Return From Paradise

It was great to get away for a week for some decompressing. Here is one of the sand sculptures I made while I was recuperating. Not too complicated but a vigorous workout to be for sure.

After a long day of traveling yesterday I finally got back to work today on the sculpture I am making for Axa Art at Art Chicago. Brian Shannon from Axa Art has been hard at work getting the word out to the press about it. Here is a link to the story NBC Chicago ran today on their website.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/topics/?topic=Jason+Hackenwerth

Tomorrow CNN will be filming me working and will do a short interview. I hear it will air a few times beginning on Saturday morning but I will update when I know for sure.

Working at the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington Vermont was great. Putting this show together has taken up pretty much all of my time for the last few months. In the morning I will leave for Puerto Rico and some much needed rest.
After my trip I will fly back to New York so I can pack some suits and my balloons for Art Chicago. There will be just enough time between my 1 pm arrival in NY and my 6 pm departure to Chicago. It's an amazing world when we can be on a tropical beach in the morning then fly to New York to grab a few things and then whisk off to Chicago.
What a great life. I'm so lucky.

It's up and it's lit. The show is looking great! I can hardly wait to get better pics.
Ive been working 8 to 8 or later all week at the Firehouse gallery in Burlington and this is what I have been making. The little one on the corner is a Megamite and will be played on opening night. The big pink bad ass is Isa.

Here they are. The sculptures that represent my blood, sweat, and toil of the last couple months. At first glance they look like something you might expect to see at a children's book store but like my balloon sculpture, they transcend their innocent child's toy appearances quickly. I've always considered my balloon sculpture to be surrealism and these new works in wood fall right in line. With their phallic and feminine attributes they communicate in much the same way my balloon works do.
I'm happy with how they turned out and looking forward to seeing them installed in the gallery. I leave at six in the morning for Vermont and I hope to have some install shots on here in a few days.
I'd like to talk more about this work but need to get some rest. More soon.

Gilgamesh

Here are some shots of my sketch for one of the sculptures I have proposed to The New Children's Museum in San Diego. At the top is Ollie getting painted.

The past week has been highly productive. TCoA is finished! Here are some nice shots of the drawings for Oarie and Ollie. The will be painted today and tomorrow. This is a pic of Oarie getting primed.
August has been a great help in the studio the last two months. He took these drawing photos and has done much of the sanding and tracing of parts for this project.
Thanks August.

Also last week Anna Ortt changed out my old website for a much better new one. She did pretty much all the research and work putting the new site together, not to mention cleaning up my bio and press info. Anna, your awesome. Thank you.
www.jasonhackenwerth.com