The Ephemeral II Art Project (09/04/26)

 EPHEMERAL II - The Dystopian Dream

If you followed the spring project, you'll already know the basics. If you didn't, scroll down to see the first project and how this works. 

First I'd like to apologize for the months between Ephemeral 1 & 2. Some of you know I had heart surgery in the autumn of last year. With the heat in New Orleans as bad as its been this year, it was just plain impossible for me to begin creating the second sculpture until now.

With that said, a lot of this sculpture will be built in sections indoors and then moved out to area set up for it out in front of my home. 

Last thing to keep in mind is that I won't reveal the actual sculpture at first. I'll be adding to it every few days and it will be up to you to decide what your looking at. 

So what is this image?

What your seeing is the remains of a large indoor sculpture that was created and then deconstructed. I made one major mistake in it. It was a ship in a bottle. It was too big to get it out the door. It was destined to take up a lot of precious space in the studio and nothing else. So I deconstructed it. I learned a lot though and I was able to break it down in a way that I was able to save 90% of the components from it. What you see here was all that remained after being stripped down. 

It would have been easy to put it out for the trash, but I recycle everything I can in this studio. The base was strong. It was made of heavy foamcore and wood. 

So now it will be the base of the next ephemeral sculpture. 

The first step will be to afix a new base to what remains. 

So thats it to start. I'll measure and and afix a new base above the remain of the old, in the next few days and get ready to build the first section inside.

Don't forget if your in the New Orleans area this will be in front of my studio and we love it when people stop by to see the progress. If your an artist and would like to be involved in the construction, give me a shout in the area at the bottom of this page.

The next update will be soon!

The Ephemeral Art Project is the brainstorm of artist Grey Cross. 

Basically we've placed a table in front of the artists home and are building and ephemeral sculpture out of all sorts of objects. The project evolves daily from changes the artist makes, online suggestions, from other artists around the world, and by locals who contribute items to its creation. 

Throughout the time, the artist photographs the sculpture and shows it online. Its like a creative chess game. With objects moving into new shapes and new ideas and configurations happening often.

Check back often and comment below if you viewed, added or changed the sculpture. 

COMPLETED SETUP PHOTO 03/25/25

This is the beginning set up. Over the coming days I'll be adding and changing objects and adding tiers to it.

DAY 2

The Ephemeral Sculpture grows! New objects, better lighting.

Day 3

Some close ups for Day 3. I've added about 5 more pieces and I've rearranged the upper areas. I'm hoping to expand and add risers over the weekend.

DAY 4

 We were very happy to see that an anonymous person made a change to the Ephemeral chess board by switching the positions of the black dragon and the black tower. This is the first official change! Hoping there are lots more.

Some major changes today. I've added a riser to the left hand side and on top of it and ghost ship on a sea of mirrored glass. Today is raining off and on, so it might be a challenge to change it off. We'll see how it goes. 

I've started calling the project an artistic chess board. Its fun to move the pieces on the board. You'll not the two letters spelled out LO. The person who made the first move also placed an L made of the puzzle pieces. So I added the O. 
 

DAY 5 - Delayed Due to Heavy Rain

Day 6 - Delayed Due to Heavy Rain

Day 13 

A combination of a rain and the artist being sick, I got a bit behind. I put it on a better riser today and added a lot of lighting to it. I've had several in the neighborhood make small changes to it. So far so good. Hopefully I'm back on track now.

Its interesting that people are already making changes. Its like an eclectic artists chess game. I might want to take advantage of that in the near future. 

Day 14

I've made some pretty complex changes to the project, including Buddha. I've also added a dry erase board so that visitors can leave their mark, whatever that might be.

I also plan to add a big board on Sundays that they can draw whatever they'd like. I'll keep the boards until full and then display them. We did this at a convention a year ago and it was incredibly popular. We will see how it goes in this neighborhood. I may also offer free art supplies on the same Sundays. 

Day 15

Thank you to the four people who left their marks on the new white board. Its really amazing to see others getting into it! I switched out several objects this morning, so its changing frequently! 

Day 18

We finally came to an end of several days of rain and I put the cleaned the sculpture and put things back in place. Lots of new pieces. I bought a wrought iron shelf to go at one end. I bought 3 lit balls that are now adding light to everything. On the far left I added my purple skeleton and a great flat skeleton next to it. Its really looking beautiful.

I have a few ideas that I am working on adding in the coming days. We've heard from several artists that will be visiting this week. Its going exactly the way I planned it and its exciting to see other artists getting involved.

Day 19

Today we added a puzzle board to the sculpture. People can stop and try to put some of the pieces together. I've not put a photo of the puzzle up. Its up to those who add to it to figure that out. I also haven't put out all the pieces yet, only half of them. We'll see if it catches on.

Around Day 8 I put out these small gadget pieces that could be put together. Those who passed started using them to spell out words. That's where I got the idea to put out the puzzle. It becomes more interactive. 

Day 20

Today was a good day for the sculpture. I placed a piece of art at the top, that thing you see with the pink face. With it the sculpture grows up not only across. I created several signs that went up with quotes about art on them. I'd like to offer anyone who would like to make one, to add to the space. 

Tomorrow I am going to redo the white spotlights so they stick out further and are not so close to the sculpture.

It really gives me a sense of satisfaction to see the grow and take on different shapes. We are getting rain though for the next few days. So I'll be setting some of the more fragile pieces inside until it passes. Sunday is our next good day. 

DAY 21

Newly added today, a center reflecting pool with a pink lotus and cracked glass ball in the middle. Above it is a copper bowl of colored balls. Made some big changes to the order of things. I'll most likely add to it tomorrow. 

Day 24

I'll be dismantling the Ephemeral Sculpture for a few weeks. I am leaving on a business trip in a few weeks, so better safe to bring everything back out when I return :)

The Ghosts of Hollywood - The Phantasm Portraits

Who are they? Can you guess?