constructing the manetti shrem, part six

April 12, 2016April 12, 20163 Comments

The continuing construction of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis has reached a new phase, with the large metal canopy now finally coming together. Early last month I sketched the scene above, the framework for the canopy undergoing its paint job, while the large metal slats that would make up the design were beginning to be inserted. It’s like a massive Airfix model but without the smell of superglue.This was particularly fun to sketch, figuring out the complicated lines and curves, but also because this scene is so brief – already it looks totally different.

Here you see, just a few weeks later, the canopy is already complete, or as good as. I sketched this on a day when the sky was lovely, with deep blues and fluffy white clouds, not a very common sky for Davis. Reminded me of Britain.I sketched this from beneath the shade of the UC Davis Welcome Center. The buildings around Vanderhoef Quad are modern and bright. This is a really exciting part of campus now. Below, I sketched another view of the Manetti Shrem from a little further back, beyond the Mondavi Center. You can see the interesting shape of the canopy as it curves around the entrance. This will be a really photogenic spot. I stood beneath a tree to sketch. As i did, I got several odd looks from people as they passed by. Nothing bad, just, I don’t know, frowns. Shifty looks, suspicious glances. I must look odd standing there with a sketchbook under a tree, it’s fair enough. People on this edge of campus are usually a bit better dressed. No, they are, I don’t know why. They are walking to their cars parked at the Mondavi or on their way to an important meeting at the Founders room at the Buehler or the Graduate School of Management or doing something in the Conference Center, I don’t know, they dress better than the people hanging out at the Quad or at the MU Bus Terminal. Maybe that is why they gave me shifty looks, “who is this odd freakish weirdo beneath a tree with a small creepy black book staring at the distance like a fool?” I put it down to turning 40. This didn’t happen so much when I was 39, no back then it was all, “who’s this cool character coolly hanging in the shade making fantastic cool urban art which is so cool?” But now I’m 40 it’s all changed, it’s all downhill from here. Or it would be, if Davis had any hills.

I’m enjoying sketching this construction though, and the Manetti Shrem will officially open its doors in the Fall with a Grand Opening on November 13, 2016. Check out their website at: http://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/.

Here are the previous posts charting the construction in sketches…

PART FIVE – PART FOUR – PART THREE – PART TWO – PART ONE

constructing the manetti shrem, part five

January 29, 2016January 29, 2016Leave a comment

The second of my 2016 sketches so far, continuing my documentation of UC Davis’s upcoming new art museum, the Manetti Shrem. The frame of the large metal canopy is up; this will look impressive from the air. Here (from the Manetti Shrem’s website) is a pre-visualized idea of how it will look: shremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/museum-design/index.html. I feel like I’ve been peering through the window at Christmas time waiting for a glimpse of the new toy display; I can’t wait to finally walk around inside. I’m going to keep documenting as it goes up, updating every couple of months or so, but in the meantime here is a little retrospective so far…

constructing the manetti shrem, part four

October 20, 20152 Comments

More from the series on constructing the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis (which was previously abbreviated to just the ‘Shrem’, but is now formally referred to as the ‘Manetti Shrem’). As you may know I’ve been following its progress through lunchtime sketches, and now that the large steel frame of the canopy is going up, it is time to carry on. The museum will not open until next year some time but you can really see it taking shape now. In fact as I sketched the construction site last Friday from the edge of the Mondavi parking structure, One of the large steel girders, with two smaller girders hanging beneath it, was raised into place, as you can see from the sketchbook shot below with the ‘forty-minutes later’ scene behind it. I spoke to one of the construction workers before I began, showed him what I’d done the previous week, and then there he was up on that roof helping to weld that massive structure together. This building is going to be such an important addition to Davis, and particularly as it stands on the Vanderhoef Quad, named for the much beloved and respected former chancellor of the university Larry Vanderhoef, who passed away last week on the day before I made that sketch below. I met him just the once, in my early years at UCD, and shook his hand, a very sincere and likeable man, who had recently brought out a book about his quarter-century in Davis called “Indelibly Davis”. Indelible is right – many of the impressive large projects at UC Davis, such as the Mondavi Center, are part of his impressive legacy. RIP Chancellor Vanderhoef.

Previously on ‘Constructing the Manetti Shrem’:

Part Three… https://petescully.com/2015/08/07/constructing-the-shrem-part-three/

Part Two… https://petescully.com/2015/07/01/constructing-the-shrem-part-two/

Part One… https://petescully.com/2015/02/26/shrem-museum-under-construction/

constructing the shrem, part three

August 7, 2015August 7, 20153 Comments

The Shrem Museum of Art (under construction) now has some walls, covering the skeletal framework that has been going up these past few months. This building is bigger than the Pitzer Center (the new Music Recital Hall whose construction I am also sketching, see previous posts) but it also had a head start – but the race is on! Which will be finished first? It’s exciting. It’s exciting because it means more ART and MUSIC. More Sciences are great, UC Davis is cutting edge in so many fields but we are also great at art. I’m not talking about me and my little drawings of things, but the bigger art world of Davis and UC Davis, which is substantial and world-renowned, encompassing not only fine art and music but also the dramatic arts. I sketched the scene above on an overcast day earlier this week, meaning I didn’t have to find some shade and could sketch the front without getting too hot in the sun. The lamp-post in the foreground carries the image of Maria Manetti Shrem and Jan Shrem, the donors for whom this museum is named. Wait hang on, an OVERCAST DAY IN DAVIS IN AUGUST? I never thought it would happen again (and unlike last week, it was overcast with clouds and not smoke from all the wildfires, though that was probably mixed in). Yes, actual clouds. For those of you who live in Davis and aren’t sure what clouds are, them being so rare here, they are made up of moisture and float in the sky. Moisture, for those of us in Davis who aren’t sure what that is, it’s made of water. Again, for those not sure what water is, it’s what happens when – look I can’t keep this up. It’s a long-winded way of saying this unending drought we are having in California seems to have no end in sight, so to see actual clouds is encouraging. Last night it even rained a few heavy glops, though it all seemed to evaporate upon impact. We’ll take what we can get in this state.

I did sketch the side of the Shrem museum last week on a far hotter and sunnier day. I found the shade of a tree and listened to the X-Men podcast “Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men”. I have mentioned it before. It’s a really great podcast going through the history of the X-line of Marvel Comics, the “ins, outs and retcons of your favourite superhero soap opera.” Since I started listening to the show certain phrases they like to use have become stuck in my head, such as “Angry Claremontian Narrator” (the voice used by Chris Claremont when narrating comic panels, often berating the characters), “Ah’m Nigh Invulnerable When Blastin'”, a phrase uttered by Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), “The Eternal Moppets of the Marvel Universe”, a reference to two mutants who never seem to age beyond childhood, and “Charles Xavier is a Dick”. If you’re not listening to it, even if you are not an X-Men fan, even if you don’t listen to podcasts or human voices or read anything, I still highly recommend it. Here’s their website. Anyway back to the sketch: so yeah, the Shrem Museum of Art, under construction still.

Previously on ‘Constructing the Shrem’:

Part Two… https://petescully.com/2015/07/01/constructing-the-shrem-part-two/

Part One… https://petescully.com/2015/02/26/shrem-museum-under-construction/

To be continued!

constructing the shrem, part two

July 1, 2015July 7, 20152 Comments

We interrupt the London sketches (actually I am off to France in the next batch) to bring you an update on the construction of the new Shrem Art Museum at UC Davis. But first, the weather. It is bloody hot. A hundred and six they say today, but it’ll be more, knowing Davis. July in the Central Valley. The Shrem Art Museum has been under construction for a few months now and I first did a sketch of its progress back in February. I did a couple more sketches in April from the side, and this week did an updated sketch while standing in the shade of the Mondavi Center on a hundred degree day. In short, it is coming along nicely. It reminded me that I need to get over to the former location of the Boiler Building, where at last construction has begun on the new Music Recital Hall. If this heat calms down a bit I might get over there next week. The sketches below were done in the Seawhite of Brighton sketchbook #2, while the one above was done in the Stillman and Birn Alpha landscape book #2.

constructing the shrem, part one

February 26, 20157 Comments

More construction on the UC Davis campus, but this one, ladies and gentlemen, is long awaited and very significant. This is the south side of the Vanderhoef Quad, a square on the side of campus I call “Trans-arboretum”, which includes the Buehler Alumni Centre, the Graduate School of Management, the UC Davis Welcome Center and Conference Center, and of course the massive Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Hey, I’m going there in April to see Belle and Sebastian. This is the gateway to campus and has been gradually sculpted since I first arrived in Davis. So what are they building, well this will soon be the Shrem Museum of Art. That is the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, to give it the full name. When the museum was announced it was very exciting news and the designs for the new building were modern and innovative. The final design, by Brooklyn-based architects “SO-IL” along with San Francisco based Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, was announced in 2013 and the ground-breaking ceremony took place last spring. You can read about the design here. I’m not joking – I am seriously excited about this museum. Davis is an artist’s city and UC Davis an artist’s campus (I should know eh, drawn it enough times) and this is going to be an amazing addition. I will be sketching its progress as the building goes up, but this is the first. I stood in the shade of the Mondavi Center (it is very sunny here in California right now, apologies to those buried in the snow everywhere else in America).