One of my post memorable art installations was when I built a full scale Out House for an exhibition called “A Pot To Pee In”. The exhibition explored the idea of gender-neutral bathrooms and was inspired by a transgender student of mine at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. When I first came up with the concept of building an outhouse, I had no idea how to do it as I had zero carpentry skills to speak of. My first thought was to see if a fellow artist friend of mine would make it with me, but he had no interest in participating in a collaboration. That left me with the decision of do I give up on the idea or do I go it alone? I opted for the later and set out to learn how to build an outhouse!

I drew up the designs, another friend gave me his old circular saw, I purchased the materials and set to work! Along the way a student of mine, Mark, offered to assist and I took him up on at some of the construction was proving a challenge because I’m not the tallest person (I refer to myself as vertically challenges because I stand at 5’1” and a full-scale outhouse is a bit bigger than that!

So, between the two of us construction continued and along the way I learned how to use a circular saw, electric drill as well as an electric screw drive. I discovered power tools are quite fun to operate and my confidence in using them grew exponentially by the time I was finished! It is quite empowering to learn skills like these and I’ve notice that over the years I’ve become more or less fearless when it comes to tackling things that might require the use of these types of tools.

Interestingly, I was going through some old photographs as my parent’s house and came across several images of my mother also wielding power tools and I thought, huh… it must run in the family, although I don’t think she has ever tackled a power saw!

In any case, I did succeed in building a full scale Out House and the exhibition was a success. Sadly no one offered to buy said Out House and it is now currently disassembled in our garage. However, being the creative person that I am, I’ve come up with an idea that will repurpose my Out House as a compose shed for my garden when we make the move to Palisade! My plan is to reconfigure the door so that it is a half or Dutch door on the top half will no longer be there and thus allowing an opening in which to load composite and or other garden waste which will then break down and I can use it to help provide nutrients to the soil in the garden.

Throwback Thursday: Building an Outhouse

Making a Mini Mala

Throwback Thursday: Ireland