article on the Burning Man Blog by clicking here

Life at VW BusCamp

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BusCamp is made up lotsa folk including many veteran Burners who can make the trip every year. I soon met up with Bill and Merileu – a couple from Oregon that I met on my 2007 BurningMan Trip. They went out of their way both this year and 2007 to welcome me and it was very nice to see them again. I also caught up with Gary – who is the Bus Camp commissioner and always leads the yearly organization of the camp. BusCamp was already pretty well laid out by the first day and included a central area with a small bar lounge and a place to host BusZilla – a VW art car that was constructed by Bus Camper Heather and a dedicated crew of folks.



flickered momentarily…….

Along the beginning of the week – I got to meet more of the Buscamp folk as they arrived as well as more veterans that I managed to miss in 2007. A buscamp couple Paige and Kurt were married on Tuesday evening at BurningMan and the wedding party all rode in Walter – the world’s largest VW bus. Walter was HOT !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful night for a wedding and there was a fantastic sunset i tried to catch.

During the week I brought out the Dutch oven a couple of mornings to share with campmates. It was always interesting to get up in the morning to make cobbler and see BusCamp quietly asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several ( many?) folk at VW BusCamp have involved with “Hooping” – which as it implies – involves Hula Hoops. I really did not know much about Hooping – but I have a new respect for it now and what a great work out and dexterity activity it can be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course – an evening of watching folks use Hula Hoops that were on fire – certainly added to visual fascination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to catch a lot of great pics with the new Ricoh on long exposure.

 

More Fire Spinning images on Flicker here

 

Later that week – Joel, Ramona, Matt and I had some more fun with the camera and some glow sticks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More glowstick images on Flicker here

Other activities at BusCamp during the week included a Tye-Dye workshop hosted by Annie and Silkscreening with Joel and Heather. All fun and really brought out the folks at camp and beyond. Later in the week – the camp hosted a Red party potluck as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great camp and group of folks to hang with at Burning Man and the constant VW tech talk is all FREE!

More information on Walter the Worlds largest VW bus here

More information on VW Bus Camp here


More information on Buszilla here

Support Art

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Art is the core of Burning Man. No, not the whump-whump-whump-whump-whump-whump-whump-whump …no. Art is the core because without it it might as well be the Electric Daisy Festival. But then again, even EDC gets burner art at their event.

CharonIn recent years we have been blown away with pieces like Charon, Bliss Dance and so many more. Art by Queer Burners can’t be separated from the herd, but we can talk about it a little more as we honor our pink-tinted brothers and sisters of the playa.

This year there are more exciting projects and the fear that art was vanishing because of the ticket disaster might have been premature… or they fixed the issue. Either way let’s look ahead to some cool stuff.

A few pieces have made their way to the Gay Burners page on facebook and we anticipate greatness on the horizon. Exciting… but money is needed to make these things happen and even $10. can go somewhere.

Murmuration

Murmuration is an insanely cool interactive kinetic art piece for Burning Man 2012! We are a small group of L.A. Burners bringing art and fun to the Playa. Looking forward to bringing this insanely interactive kinetic art piece to the Playa 2012!

Issues on the Table

This one is the most personal project to date as it goes back and reaches deep into the very dysfunctional relationship I had with my father growing up. Looking at the graphic you can clearly see two sides of a dining table with one side melting into the other.

The Pier 2

Last year 25 great friends came together to build a 300 foot long third world pier in the middle of the Black Rock Desert for Burning Man. We all thought the idea was pretty cool but we were unsure of how well everyone else would receive it. Much to our surprise the people of Black Rock City seemed to adore The Pier and we were asked to bring it back!

Mayan Tricycle

I want to build a great big “hamster wheel” that people can run in that will roll inside an even larger wooden wheel all connected to an odometer to show the workings of the Mayan Calendars. It will stand 22’+ tall, have gears meshing with gears and the whole thing will burn down a week later.

Breaking Wave

The Breaking Wave sculpture wants you to be involved with it’s construction. We want random pieces of wood, specifically abandoned lumber that has drifted onto a west coast beach or coastal area. The Breaking Wave will be constructed from scratch on the Playa at Burning Man with drift lumber contributed from all  over the World.

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Support art going to Burning Man any way you can.

Why were these pieces chosen out of so many? Well, these are actively engaging our community and are reaching out to us.