Art inspired by George Herms
Each week of Park Studio began with a visit to the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Participants toured the assemblage exhibition George Herms: Hot Set (March 5–May 13, 2005; more info at www.smmoa.org under “Exhibition Archives.”) and were invited to do a workshop on the art of assemblage. Education director Asuka Hisa referred to George Herms’s tendency to quote his jazz hero Thelonius Monk by saying “Simple ain’t easy” and introduced a limited set of found materials for each person to create an original artwork. Materials used for this project were: a small box of cardboard, a handful of vintage bottle caps, wire, string, and hot glue. One of Herms’s own sculptures in the exhibition, Saint with Glass Halo (1973), was created with only four found objects: a block of wood, a broken bottle bottom, a weathered feminine figurine, and a nail. Hisa challenged students to work with the few items but to not feel limited in their ideas on what to make. The idea of limitless possibilities began the Park Studio program.