Carving Away

When I started going to counseling, my therapist told me that I live like a marble sculpture, which means that I let everyone take a piece out of me and shape me into the person they want me to be. I really want to create a performance work about this feeling because it really resonated with the way people make me feel.

A Woman in Industry

In 2014, I became aware that I entered a Man’s World; the world of industrial craft. 

A major moment that introduced me to the challenges I was about to embark on was delicately and eloquently commenced by my undergraduate Sculpture professor, Jessica Teckemeyer. For both our first woodworking and metalworking projects, she intentionally created field trip experiences for gathering materials from our local supply stores. Before our trips, she educated us on characteristics of materials to look for, common questions about measurements, and how to navigate the warehouses. Looking back, I know this was to help empower young women to feel confident navigating masculine environments. This is a prime example of a powerful and educated woman supporting emerging women in industry to feel safe and supported in spaces that question the power and ability that feminine bodies have in industrial spaces. 

8 years later, I am the first female to work my job position. I run a collegiate maker space in Portland, Oregon, equipped with a 6,000 sqft woodshop, metal shop, foundry, digital fabrication lab, and more. My power, education, and qualifications are frequently undermined by the simple fact that I am female. I have a love/hate relationship with having to address that I am in charge, when folks assume the masculine folks are higher than me. I have received empowering comments like “Young women in our society need to see women like you who are succeeding in a highly masculine industry.” I am incredibly proud and grateful to be a female representative that now works to change the narrative and impact the environments many women feel insecure in. 

So I guess the intention of this writing is to share the experiences, thoughts, growth, and advice I’ve learned while navigating this spectrum and thinking through a series of projects I am interested in pursuing in this conversation. 

Thoughts about my uncle Carl:

My Great Uncle, Carl Boul, was an avid collector throughout his life. He was autistic and lived alone for the greater section of his life. As a young girl, growing up in a small midwest town, I was always around my extended family. Carl’s house was always one of my favorite places to go; I always found something new in his collection.

He lived in a 4 bedroom, 1.5 bath, double-story house on a double lot. A lot of house for one guy, but every sq ft of that house had a clearly curated purpose. You walked in through the back screen door into a small deck off the kitchen. The kitchen was yellow, with all that vinyl and metal accessories everywhere.

From the kitchen you could enter the ‘dining room,’ head to the basement, or continue through the hallway to the front door. The hallway was short, but it had a couple tables, with a phone there by the edge of the stairs.

The dining room had a table, but I am pretty sure it was filled with things. I can’t remember what, but there was always something to look at. There was a bookshelf full of photo albums – many of the photos taken and labeled by Carl. There was a work out bike there too. off the dining room was the living room, but I remember it being his bedroom for a lot of my life. I vaguely remember it as an actual living room. I remember the ceiling was interesting – can’t remember what it was – did he have things hanging?

Taking a right out of the living room, you’d pass the front door to a screened in porch. To the right of the door, at the bottom of the steps was the main wall for the clock collection – I remember counting 50 clocks once. The steps led to you the steps to upstairs. At the top was a little closet, and a long hallway with 2 rooms on each side and the bathroom at the end of the hall.

One of these rooms were dedicated to small cars, another was dedicated to larger cars, with posters all of the walls.

Another room was dedicated to disney-like collectables - like mickey mouse things, clowns, puzzles, and who knows what. Does this sound like this house was a mess? It wasn’t. Everything had it’s place. As a great-uncle to a bunch of kids, he would always fix things up after we left.

Carl passed away nearly ten years ago now. I don’t have many things of his. A lot was sold at a garage sale and donated. The house itself was sold following his death. The last time I was there I was 14 years old.

I am gonna end it here for right now. But I would like to recreate Carl’s home in collaboration with my family. We have all sorts of pictures he has taken, but nothing to symbolize or memorialize the memories of him and the impactful collection he had. All of my cousins remember the layout clearly too. I’d like to try to tell a story of Carl’s house, through my families recollections.

My Great-Grandmother’s Grottos

My Great-Grandmother, Madeline Boul - mother to my Grandmother Betty, Uncle Carl, and Uncle Frank raised her children in Dubuque, Iowa – in the house I mentioned above in Carl’s story.

Madeline was an artist, building a grotto collection in her backyard. They were massive, and surrounded the entire house. Made out of concrete, gems, shells, found objects, etc. I never met Madeline; she died when my Mother, Heidi, was 18 years old. I know I get a lot of my personality, artistic interest, and interest in collections, sculpture, and recycled materials from her.

When Uncle Carl passed away, the house was sold immediately, with the grottos. I was 14 years old at this time, so I didn’t really get it then. Talking to my mom now, I know a lot of my family was and is upset the house isn’t still in our family. Just like that, they weren’t ours anymore.

Luckily… luckily… luckily…. the people that bought the house saw the value in the grottos. They contacted the Kohler Foundation to see if they’d take them. They did!

“In 2010 Chicago designer and collector Paul Young told me of this yard of “grotto” sculptures in Dubuque, and sent a few images. I wasn’t able to travel to Dubuque at the time and in the summer of 2011 my colleague Jim Zanzi visited the yard at 1501 Garfield and gathered preliminary information about Madeline Buol. (Scans of Buol’s writings and diagrams, and a few vintage photos were later provided by Buol’s granddaughter.) Zanzi was told that the property had recently been purchased and the sculptures were slated for demolition. The new owners didn’t want them and had received an offer from someone who would haul them away and use them for fill. The Dubuque Preservation Commission and Iowa State Historic Preservation Office were alerted, but were unable to act to save the sculptures. In an 11th hour rescue, Kohler Foundation, Inc. purchased all the sculptures and moved them to Kohler, WI, where they were stabilized and conserved.

The collection was removed from the site at the end of 2011 in rain and snow. A difficult task under good conditions, the weather made this a challenge. The pieces were moved by staff to the Kohler Foundation work space for extensive conservation treatment over the spring and summer.”

Absolutely incredible. I have so many memories playing I-spy in her grottos. Making up stories that were happening in her scenes. She wrote a book, that I have, that the Kohler Foundation references in their preservation.

I would love to create a project to honor this experience and the legacy the grottos have on our family, history of grotto sculptures, and the legacy of a female artist working during her years in Dubuque, Iowa.

Value Museum

I want to create a museum, institution, or a project of some kind that showcases the different kinds of value people place to things within their life. Museums traditionally hold on to objects that hold either financial or capital value; I want to create a project that collects people’s most valuable objects and the stories about why.

The other day I went to someone’s house that I didn’t know. I walked in and saw a collection of handmade masks displayed on the wall above their kitchen. I asked them to share the origins, purpose, and history of their collection. This is something I love to do. What do you collect? Why? I’d love to create a project that documents the collections people create in their homes.