After 3 months of horn making we are finally at Love Burn 2023. It started off with a lot of work. First, setting up our trailer in place and then unloading. That part was easy and normal. We’ve had to do that plenty of times, until getting the sculpture off the truck. The base was heavy and tall as we slid it out of the truck. Caroline and I were able to lower it and shift it into the place to add the slabs to it. Still having to make cuts as it was built on uneven grass, although I still made it level, the harder to measure components would be added on site.
Once the entire base was assembled, I had to still drill holes to get all of the horns into the panels. It took 3 hours to unwrap and place the glass to make sure we had the right sizes for each hole. Then, after drilling, we spray painted the base black and started gluing a horn for test. This took all of one day to complete only giving Wednesday before the burn to attach the rest of the horns on.
Using super glue to adhere the horns onto the angled slab quickly, and then applying gorilla glue in order to more permanently attach them. Gorilla glue isn’t a joke because I nudged a few of them an hour or two after gluing and they were solid! This took forever. Extremely long in order for each one to set. At this point I was worried we may not get all the colors on there, which is part of the beauty of the piece.
Luckily, the burn provides! From Russ who chopped up wood clippings to help make the bigger horns fit into their holes to Peter giving the great idea to use C-clamps and wood to support the drying horns while I start on another allowing me to work faster. In the end, I broke only 1 horn while transporting and installing the art piece. I considered that a win as I had made spares just in case. Due to this increased time to glue the horns, I didn’t complete the last two rows, although to be honest, it came out better than having completed them.
With the last two rows open, as DD envisioned, allowed smoke to come out and fill the area in front. We had planned to do this for Saturday nights performance but I broke it by leaving the nozzle out of the reservoir. With the last two rows open during the day, we decided to cover up the bottom with cloth due to running out of time to properly paint the base without getting the floor.
When the sun hit the glass, it was glorious. Yet in contrast, the projected light behind the sculpture at night produced magnificent beauty as well. Different rows kept being highlighted as the colors behind them changed. Red making red glow more, etc. It came alive at night while during the day it sat soaking up the sun!
With the ladder on the rear, multiple people went up and had moments standing on the piece. Others didn’t understand what it was. Provoking the curiosity as to what is this thing? Is it just pretty or is there more meaning. Some, understood that through the words in the back representing each chakra, to the meditation inspiration once you’ve climbed to the top.
Even serving as a platform for dancing during our fire spinning, the beasts cage was different and better than the original idea. Now, we can take what we’ve learned and make it bigger and better!
Now that we are back from Love Burn, four horns broke on the ride back from Miami to St. Petersburg. The tarp holding a few of them broke flailing onto them to come loose. We’ll now remake what needs to be in glass in order to refinish that aspect, yet we also need to replace the OSB board used for love burn with pressure treated plywood and redo the holes. This can allow for a better fitting finish and a cleaner presentation while still allowing the fog machine to work. This will require some funding in order to make happen so look forward to either seeing it at our next Burn or hopefully rented for an event near you! To help finish our sculpture, you can donate here. Thank you!
Anyways, here are some more pictures of this beauty!
