I received notification today that my bionic hydroponics were accepted for the 2010 Idaho Triennial..! This year’s triennial was adjudicated by Beth Sellars, who is the curator for Seattle’s Suyama Space, and also manages the City of Seattle’s art collection. The 2007 triennial had over 1,300 entries from 249 artists living in the state of Idaho (Boise Weekly). Further, in 2007 there were no artists from Coeur d’Alene (or anywhere north of Moscow). Represent!

The best part is, they didn’t accept the spaceship thing, or the spinning neon disco ball projector thing.. no. They accepted the one with the hydroponic grass whose roots will dry out quickly if not tended to since they don’t grow in soil. When I drove that sculpture to Seattle for the SOIL show I had the ‘intestines’ sitting in a tub on the passenger seat with the bladder on the floor and the water pump plugged into the inverter. I’ll have to figure out something a little bit more professional(/futuristic!) to bring it down to BAM, and come up with a comprehensive guide to installing & maintaining it. There is also a chance that the sculpture might tour with a selection from the Triennial to two other venues in Idaho; the 2007 exhibit went to the Sun Valley Center for the Arts and the Prichard Gallery at the University of Idaho.

One of the things I am most excited about is the catalog they are printing, which basically means that any of you will be able to go the Library of Congress in the future and find my bionic hydropnics. I also get to add another notch on my resume; the Bibliography. The 2010 Triennial opens on September 4th at the Boise Art Museum and runs through December 5th. The opening reception, with awards and some words from Beth Sellars, is on Friday, September 17th.

But before all that, there’s a show at the SAP this coming month. I’ll be exhibiting some of the work I completed while in residency at Vermont Studio Center this past March (this is the part where I thank the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for generously supporting my residency..) I’ll be exhibiting that spaceship thing and the spinning neon disco ball projector thing called The Beacon, which I collaborated on and completed with my pal Rachel Watson from Portland, ME. The show at the SAP opens on the Friday, August 6th, sometime right after happy hour.

I sent my statement of intent to register to the University of California at Santa Barbara yesterday. There’s a new department at UCSB that I’ll be working with called DIOSPEX (Division of Space Exploration). Exciting!