The March Art Build weekend was highly successful. Töads came from Toronto, Maryland, and all across New Amsterdam. Our goals were to continue working on the spring effigy, put the finishing touches on the art car, and vaporize a bicycle. All of this would help us prepare for Amphibian 16:1, the Buffalo Saint Patrick’s Day Parade and Bicycle Holocaust, respectively.

Friday

Töads started arriving shortly after 5 pm. We had a nice chili dinner, wrote down our plans, and prepped the shop for our weekend activities. We finished the evening with a bonfire and some shenanigans with an oxygen tank.

Saturday

After breakfast, we had a motivated group of about 15 people and we all split up to work on our individual projects. Assorted projects included the spring effigy, a larger than life marionette, the art car, a flag, a bicycle rack that would allow us to safely burn the bicycles, and blending the incendiary chemicals for the bicycle burn.

James begins construction on his marionette.

By the end of the night, several projects were finished or nearing completion. After stopping for dinner, it was time to vaporize a couple bicycles.

Several cameras were rolling as the Töad King gave a rousing speech praising the glories of communal effort before he ignited the bicycles. Aside from being an incredible sight to see, this also helped us test various thermite mixtures and check for potential problems when we burn the actual Bicycle Holocaust sculpture.

After we vaporized the bikes, we ate dinner, lit another bonfire, and had a fireworks display. It was the perfect ending to the evening.

Bicycle carcass. Better red than dead.

Sunday

Over breakfast, we discussed different ways of improving and completing ongoing projects, and then we headed back to the shop to put finishing touches on the art car, which proudly rolled throgh the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade a week later.

What’s next?

The next Art Build Weekend Open House will be held April 8-10. Send us a message if you are interested in coming.

Amphibian 16:1 takes place April 29 – May 1. Future projects include creating a Rube Goldberg machine and interactive flame shooting robots.

Töad Meädow is always looking for motivated artists, engineers, chemists, etc., who want to contribute creative ideas to the art builds and have the dedication to see those ideas through to completion. We like doers, not spectators. If that’s you, get in touch. And if you’re not sure if it’s you yet, follow us on Facebook or sign up for the mailing list (see links in the right sidebar).