THIS is how many elephants it takes to make a pile!

Today I crept into the gallery at the Tacoma Art Museum where a new exhibition is being installed by the talented TAM staff: it is called The Secret Language of Animals and will open this Saturday - January 23rd, 2010. I couldn't wait till it was all completed.
THERE!, said James, is your pile of elephants - what do you think? Not 'my' pile of elephants - but 'our' pile of elephants, I corrected, and they look spectacular!, I said delightedly.
What a thrill to see something you have participated in creating sitting there in a large gallery space. A lot of "installation" art goes right over my head; it leaves me feeling a bit stupid that I don't "get it". I may enjoy looking at it but not really have a clue what the artist is or was trying to say. And here again I don't really know what Jeffry Mitchell is or was trying to say with this pile of elephants installation, but here for some reason it doesn't matter. This grouping makes me smile and the irony of a "pile of elephants" fitting in a museum gallery is pretty intriguing and amusing to me. The remainder of the show looks pretty wonderful too, I can't wait to see it all completed.

THIS! is a pile of elephants

How many elephants does it take to make a "pile?"
In the first photo, of this posting, you can see a pile of stitched, but not yet stuffed elephants, and the weary pattern maker and stitcher. The delighted "Elephant Queen" can be seen with a completed, stuffed friend in the middle image and the third image shows most of the 57 elephants that we created last week. We had Tacoma Art Musuem (TAM) volunteers, some neighbors of mine and some students from Tacoma School of the Arts (TSOTA) to help. Oh and the occasional dabbling staff member who just "had to have a hand in this"!!! James Porter, the senior preparator for TAM, was our support person extraordinaire.
Beginning January 23rd a new exhibition will open at TAM; it is called The Secret Life of Animals.
Jeffry Mitchell is the Seattle artist who created the idea and exhibited a slightly different version of the elephants as an installation at the Seattle Art Museum in 1990. He gave the go ahead, located a couple of the remaining elephants from which we made patterns and the new elephant pile was born. I haven't had the opportunity to ask Jeffry about the reasoning/inspiration/idea behind the work yet: stay tuned. Rock Hushka, Head Curator, has wanted to replicate this installation at TAM for many years. He is to get his wish as part of this new exhibition. It promises to be a very fun exhibition ... do come and see it all. Leroy our pup will greet you, and among the many interesting pieces of art in many different media the elephant pile awaits you! May be the only time my "work" is exhibited in an Art Museum. Look forward to seeing you there.