"Drought Flowers": Article in local newspaper and process

Art Project Blooms At SCC: Student Puts Flowers Made From Cds On Display
By Nika Megino
DAILY REPUBLIC - July 28, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CA — Standing at least a foot tall and gleaming in the sun, Maya WindDancer's flowers might catch the eyes of anyone who visits Solano Community College.

What makes WindDancer's flowers unique? The SCC art student's flowers are made from used CDs and bamboo sticks.

Her "Drought Flowers" were part of a project for an art class that required students to create an art piece from 100 identical items. The blue, purple and silver CD flowers are on display between the college's theater and art building and will remain there through September.

The project was inspired by science fiction novelist Larry Niven's "Ringworld," in which he writes about metallic sunflowers that use solar energy to kill enemies, but WindDancer's 44 flowers made from 500 CDs seek to present a different message.

"The idea is that this is all we'll be able to have if the drought doesn't end," WindDancer said.

Although the drought flowers were made for a final class assignment, it was a two-year project for WindDancer, who always wanted to make an art piece out of CDs.

The idea of using CDs came to WindDancer, 55, because people tend to toss them away as garbage too casually.

Despite the industrial look of the flowers, WindDancer took time to make the pieces react like a normal flower would. It had to be able to swing in the wind but stay rooted in the ground, she said.

"It was very challenging trying to figure out how it'll work," WindDancer said.

She began the project in 2006 by gluing together two CDs and placing them on a bamboo stick in her backyard to learn how the CDs would handle sunlight and the weather.

Once she realized the flower would survive, she began making more and figured out how to arrange them. She started collecting CDs, with most coming from donations.

Each flower consists of a bamboo stick as the stem and a minimum of 10 CDs as the flower's petals. The CDs are bolted to the bamboo stick, which is planted into soil.

The display debuted in mid-May after WindDancer spent one week installing the flowers. Since then, she has been surprised by the feedback she has received.

"People really get it. It's so funny that people will keep it clean," said WindDancer, who added the area in which the flowers stand used to be full of trash.

"It's just been a really interesting adventure full of surprises," she added.

Link to my blog about “Drought Flowers”

http://mayawinddancerdreams.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-process-of-making-drought-flowers.html

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Drought Flowers: Process

Spring Semester 2006, one of my instructors had his sculpture class make a piece of art from 100 identical objects. I decided I would make something with used CD's.

If you leave CD's out in the weather, the backing peels off and makes a mess; I wanted my eventual project to be environmentally sensitive. So, I glued two CD's back to back to see if they maintain their integrity. I left them in my veggie garden where they would be exposed to the weather for a year—and they remained intact.

The idea of solar flowers came from "Ringworld", a science fiction novel by Larry Nivens. Nivens' flowers are called "Slaver Sunflowers", silver disks that use the sun to "zap" enemies or anything edible.

 
The idea of having the CD flowers face the sun pleased me. I imagined them on some sort of flexible rod that would allow them to sway in the wind. I allowed the idea to percolate until I took a 3-D class this spring (2008). Then I faced questions about where I would present them, how would I assemble them, how would I get them to stay in the ground in 35 mph winds?

I glued ten CD's back-to-back then glued a group of three "petals" on one CD. Next, I glued another CD on top of them, making a sort of CD sandwich. I fiddled around with an old bamboo garden stake and some hardware to see if I could get an idea how to make it work. It turned out that by screwing nuts on the joints on the bamboo stakes, I could make them stable.

Once I figured out how to make the project work, I presented it to the division dean. She said “yes”, and the project was on. A week later I had made 44 “flowers” out of 506 CD’s mounted on bamboo stakes.

I used a long screwdriver to make holes in the hard ground and hammered the “flowers” in. It was the only way I could figure out how to do it so that the things wouldn’t fly away in high winds. I made a few at a time then planted them. I chose an area between the art department and the music department that was un-tended. Students had made their own path through there, so that’s where I decided to plant them.

I didn’t alter the space where I put the flowers; it was pretty trashy and it added to the air of desolation. Two weeks after the installation was finished, the area was free of trash and has stayed that way for three months.

 
I arrived one day to discover that the music department had transplanted a few to their side of the sidewalk. The music students seemed to think the installation should have been theirs.

People couldn't understand why I wasn’t worried about them being stolen. My attitude is that public art is, well, public; and part of the fun is seeing how people relate to the project. The only flowers that have been picked are the ones that moved to the music department.

People stop by the office in the art department to ask if they can have one when the installation is over. I’m not quite sure what I will do with them. They have faded a lot in the sun and seem to be becoming brittle.

I have left them alone and they’ve accumulated a lot of dirt. Next week I will clean them so they will be ready for the beginning of Fall semester. The local Fairfield newspaper came out and interviewed me; it was a nice article with a very unflattering photo of me. I hope the school newspaper will do an article, too.

44 flowers sound like a lot, but they don’t come across as a huge field of them. It is a small, intimate installation. When someone approaches the installation, they don’t see it until that are in the flowers midst. People are surprised by them and delighted. They really “get” the message about the lack of water, but one of the things that surprised me has been all of the comments that it is too bad we can’t use them to collect solar energy. Another thing that has surprised me is the acknowledgment that all of the CD’s have been used, and there is a point to be made about the way we de-value information.

I hope to make another installation next year in a more public venue with several hundred flowers. I’ve already started collecting CD’s. Donations of used CD's will be appreciated.