Working with Scott Massey:

-cut and mounted 120 exposed 35mm film rolls onto projector slides

-helped Scott with his submission for the CAG auction:

-pre-scrubbed any flaws or debris on the “asteroids”

-scrubbed and polished “asteroids” through a very specific process: soaked “asteroids” in coke, rinsed in distilled water, polished with brass polish

with a specific scrubber, air dried with a hair dryer, sealed “asteroids” with a clear coat spray, let them dry again

-documented the process as well as the meteorites in their finished state

-sanded meteorite boxes to have a “rough” stone cut edge

-painted sealant and blue adhesive inside of the boxes and then blasted flocking into them with a flocking cannon

-added Scott’s artist labels to the bottom of the wooden boxes

-helped Scott with mini tasks on the side when asked

-learned about Scott’s site work

-learned about how Scott integrated himself into the Vancouver arts community, his experience of studying at Emily Carr, and his experiences with the different galleries that he’s worked with (example, Catriona)

-learned about Scott’s experiences with artist residencies and how to apply

-learned about Scott’s artistic studies and practices and how they integrate themselves into his work

-learned about federal vs provincial grants

I had initially expected to have more hands on experience with Scott’s other projects or even with some photography aspects, but surprisingly, the CAG auction project took many hours during this semester (over 20 hours). This project was so big that it required some of the CAG volunteers to help Scott alongside Mack and myself. This is because every part of the process to creating these editions was incredibly detailed oriented and had to be approved by Scott. For example, the boxes had to be sanded in a specific way to have a uniform look with the other boxes. However, there were mini set-backs when sanding down these boxes, such as the lids not fitting well or sanding too much by accident and burning a hole right through the box. These are the kinds of details that we had to be very delicate with.

Our schedules were constantly in flux and were always dependent on Scott’s and my schedules. There were many times where Scott would have to cancel a meet up with me because he was delayed with a shoot with a client or was in the middle of another project that was not located at his studio. I’ve also been working 3 jobs this term, and I would have to meet up with Scott at very specific times of the day just so that I could delegate my time towards my job after. If I had more time to work with Scott, I’m sure I would have been given the opportunity to work on more projects with him.

I have learned about Scott’s life as an artist and how he maintains his artist’s career by owning his own site photography business. He’s explained that most artists need to maintain a day job in order to manage their artistic practices on the side. He’s also given me an honest insight on the current happenings in the Vancouver art scene, specifically the conflicts between artist-run galleries and established galleries such as public owned/commercial. He has explained that many artist-run galleries have been showing more well-know/established artists in their galleries for many reasons, some of them to just increase their publicity or to increase the value of an exhibition. The problem with this is that it begins to exclude emerging Vancouver artists, especially those who had just graduated post-secondary. It creates a corrupt hierarchy/an exclusive community that only perpetuates and encourages other established artists while making the exhibition process much harder for emerging artists that are trying to establish themselves in the community as well.

Skills:

I find that it is difficult to explain the skills that I have gathered from this experience as they were learned through many mini tasks. They were not so much administrative as they were hands-on. Here are some of the skills I learned when helping Scott with his projects:

-I learned to mount film properly onto slides

-Learned what “copystand” work is and how to photograph and document work with a light box and a camera mount (to shoot down on flat 3D work)

-Learned to use flocking

-Learned how to sand properly (Scott used to make wooden furniture previously)

-Learned about Artist Proposals and “artist fees”

The main component that was not completed was the re-making and documenting of Scott’s piece “The sun was born in darkness, to shine for a time, only to return to darkness” because Scott has decided to fine tune every detail of this piece before running it through. He has promised Mack and I that he will invite us to the run-through in the new year and make a mini show out of it in his studio. This was the project that I mounted the film on the slides for and I’m anticipating its performance. There were many other projects that were not touched on according to our project outline given the time constraints as well as the effort that had gone into the CAG auction.

I have a better understanding of Scott’s experience of being an artist in Vancouver and the types of challenges to expect if I continue on a similar route. I’ve gotten first-hand experience into the hard detail-oriented work that goes into the production of Scott’s art, especially a mass production of art for an auction. Scott has encouraged that an artist’s residency is an absolute must to add on to the list of experiences. He has been to the Banff residency as well as one in Italy this past summer. He has also explained the challenges of being an artist and wanting to pursue these events while being a full-time dad and owning a business – it’s not easy. These lessons were eye-opening as well as inspiring and I hope to go on a residency as well one day.

Partnership with Scott Massey: Professional Flocking Flocker

Partnership with Vancouver Artist Scott Massey, Project Assistant, September 2016-Present

-Demonstrated multi-tasking skills, attention to detail, and assistance with making critical decisions with Scott’s work.

-Assisted Scott with his submission for the 2016 CAG Auction: “The Party Crashers” including 250 editions

-Mounted 120 film slides for the re-run of his piece “The sun was born in darkness, to shine for a time, only to return to darkness”

 

Setup:

Soaking brass editions in coke to remove oxidation:

Brass polish vs no polish (deciding which polished look to go for – Scott when for the “matte” brass polish look)

Chloe, Scott’s dog

Finished editions:

5 different types of “asteroids”

Demonstration on how to sand specific angles onto boxes. Very therapeutic.

The result:

This isn’t even all of them.

Blue suede flocking – a dust-like substance that is thrown into a mini cannon and then fired into these boxes coated with blue adhesive. It’s actually quite fun.