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Illumibrate Preview / Ukraine Benefit

Usually Illumibrate is held every March at JUMP Boise. Sadly, the event got canceled this year due to the Omicron Covid-19 variant was surging. And a shame too, as I had been leading a team of artists and volunteers in building several pieces of sea-themed black light-activated art.

But when the Omicron wave abated, the powers-that-be at JUMP looked around for an excuse to show everything they had been working on. The result: a partnership with a local church to raise funds to benefit those affected by war in Ukraine. It culminated in a two-night event featuring live music. The art was arranged in a main centerpiece with nine sub-installations around the room.

Good news: Illumibrate will be back for 2023, and this work will be on display!

More info –
JUMP Boise: https://jumpboise.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JBDaniels-Art-103699161740609
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbdanielsart/

Walk-around of the centerpiece
Another view of the centerpiece 12′ x 8′
Tyler showed up at one of the meetups, and before long she was hooked! She did a great job painting up this moray eel.
Manta rays
Local artist Betsy Hinze provided this clam shell
Detail of the coral. A local school helped come up with all the individual pieces.
Angelfish and coral
Tunas during setup

The fish were all made out of reclaimed cardboard. For the midsized ones (angelfish, manta rays, tuna), I handmade the prototypes, and then Jesse at the JUMP Maker Studio digitized the pieces and used a laser cutter to cut them out. Volunteers assembled them with hot glue and packing tape.

The larger fish (hammerhead sharks, moray eel) were custom-built one-offs. Each one was over 6 feet long. Details on the fabrication of one of the sharks:

Ready for paint

The large coral centerpiece was made from recycled styrofoam blocks that JUMP had somehow scored for dirt cheap. They were cemented together with gap-filling insulation foam and then carved back. We tried several approaches for the carving, including hot wire/hot knife (toxic odors) and an angle grinder with wire brush wheel (carved fast but made a horrific mess). But in the end, it was a trusty bread knife that did most of the work.

Made in three pieces so we could fit it through the doors
Thumbs up!

MegaDoge

This year, JUMP wanted something big for Illumibrate. The result: MegaDog! At over 20 feet tall, it’s far and away the largest project I’ve attempted.

The structure is framed with steel conduit, followed by steel wire and chicken wire netting to flesh out the shape. The skin is plastic sheeting taped together with packing tape, then spray painted. Each leg has a 26 gallon water tank to help stabilize the structure against wind.

The original frame did not come together well, and had to be torn down and rebuilt to a new design. The skin did not hold up well, with the spray paint flaking off almost immediately. Originally there were plans for a different, more expensive and professional skin, but with time a limiting factor we had to go cheap and fast. Artistically I’m not crazy with the results. The teeth came out too angry, the proportions aren’t quite right, and changes to the frame made it less clear that he’s supposed to be curved around chasing his tail. A well, next time better prototyping will be needed. The structure proved to be very stable though, surviving wind gusts up to 60mph only hours after it went up.

MegaDoge as background for Japanese drumming
Initial leg framing
Head framing

Whale Shark on Fire

The local community center Xanadu is holding an “Art on Fire” fundraiser later this month. Art will be auctioned off, and whatever doesn’t sell will go up in flames. I didn’t have anything suitable on hand (unless the event hosts like the smell of burning plastic), but that’s remedied easily enough with a new project. 100% cardboard, which ought to burn up nicely. Link to the event: https://ibaartauction.afrogs.org/?fbclid=IwAR3toZulcbsjhhVuvwMq5Q7FnsSQbEvSJ-enaGa_–NRF7cf5PcSW7KARC4#/index

Had much more fun with this project than I thought I would. In total it took about 1 month to build during spare time, which is far shorter than the 4-9 months it took for each of the previous large paper fish projects. And the results came out better than expected. Might have to do more work with cardboard.

It’s 6ft (2m) long. Hot glue was used to hold the cardboard together, with paper packing tape to smooth out and define the surface.

Basic framing
Layering cardboard “skin”. This was the most time consuming part as each piece had to be custom fit.
Wooden ball for the eye. Strips of cardboard for eyelids taped down for smooth shape. Gills cut out of main skin, pulled out, and taped into position.
First paint job done with spray paint. Later brushwork used to make the pattern.

Giraffe Family

Illuminated giraffe family made for JUMP’s Illumibrate festival, March 6, 2020, Boise, Idaho. They are life size, reaching up to 16 feet. They were lit from the inside using LED lights sequenced to be controlled by a digital theremin that members of the audience could operate. Surrounding them were several foam trees fabricated by JUMP and also lighted and controlled by the theremin.

This was a collaboration with the JUMP team and several other volunteers. Special thanks to JUMP team members Maggie Soderberg (administration, approval, financing), Jesse Cordtz (coordination, technical support), Amanda Fitch (head sculpture), and Mark Freckleton (wiring). Also a big thanks to Ross Butler and his team for lighting, sequencing, programming, etc.

This project was a rush with little more than 2 months from conception to completion. I never liked how spindly the legs on the big giraffes came out, but with the time constraints and the fact that most of the body work had to be completed before it could be lifted up onto the legs, this was the best that could be managed. I’m working with the JUMP staff to rebuild the legs (particularly the thigh areas) to give them more bulk, as well as redesigning the knees, and adding in feet, which we didn’t have time for.

Though more time would’ve been appreciated, we were lucky: if the event was a week or two later, it likely would’ve been shut down by the growing pandemic.

My girlfriend’s family came by for a look-see
Quick little video
Ah yes, those spindly legs! In foreground are the controls for the lights shaped as flowers. The closest one could be spun to cycle the color patterns, while the others had lasers pointed at the ceiling as the digital theremin. Putting a hand above them to break the beams would change light intensity, colors, etc.
Night before the event. Almost ready! Problems with the electronics dogged us in the final 24 hours leading up to it – poor Ross was up deep into the night working on it. But he got it!
Small giraffe getting skinned. LED lights wrapped around the frame are clearly visible. The skin consisted of chicken wire for shape, followed by a layer of bubble wrap and two layers of quilt batting. These layers helped diffuse the light coming through for even illumination without any shadowing from the frame showing through.
Big thanks to Amanda! She brought these guys to life with her detailed work on the heads.
Working on the big ones. Here you can see the layers. Zip ties were used to make the neck fringe.
Basic framing for the little guy. Chicken wire was later added to give more shape. In the background is seen a small prototype for the Illumicone – another Ross Butler creation. At the event he also had the full size version up and running. It must’ve been around 30 feet in diameter.

Trying Out Painting

I started playing around with acrylics last year. Found I could do well enough so long as there’s a reference photo to follow. Painting something from scratch? Not so easy. Here’s a few paintings I sent off to family members for Christmas.

Could not get a smooth straight line for those whiskers!