Ellen’s Work Blog
June 2023
On most days over the last eight months I have spent some of my time at work positioning 10,000 watches face up on 28 yards of aluminum wire mesh, immersing them, section by section, in polymer, 19 gallons total. On Wednesday, May 24, John Jacquier, Don Breslauer, and Justin Truskauskas met me at AMP to install this mother-load of watches on the concrete block and brick walls surrounding the elevator shaft in the mural building. Like some kind of Dr. Seuss creature wrapping itself around the elevator and up the stairs, the last section was installed on the third level about 10 feet from the roof. I will spare you the full description of how John, Justin, and Don got that last one up there.
As projects go, I have to be honest and describe it as one of the most tedious creative pieces I have ever done. Yet every time I put my knee pads on, started pulling the watches out in massive piles and, one by one, finding a perfect fit, a sweet juxtaposition, there was this momentary sense of accomplishment. Every watch belonged to a person who gave their time to help someone else. And every night when I got up to leave the studio, the pile of completed watches growing, I thought of the cumulative effect of all that help. At heart, we are still a country of people who want to give back. Sadly, in today’s world, it doesn’t make the front page.
At AMP, it does.
