The Beginning

So...this project is like a quest for me. As we all should know, every quest has to have a beginning. The best logical place to start would be at the beginning of the work for this project. The moving of the Lumina from Hannawa Falls NY to The Power Arts Center at William Paterson University in New Jersey. So I present to you without any waste of time, a chronicling of that particular adventure.

Friday, January 30, 2009

7:00 am

I woke up fresh from three hours of sleep, no time for coffee. Adam showed up and we left. Dunkin' donuts…coffee a necessity after only ten minutes. A quick gas up for the red 2005 Silverado that would be bearing the brunt of the work on this venture and we were on our way.

The open road before us we cruised to the north-way. After a few hours we needed food, and went to subway. Could it have been fate that there was a U-haul store right next door? We stopped in to see if the wiring harness I had bought would work for the truck….sadly it would not. The man sold us the correct harness and lent us his wire tester so we could hook it up. We got it hooked up, returned the tester and got back on the road…subway subs in the cab to fill us up.

More driving…up to Warrensburg and we got off the interstate onto the mountain roads that would lead us to Hannawa Falls, the current resting place of our final cargo…a 1990 Chevrolet Lumina. Some text messages from a friend and I was distracted from the route we were taking…we missed the turn. A friendly man brushing snow off a roof gave us great directions to long lake where we could pick up 30 north…totally sweet. Picking up the correct route and we continued the sojourn. Winding roads covered in snow before us, we took it slow. Somewhere between Blue Mountain Lake and Tupper Lake our world was drowned in white. Snow so intense that we could see but a few feet….slow going for sure. We kept on moving and before long we had passed through Tupper, turned on to 56 and were at the turn of death. They sucked all the life out of that turn a couple years ago when the road washed out and they had to repair it. These days the danger of the turn is much less than it used to be.

Fifteen minutes more and we arrived at my parents house just in time for me to relieve my bowels…a few minutes more and I might not have made it. We unload the art from Adam's truck bed and hit the road again. This time to Ogdensburg, almost 45 minutes away, to U-Haul for the tow dolly. we got there and Adam helped them pull it out of a snow bank while I filled out the paperwork and paid. All the formalities taken care of, I went out back to do what I could to help…there wasn’t much. The U-Haul guy was hooking up the wires with electrical tape. We hooked up the harness and the brake lights didn’t work. We fixed the wires, and then they worked…we were cleared and we left to go back and get the Lumina. Unfortunately, we had missed the wires for the running lights, an oversight that would cost us time later on.

We raced across the north country back to Hannawa Falls just in time for me to relieve my bowels once again. With that out of the way, it was time to Jump the Lumina. we tried with Adam's Silverado.......we failed. It seemed like the power was draining off the truck faster than the Lumina could use it to kick over the engine. We decided to try to use my mom's rental car to Jump it.....once again it wouldn't start...at this point we realized that we were screwed and we gave up on jumping the car....it was getting dark and we needed that car on the dolly.

At this point we decided we would have to get the car into position by pulling and pushing it with the truck. This was moderately successful. The car moved slowly but we got it where it needed to be...we positioned the dolly in front of the Lumina and tried to pull it onto the dolly with Adam's come-a-long. At first it seemed like it was going to work, but then when the car started to roll onto the dolly, the dolly moved dramatically. We needed to put the dolly on Adam's hitch and use that to stop the dolly from moving, then pull the car up on the dolly with the come-a-long.

So we set ourselves to that task...we got the dolly hooked up and in as good a position as we could. it was working well until we ran out of cable for the come-a-long. We had to somehow make the car travel the distance faster...we decided that we would shorten the chain attaching the come along to the tree so as to make the car move further with our limited cable length. It worked. We pulled car up onto the dolly. Unfortunately, we didn't see that it was in bad position because we were focused on the come along. at this point we had pulled the car onto the tow dolly but it was too far to one side and one tire was 3/4 off of the actual dolly, mostly floating on air.

What were we to do? After a few ideas, we decided to try and just pull the truck out anyway and use the come along to another tree to pull it sideways onto the dolly. As we started to try it, we immediately realized it was not going to work. We had no idea what to do and things were beginning to look gloomy. Just then the headlights of my father's truck pulled into the driveway and my heart soared. My father was privy to more years of experience than Adam and I put together. He would save the day...and he did. He knew what to do right a way and gave us instructions. Within fifteen minutes (as if by magic) the car was on the dolly in proper position and secure.

We celebrated with my mother's homemade broccoli cheddar soup and eggplant parmesan. It was getting late however and we had a lot of driving ahead of us that night. More accurately, Adam had a lot of driving ahead of him that night, he drove the whole trip.

We got gas in Potsdam and started the trip back. We took Rt. 11 to Plattsburgh this time and then I-87n south the rest of the way to Jersey. The roads are better going that way and it was winter. We were just getting into Chatteaugay when we got pulled over. It scared us shit less. As it turns out the State Trooper was actually a cool guy and he gave us a fix it ticket not cause he wanted to be a jerk, but because we were literally creating a hazardous situation. It could have been really bad. This took at least an hour because of a problem with the officer's computer...precious time lost.

So we continued that drive once we were given our ticket and made it to 87 south. Somewhere around this time I realize that i have lost my cell phone. I used Adam's to phone my parents and ask them to look for it...turns out it fell out of my pocket in the drive way, but at least i knew where it was. I had a frantic few minutes there before i knew what had happened.

So...from this point it was just a 6 hour drive back to New Jersey. We made it back at around 4am with nothing on our minds but sleep. nearly the last two hours of the drive were spent in silence because we were so tired.

we slept the pain of the trip off content in our minds that the worst of it was over. We were so tired we didn't even take the car to Power arts right away. We slept at my place for a good six hours. It was one of the deepest best sleeps of my life. All that was left to do was drop off the car, get the fix-it ticket signed and drop off the tow dolly at a U-Haul location.

Waking around 10 am, we drank coffee. Strong coffee. After the Joe we finished the last leg of our tow. Pulled into Power Arts, dropped off the car without a problem and went to the U-Haul location. The Fix-it ticket said that either an officer of the law or a mechanic or the U-Haul people could sign off for it. The man behind the counter refused to sign the ticket because he had never seen one. We hated him at the time, but he was just trying to cover his own ass.

So we had them hook the dolly back up and we took it with us, seeking to fix it ourselves and get a police officer to sign off on it. Before that though we had to eat, we were both quite hungry as we hadn't eaten much on our journey. After eggs, toast and more coffee, we raced back to Power Arts and fixed the wiring in a jiffy. The sheriff's department was right next door so we went to them for a signature. They turned us away, pointing us in the direction of the WPUNJ police. So we drove to them. They turned us away as well. We were lucky enough that a man gave us directions to the Suffern NY police department. Another drive and we were there...they gave us no trouble. Apparently Fix-it Tickets are a NY thing, not a NJ thing.

All that was left was to drop off the Tow Dolly at a U-Haul and we would be done. We found the closest one to Suffern and decided to take it there. Nearly an hour later we were finished...the dolly was returned, the Lumina was at Power Arts and there was nothing left to be done. Adam went his way and I went home. I got there around 2 pm on Saturday.

Once I had the Lumina in New Jersey I sort of thought that the hard part was over. This turned out not to be the case. The following Monday when I arrived at the Power Arts Facility for work, the car was gone.

Having experienced the disappearance of a car before, I knew that there could only be one answer...it had been towed. It made perfect sense considering that the car was not registered and not insured and there were no plates on the car.

So I called University Police and they had indeed towed my vehicle. I figured that like any other time i could just pay to get it out...but the car didn't run. I called the towing company to have them tow it back and low and behold another problem...the car was not insured...they would not tow it because it was a liability.

David Horton saved my butt that day. He called University Police and got them to drop the charges....he wrote a memo to them so that it wouldn't happen again...and he even called Triple A and had them connect me with a tow truck company who was bonded (whatever that means) who would tow the car back up to Power Arts. Thank you 'Uncle' David.

Once everything was said and done, I only had to pay $100 to the bonded tow truck driver and the car was returned.

I.E ANIMUL

I.E ANIMUL

This is my MFA Thesis Project.

To to articulate my process to you I have created this blog.

Before reading of my process, it would do one good to know a little about the project conceptualization. The project entails the use of a 1990 Chevrolet Lumina 3.1 four door sedan. I am taking this as a material and conceptual starting point for the project. I try to interpret this object as a primal (uncivilized) man. This leads to my conception of it as a beast. The beast is to be killed, gutted and made use of.

So for my project I will...Kill the car, gut it, rip out its heart (engine) and burn it to appease the car gods, i will butcher the car and make use of it as material for creating a series of ritual, luxary and survival objects.

Once I figure out how to post pictures, I will. Many posts regarding the process of the project up to now will come soon.