This post discusses my September 2024 collaboration with Jo Caminiti from Australia. I worked with the Arts Council of Thayer County, who supplied her airfare, while I hosted her at my home studio here in Chester Nebraska. I had never met Jo before, but had admired her work and thought that we could work well together on a sculpture. Long story short- it was a great success! Here’s my side of the story.
My plan was to bring in an international artist to work as a cultural exchange. The artist would be introduced to life in Thayer County while meeting with ‘the locals’. The end goal was to create a scrap metal sculpture to honor a local man who had given SO much to our community throughout his lifetime. I contacted Jo via Facebook and must have sounded a little like a scammer, as she was taken back a little and needed time to decide. Soon enough she agreed it was a great plan and we began our preparations. I went to an Arts Council meeting, and they approved the funds to bring Jo over here.
In no time, I was greeting Jo at the Lincoln Airport and we began our 3 weeks of cultural exchange and metalworking. We decided that we would each sketch out a design, and go from there. Jo did a great job with her design and even started laying out parts on the shop floor! We quickly put her plan into effect.
The agreed-upon design was a heart, to honor Steve Delay’s huge heart and giving to the community. It would be two-sided and the front would have a series of ‘clovers’ made from horseshoes with different objects filling the center. You can see from the drawing that there was a center piece planned, but once we built it, the opening in the middle made for a great photo op, so we left it open.
As many of you know, I’m a night owl and do most of my work in the wee hours of the morning. Jo was used to more ‘normal’ hours, so she took the ‘day shift’ and I worked nights. We overlapped in the evenings and did our collaborative work then. This system worked out great as I was also able to spend some time on my other projects (like my Re-Tired Chimp).
Work went well and quickly and soon the piece began to take shape!
The rest of it was smooth sailing and we soon had a BEAST of a sculpture to move around the shop! 😀 I have an engine hoist that works great, and also an electric winch hung in the ceiling of my shop.
I won’t go on much more about the ‘making of’ portion of our time together. There’s a video at the end which will show a lot of that. So here’s a look at the final project, and then I’ll write about our time outside of the shop!
The Cultural Exchange
Getting to know Jo and background was a wonderful experience – PLUS – she baked for us!! ❤ She made some traditional ANZAC biscuits and TWO apple pies! 😀 She’s already set a high standard for the next guest artist!
But other than the baking… Jo and I got along well (Right, Jo?) and we were able to introduce her to life in rural Nebraska. As Jo loves to talk, she was able to spend time with many people in the area and get to know more, while talking about her life back home. One the way home from the airport, we stopped at the National Homestead Museum so Jo could get an idea of Nebraska’s beginnings. She was surprised to learn how many of the famous trails she had heard about had actually crossed past our area. She also saw many similarities between how the Midwest and Australia were settled. We stopped in Fairbury to show her a new mural recently completed by Tony Once. After that, we took her to the Majestic Theatre (which is run by the Arts Council) and she was able meet some of the board members who were volunteering that afternoon.
In other adventures, we took her ‘junking’ with the Hwy 36 Treasure Hunt and the Brownvill Flea Market. While in Brownville we visited with our friends Bill and Paula who operate the New Earth Clay Pottery shop (always worth a stop!). We tried to take her to as many restaurants as we could to sample the local cuisine (and for her to get ‘foodie shots’ for her son back home!). We took her to First Friday in Lincoln and also to the annual Fall Festival in Belvidere. It’s hard to believe we had any time for work! 😀
While in Chester, Jo took many walks around town and met more of the locals, and took in the scenery and she helped Art walk the dogs most mornings. Jo was VERY self-sufficient, which made her a perfect house guest. I would welcome her back any time.
The day before Jo left, she gave a talk at the theatre explaining her background and some of the differences and similarities between our regions. She ended with a wonderful piece, “The Ballad of the Gippsland Railway Dog“, which is the subject of her current piece back home. After her talk, we all went outside for the unveiling of the sculpture!
Conclusions
Our first goal with this project was to bring in an artist who could experience all that Thayer County has to offer and provide us with some insight into their world. In this part, I believe our “Cultural Exchange” was a resounding success. The secondary goal was to complete a sculpture that the community could be proud of and provide the Arts Council with a permanent piece that would provide value for their expenses. Again, this goal was successful as we heard so many great comments during the unveiling.
As an artist, I know that I gained great experience working along side someone towards a shared goal. This is not something I had done on a project like this before, and honestly wasn’t sure how well I could adapt! I also was able to use this exchange as a basis for the future of The Center of Creativity, which will soon be hosting more artists.
Finally, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to the Arts Council of Thayer County for putting their trust in me and fully supporting this project!
Here is a video showing the “making of” our sculpture: