Michael James Armstrong

HELP SAVE ICE GALLERY

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If you’ve read our About page then you know that long before ICE was an exhibition space it was and still is a low cost art studio space.  For as long as we’ve been renting the space, and for other tenants before us, the roof has leaked.  In addition to the roof being in bad shape, the rest of the building in general has been no prize to look at or reside in.  Despite these flaws the leaky roof has been somewhat manageable…until this year.  When the first rains came this year we saw just how bad the roof had become.  It no longer leaks, it pours – and It’s become way too much for us to maintain.

In a last ditch effort to save our space, before we reluctantly abandon what has become a source of great enjoyment and pride for us, we decided to set up a fund raising project on the site unitedstatesartists.org.  It’s similar to Kickstarter, but the difference is that in addition to being somewhat exclusive in that you have to be screened or invited by a USA.org fellow, USA.org is specifically for artists.  We were lucky enough to be invited to join the site by none other than Doug Wheeler, one of our favorite west coast artists.

Should we attain our fund raising goal, our project will entail professionally fixing the roof as well as totally gutting the inside of the building.  We wish to turn ICE into one big open exhibition space by knocking down all interior walls and getting rid of what is currently three art studios in the rear of the building.  This will double the amount of space we have to use for exhibitions to roughly 1200 sq. ft.!

We realize our fund raising goal is highly ambitious, but this is our last chance to keep ICE alive.  If we’re unable to fix our roof, we’ll have no further option but to vacate what has been a low cost haven for local San Diego artists for years.  If you would like to contribute to our survival please visit OUR PROJECT PAGE.  Your efforts will not go unrewarded.  We have different incentives for the various donation levels – everything from wood block prints by Lee to actual pages from Michael’s sketch book.

Thank you to all who have supported us,
Michael James Armstrong, Thomas DeMello, Lee Lavy, Joseph Huppert

Photos from A Study In Transparency

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Finally, shots from Michael’s last exhibition.  This piece was next to impossible to capture in photos, but we know some of you who didn’t get to see it in person are curious what it looked like.  So, click the image below to see all the shots.

ICE gets mentioned by someone other than friends!

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Thanks to Joan and Reuben Baron for mentioning ICE and Michael James Armstrong in their Light and Space article for artcritical.   It gives us a thrill to be mentioned in the same article as some of our inspirations.  The whole article is a good read, but the best part is the last sentence of the 6th paragraph.  😉

 

In other news, we’re not dead yet.  Plans are in the works to try and raise money to fix ICE Gallery.  More info and photos are coming soon, we promise.

 

 

the two photos above are a view of Michael’s show that most people didn’t get to see.

R.I.P. ICE Gallery

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Michael’s new installation “A study in transparency” was ruined by the severe downpour we experienced last night.  The above shot is from happier times, and don’t worry we’ll be posting pics of the piece soon.  The shot below, however, is from last night.  Yeah, that’s Tom standing next to a lake of brown water right in the middle of the gallery.  And it’s not just the gallery that’s ruined, the studios in back are much worse!  Looks like ICE might be out of commission until next summer….or until we get a grant to fix this place (which we’re working on – details soon).

Frosted windows and a white floor

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Ahhhh!  It’s crunch time once again at the ol’ ICE Gallery.  We’ve been busy installing wire rope, frosting the windows, and painting the floor.  Michael’s show is almost here, and there’s still so much to do….as usual.

The frost on the windows looks really good.

The right side of the floor is what happens to this space after it rains.

See that bucket?  Yup, it’s overflowing with water.  Fun.

Rain, concrete, and a new show

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To those of you who wonder how some poor artists who live paycheck to paycheck can afford to have a space in a decent, high traffic part of town…this is one of the main reasons why:


If it’s wet outside, then it’s bound to be wet inside. This puddle is relatively tame compared to how it can get on a day when it pours. Today was just a mild shower. As you can imagine, this can be really frustrating when you’re trying to install a show that’s supposed to open in a week. Hell, if this continues, we might have to postpone more shows until after winter. Ugh, so aggravating. But again, that’s part of the reason the space at 3417 30th St is an artist run exhibition space, and not some trendy clothing store.

Ah well, on a sunnier note…we got new concrete! Yes! Much like the rest of the property, the sidewalk in front of the building was deteriorated beyond repair. As you can see in the picture below from Lee’s 2010 show, it was half shoddy asphalt, half dirt.

It was finally time to do something about it.  So early one Saturday morning, Lee, Joey, and Michael went at that crappy asphalt with a digging bar and a sledge hammer.

and then dug out a reasonably level hole, and made two trips to the dump to get rid of the asphalt.

That was enough for one day.  Breaking up asphalt is hard work.  The next day it was time to lay some rebar in preparation for a new pad of concrete.   The concrete would have to wait a week though, so that we could have a professional help us.  Here’s where Dave comes in.  What an incredibly nice guy.  Dave was willing to help us pour the concrete for FREE just to help out a few penniless artists.  It just goes to show you that if you’re enthusiastic about a project, you can find others that will be just as enthusiastic about helping you, even if you have no money.

Man, Dave worked his ass off that day.  And when it was all done and we handed him a few dollars of appreciation, he was stunned.  He honestly didn’t expect any payment for the job, he did it just to help out some fellow artists.  Thank you Dave!  (and thanks to Jeremy for telling Dave about us, and for helping with the labor)

Well, all done.  This pad of concrete will definitely outlast the building.

Now when is Michael’s show going to finally be done?  What the heck is going on in there anyway?

Find out on 9/16/2011…provided it doesn’t rain.