all said and hung...

And That's a Wrap!

Opening Reception: June 16th - 6-8pm 

Heidelberg Project

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Show Statement

October 29^th 2011 I moved my life to a city of Soul that sang to mine so clearly.  Suddenly, I was hearing very explicit messages about my life and its purposes, as the Motor City was the keeper of these secrets…(Go figure!).  A few days into my first footings here, I remember coming to grips with the fact that I officially and honestly believed in something far greater than myself.  And through a sequence of events that I can only understand as acts of magic, I found myself residing at the Iron St. lofts, where 2,275 miles from where I grew up, I finally understood the concept of a Promise Land. 

Prior to my chance happenings upon this legendary land, I had a funny little hobby of photographing men in their bathtubs equipped with their most sacred belongings.  The project had been on a bit of a standstill until I suddenly found myself overwhelmingly surrounded by all of these righteously talented people.  The classic urban landscapes and architectural decay of Detroit is enough to keep a photographer excited and satisfied for a lifetime.  But it’s the people energy interacting with the age and wisdom of these industrial remnants that tell the story of our city and inspire me most.  Detroit is a city of beautiful souls.  And so it only made sense that I pick up Men in Tubs again… and sure enough, the testosterone of the D elevated this work beyond my wildest imaginings. 

Woven Muses is a visual ode to an awesomely funky haven for authentic, beautiful creators.  Situated on and energized by the flow of our city’s great waterway, there is a calm here that keeps us all imagining.  In its unique little pocket, the community on Iron St. is coexisting, co-creating, and working toward making big dreams come true.  I wanted the visions of our home to come from the eyes and souls beyond just mine, as it’s the collaborative perspective that makes this place so powerful.  So I distributed 6 disposable cameras to 6 artists in the building and here we have it: an interwoven tribute to a dynamic, supportive community with exponential potential for creative vision and growth. 

And so I ask us all to continue dreaming BIG, imagining out loud and putting into action:

What we can really do with all of this collective goodness.

Packard Plant: one hellofa sacred space.

If I ever happen to forget why I love this city so, I know just where to go to remember.  Luckily, it's just a hop, skip n' a jump! 

Here's what the Wika-wika-pedia tells us about it.....

The Packard Automotive Plant is a former automobile-manufacturing factory in Detroit, Michigan where luxury Packard cars were made by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana.

The 3,500,000-square-foot (325,000 m²), plant was designed by Albert Kahn and is located on over 40 acres (0.142 km²) of land on East Grand Boulevard. It included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit.^[1]

The Packard plant was opened in 1903 and at the time was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world with skilled craftsmen who practiced over eighty trades.^{[citation needed]} The factory closed in 1958, but the buildings remain standing as of 2012. The City of Detroit has pledged legal action to have it demolished or secured.^[2] Portions of the upper floors of several small sections in various buildings have been demolished and lay in ruins in the wake of several aborted attempts at full-scale demolition over the years. Owing to the reinforced concrete construction, almost all but those small sections remain structurally sound.

Since its abandonment, the plant has served as a haven for graffiti artists, urban explorers, paintballers and auto scrappers. Scavengers have extensively stripped the buildings of wiring and other building materials. A number of the outer buildings were in use by businesses as recently as 2007; however, in 2010, after renting space in the plant for over 52 years, the last tenant, Chemical Processing, left in favor of nearby suburban Madison Heights.^[3]