- Greetings, welcome to Lunarburn Studios.
My name is Eric Stephenson, and today,
well welcome to my first vlog.
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So my sculpture, Emergence number 11,
which has been out and about across the
countryside for the last 15 years or so,
came back into my shop last fall.
So I started getting it
ready to get back out there
and submitting it to a number of shows.
Went through a weird string of rejections,
probably got rejected from
10 shows or so this spring,
but ultimately did get it into a
show out in Ohio near Cincinnati
at the Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park.
And so it has been out and
about for the last five years.
And so it's been a little
battered by the weather,
Chicago winters and hot sun
and UV light and whatnot.
So it does have need some love, basically.
So that's what I need to do.
I'm going to search, seek out the
the bits of rust, sand those areas down,
re-prime them and give the overall ,
give the sculpture an
overall fresh coat of paint,
flat black, and then
ultimately also make sure that
the mechanics aspects of
it are all ready to go
so it's a easy, smooth install.
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One of the challenges with with
public art is the overall maintenance.
This was one of my first big
pieces and I did it steel
painted as a finish and it
holds up reasonably well
for a year or two but every
time it comes back to the shop.
it needs some love and care,
and a little bit of cleanup
before it's ready to go back out the door.
Because of this,
there's maintenance issues,
So what I did is why I pretty
much quickly started building
my sculptures in stainless steel.
Just they hold up a lot better,
they actually pick up the
lighting a lot better,
ambient light, the painted
sculptures found that,
they they need to be lit with
specific lighting sources
to really get that kind
of luminance to them.
Stainless sculptures
however, they pick up every
little bit of light from,
street lights, house lights, passing cars,
and it reflects off the
surface and so it's almost
kinda gives the sculptures
almost a jewel like quality.
And that's why I lean towards,
stainless for all my
current outdoor sculptures.`
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Yeah, looking forward to a
smooth drive across Ohio.
Be nice to get out of the
city and relax a little bit.
It'll be about a five
hour drive to Cincinnati.
And it should be smooth sailing,
Ready for a drive, I've done it before
not expecting any problems,
although I probably just jinxed myself.
Well, I guess we're gonna try
to install some sculptures today.
Just getting started, didn't
sleep particularly well
or at least woke up an hour earlier than
I was hoping to but it is what it is.
We're heading now to Cincinnati,
just north of Cincinnati
Pyramid Hill, Sculpture Park and Museum.
And they're having a
biannual sculpture show and they selected
9 new sculptures for to
be installed this year.
I'm one of them, so that's super exciting.
Anyway, so I'm going to
hopefully share today
with you all and we'll see
how the how the day goes.
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(heavy rain)
It's coming down.
- So we're about an hour
away from Cincinnati Ohio.
- Yup yup.
(heavy rain)
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(metal hitting)
So let's see here, so I'm here at
the Pyramid Hills Sculpture Park.
We've had quite a day trying to get here.
Starting off with, wrong turns
getting in out of the city.
We had a high speed blow out just around
Lafayette, Indiana, going 75, blew a tire.
Shout out to the Indiana State Troopers,
that came out and helped and
escorted me off the highway.
They were actually super
friendly, super helpful.
So that was a pleasant surprise.
But yeah, but other than a bunch
of thunderstorms and weather.
We finally actually made it here,
All be it a couple hours late.
We did get the sculpture set up
and it looks great, this
is a beautiful park,
I'm looking forward to coming back here
and really kinda checking it out.
But the since we showed up late
we're gonna have to get
off site here shortly.
So we're just touching up a
little bit of paint and whatnot.
So let me swing it around here.
So we got Gwen here my assistant,
she's happily painting for me.
So yeah, I'm pleased with the placement,
should get some good visibility
as the spectators come in.
And there's quite a few other
sculptures around the site.
It's my understanding
that it is a 350 acre site
and probably about in about
80 sculptures on the premises.
This show that I'm part of is a 9 piece
temporary installation
for until December 2021.
It's part of the Mid South
sculpture conference.
It'll be happening at that time.
That conference is supposed
to happen this summer,
but obviously with all the COVID stuff,
it's gotten postponed,
but it will be going on
like I said that following fall of 2021
and the sculpture will be up till then.
So yeah, I think it's gonna work out well
it's gonna get some extra visitation
because of the duration of the show
instead of being one year
be about a year and a half.
And so, oh yeah, one
thing that's been kinda
a drag today though, is just I scored the,
Mavic air 2 pro, I mean the Mavic air 2.
And I've only had a
chance to fly it indoors.
I mean, I work in a large
warehouse, as you guys know
and have access to other spaces.
So I have a good volume of space
to fly these things around.
But I haven't actually had
a chance to play with it
outside other than popping it straight up.
So, I was really looking forward to,
flying it around and
getting some shots and
kinda showing that off to you guys today.
But the challenge has been
that apparently I'm just
inside of a little mini
airport just a mile or so away.
And I didn't think ahead
enough to get pre authorization
so and since I'm new to droning,
I'm not entirely sure how to do that.
I know that's a thing
and I could know I know
that I can get authorized
without with just a phone call.
But I'm not set up to do
that and certainly not
in the next 10 minutes before
I need to be off site so.
So unfortunately the the
drone actions not gonna have
to happen, are not gonna happen right now.
Maybe later this summer
when I drive back from
from Chicago to Pennsylvania
to my folks place.
I'll make a pit stop here and
try to get some shots then
but so yeah, so but it does feel good.
It's been raining like cats
and dogs, the whole way here.
And so just for installation
here, it's kinda opened up.
And it's become quite a nice
day,at least for a few minutes.
And so, just kinda showing the park here,
looks like they have
the facilities for some outdoor events.
The sun's kind of opened
up, a little bit of blue sky
and everything but we're gonna touch up
a little bit of paint here and
then get back on the road
and bogie back to Chicago.
So quick little trip, and but yeah,
appreciate you guys joining me.
So as always, until the next
video. Be creative and be safe.
