Preying Man-tis

So a few weeks ago I decided that, since I am staying in Arizona for the summer after all and not going off traveling, I should make some serious art for Burning Man.  I have done a few small projects though, including my flamingo bike and various costumes.

But I think it's time for something big!  I got the idea to make a huge mantis sculpture, as I love that animal and it goes along with the theme of Burning Man this year, which is fertility.  It will stand about ten feet tall and be a bit longer than that, maybe 15 feet or so.  I want to make a frame that can bolt together to make transportation easy.  Around the frame will be the shape of the creature, made of sheet metal that I will cut patterns into with the plasma torch.  Then I can string LEDs inside it to make the patterns glow from within.  The belly of the mantis will be open - a frame made of steel with a hollow inside that you can crawl into.  It will be covered in cloth and lit from within by more LEDs.  Then if you are standing outside the mantis and people are in it, you can see their silhouettes.  The other special thing about this mantis is that the head will be shaped like the head of the "man" or the effigy of a human that is burned on the Saturday of each Burning Man.  Below are some of my sketches.

 

This dream has quickly escalated into a full-on project!  I started talking just a week or two ago to friends who decided to support me in various ways, and one of them suggested a Facebook page for it, which made me think Kickstarter!  Of course!  The website is for people making projects who need funding.  It works by having donors pledge money toward a project in exchange for either nothing or a prize, depending on how much they donate and if they want something.  If a project does not meet its goal, the artist gets nothing and the backers are not charged anything.  

So I spent the last week thinking up cool prizes and really thinking out my project.  I decided that $10 would buy you a dog tag, laser etched to have the "man" on one side and the head of my Man-tis on the other.  $25 would buy you the dog tag and 3 professional photographs of the project on playa (at Burning Man), printed on high quality, 5x7 photo paper.  Another $25 and you can get a private welding lesson from me.  Then $100 gets you a steel mantis cut-out which I will design and cut, and you can use it as a wall-hanging.  I'll throw the other prizes into this one too, minus the welding lesson.  My set goal would be $1300, which pays for materials and transportation, plus the prizes and other fees.  I would have 25 days to meet my goal.

It took a week to get this all put together and for Kickstarter and Amazon to approve my project and bank account information. I launched Thursday night, sent out emails that night and put it on Facebook Friday morning.  By Friday night (right now), I have raised over $1400.  And I still have 23 days left!  What a world, what a world!!!

Link to my Kickstarter project:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/46298891/preying-man-tis-an-exploration-of-fertility/comments?ref=activity

Arequipa and Colca Canyon, Peru

I left Pisco and PSF with my boyfriend Ross on May 21st, after nearly six months of volunteering (nearly three months for him). We decided to head to Arequipa first for some trekking, as the town is surrounded in volcanoes, mountains, and canyons. We explored the city a bit first, having fun checking out the old Spanish buildings and churches and doing some shopping for warmer clothes! Alpaca is everywhere and very cheap! I even bought a hoodie, falsely thinking alpaca are protected in Peru (only to find out later that they are farmed like any other animal and eaten too). Whoops.

(Plaza de Armas)

(Plaza de Armas)

(Plaza de Armas)

(You can buy bird seed from ladies in the plaza)

(Arequipa is surrounded in mountains and volcanoes)

(a courtyard with cool drain spouts)

(Plaza de Armas)

We toured the large monastery, Santa Catalina , which is the size of an entire city block! It housed rich Spanish nuns since 1580 and still has about 20 of them living there. The nuns lived lavishly there, hosting parties and having nice things. A wonderful place to take photos.

(one of many kitchens)

(Room with paintings of decreased nuns of the monastery)

(old medical supplies)

After a couple of days in the city, we went for a 3-day trek into the Colca Canyon, the deepest in the world! We started at about 4,000 meters and hiked down to something like 2,000. We went with a group of other tourists near our age from Germany, Austria, Belgium, and even South Korea! I had fun chatting with the Korean girls, but we had to mix up our Spanish and English to really communicate. It was really fun to try and remember my Korean. I’ve lost so much of it! I also had fun joking that I was the sister of the Austrian girl, because they royally screwed up my name on the roster – I was “Roswitha Thwessel” from Austria! Probably mixed me up because I am actually Heather Dessel and I’m “with Ross.” Really really screwed that name up! I’m surprised they even let me come!

Our guide was cool because he was actually from the canyon, where people live and farm with only mules for transportation! No cars, no bikes, no roads, just paths and animals. They use the animals to transport goods in and out of the canyon villages, and when we passed the mules on the trail, we had to back ourselves up against the wall of the mountain so we wouldn’t get knocked off the trail and fall to our deaths! He told us that in the villages there are elementary schools, but older children have to climb all the way up and walk into town for junior and high school – a hike that took us about three hours! Our guide’s grandparents still live in the village and we stayed at their hostel there. His grandparents are nearly 100 years old and tell people there are three rules to a long, healthy life: exercise everyday, always eat organic, healthy food and no soda, and have sex often.

We had a great group on this trek, having fun sharing very expensive beer (had to have been brought in by mules!), swimming in the pool, and playing card games together. It was a great time and we loved the views in this amazing mountain range. You can see the stepped farming plots on steep mountain sides, the beautiful green-blue river cutting through the valley, and at night, the Milky Way and constellations of the southern hemisphere. We also got to see the largest bird of prey in the world – the condor. They stand one meter tall and have a 3-meter wingspan. Unfortunately people eat their eggs, so this canyon only has between 45 and 75 condors left. They live in other places in Peru as well, but I still have only seen them here.

(Condors flying over the canyon)

(Ross and I getting ready for the long hike down into the canyon)

(A view of the canyon and the villages in it)

(Napping on a rock in the river after the long hike down)

(Scared face because we're shaking the bridge)

(One of many farm animals in the village)

(Special Peruvian chickens with crazy head feathers)

(The group sitting at a table that's way too high!)

(Guinea pigs (cuy) in the kitchen of the house)

(Guinea pigs (cuy) in the kitchen of the house)

(Setting off for day two)


(A church and main plaza of a village)

(The awesome hostel of day two had a great pool and awesome views)

(The group at the dinner table, playing cards by candlelight)

On the 3rd and last day of our trek, we got up and left the hostel at five in the morning to start the hike back up. When we started we relied on our flashlights to see the narrow trail and we could only see stars. It lightened up quickly though, and with the sun, heat. I almost got caught by a group behind us while trying to change out of my pants and into shorts! We made it up, huffing and puffing, in just under three hours. That was the longest and most difficult mountain hike I’ve ever done and I felt entirely victorious! At the top, the others taught me how to cut and eat the fruit of a prickly pear (and I didn’t get any thorns in my fingers), another victory!

(A view of the way up - the zig zag trail on the other side)

(The group at the top of the mountain, victorious!)

(Another view of the canyon from the car ride back to the city)

After the canyon trek, it was back to Arequipa where Ross and I indulged in some amazing crepes and milkshakes before hopping on a very cold bus to Cusco, the Incan capital of Peru.