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Keeping the design flexible Designing a 30 foot light sculpture at my studio in Chicago is one thing. BUILDING it in a mountain village in Taiwan 2 hours from the nearest city is another thing entirely. So we came prepared to meet whatever challenges came our way. Materials can be tough to source on short notice up here. But sometimes people are too. Some vendors couldn't get enough help, pushing other parts of it behind as well. A few things got changed or removed altogether because they couldn't get coordinated. It's tough to ask your workers to commute 4 hours a day! We figured that into our scheduling and always kept another idea in our back pockets 😉 One thing I decided to change on short notice was the doors and windows on the tree. Steel frame construction took a bit longer than expected, which bumped out the metal scroll work we'd planned for the curvy openings on the Tree of Light. Here's their original design: Lots of curvy scroll work, curved metal supports for the heart door and lots of acrylic supported by a good deal of metal mesh. And a matching star door at the exit, along with two huge windows just like them on the next floor! We quickly realized that it was going to be too complex for our metal crew and acrylic cutters to accomplish well and quickly. How do we keep the spirit of the design and get it done with the crews we had available to us? I whipped out my phone and took a shot of the exit and scribbled this on top of it: Basically one big triangle, a beam parallel to the ground, and two short pieces connecting them. Quick to cut and weld, all the acrylic panels would be straight edges, and the math on it was all pretty simple. We could also add in the "feel" of a more rounded opening by trimming the door with curved rope lights. So I scribbled off a heart shape, showed them both to our Chinese speaking crew chief with a few hand gestures and by the next morning we had this: Here's the heart window in its finished form, with a live musician performing in it! It actually fits beautifully with the whole structure design and makes it feel more modern too. Pretty nice, right? This also saved on acrylic, which helped us a lot as the size of the crucial beacon on top had changed in construction and the panels we'd had cut for it were all too small and needed to be remade on site. We couldn't just pop over to the acrylic store and get more- that'd burn up half a day! We also needed a fun and simple way to lead people through the space from the lot entrance to the Tree of Light and out again. My partner here had a ton of artificial turf. But strips of that are dull and not very attractive. So I thought of the circles dotting the sides of the tree and connected that with lily pads and the fun of hopping from spot to spot. We gave our helpers some sizes and they got busy cutting: Which we turned into a very organic pathway that was the hit of our opening! Not bad, right?

Explore where the Tree of Light lives Laiji Village is part of the Alishan area of Taiwan and home to a tribe of indigenous people of the area. It will also be the home of the Tree of Light. And, while we're building it... This will be my home, too! This is the view from the room I'm staying in here. Isn't it gorgeous? Life moves at a different pace up here in Laiji. This puppy, one of about a dozen I've met up here, just roams free and will even occasionally pop into the restaurant while you're eating to ask for a taste 🙂 He and all his puppy pals aren't strays. They all have homes, they just like to explore! They've been hanging out with us the whole time we've been working on the Tree of Light. There are just three restaurants in town- one we hit for each meal of the day. Our lunch spot is barely a building- it's basically some bamboo supports covered in tarps. And you can bet the food is delicious! Dinner is at a more modern bamboo and wood cafe that still really doesn't have walls. The owner (and entire staff herself!) just puts a board across the entrance at night. Laiji residents are all very friendly and intrigued with what we're building here. They are mainly hunters, farmers, builders, hotel owners, and artisans. Laiji also hosts tours of native life experiences with many bus loads of tourists every day here to enjoy mountain life and culture. Here's part of a group that came through as we were working and wanted a picture with me: And I got a free hat out of it, too! Laiji is almost 2 hours from Chiayi, the biggest nearby city. So we had to be VERY prepared to do our work. Need a certain kind of electrical plug? That's a 3 hour round trip! We popped into town a few times to get printing, PVC pipes for the beacon lights on top of the tree, etc. When you go down, better make a very good list of what you need! Here we are grabbing a whole bunch of things (and some tasty dumplings!) in one trip. We've also enjoyed bonfires in the cool valley at night and other good times. It's a great place to visit and I'd recommend you come see it!

How I access my home studio remotely from Taiwan One thing I worried about coming here- what if we get more work that I need my massive workstation back at the studio in Chicago to complete? Laptops are nice... ...but my workstation has 4 video cards and TONS of computing power well beyond this laptop. I did a little research, consulted some uber nerds I know who play in that area, and came up with a great solution that's easy enough for almost anyone and doesn't break the bank. Here's a video explaining the whole process, which I'll also go into more detail about below: It takes 3 simple things, a little computer know-how, and some testing before you go. First you need a Smart Outlet. There's a bunch of them. The key point here is you need one that's good to power on from anywhere with an app. So do your homework- some smart outlets are just made for controlling lights from your home. They're made to only stay on your home network and do things like dim the lights in the kitchen from your bedroom, for example. What you need here is one that can set up while you're at home, but then control from anywhere. I chose the Kasa smart outlet- it connects the app to the outlet on your home network and then can activate it from the app no matter where you are. It always works well with Google Assistant on my phone, and was only about $25. That fit the bill for me! So, set it up, name it, and plug your computer into the outlet. Next, you need to adjust your computer's power on settings, usually found in the BIOS or UEFI. If you don't know what those are, you may be out of your depth on this project :-) Here's what that involves: You may have to look up where this is on your machine- it seems to be under different areas depending on who made your computer. It's usually set to 'Power Off' or something similar. Just set it to 'Power On' and then your machine is ready. You can test if this worked by turning your computer off, then unplugging it and plugging it back in. AC Restore is designed to start servers up again when there's been an outage. So if your computer has no power and then it gets power again (by plugging it back in) it should boot up like if you'd hit the power button on the case. Pretty cool, right? Last thing you need is Remote Desktop Access software. There's a lot of those too- TeamViewer and AnyDesk are two big players here, but you also have Webex, Logmein, and some others out there. TeamViewer and AnyDesk both have lots of good features like file transfer, multiple monitor setups, and unattended access. If you're working on anything big- like videos- file transfer is nice because it goes directly from one machine to another vs. having to upload and THEN download from somewhere like Google Drive or Dropbox. A real time-saver. Unattended Access if your friend here! It sets up so anyone with the address code to the machine can just run it without logging in. So, set that up and then DON'T give that information out to anyone. So, now we have the three parts to this- smart outlet, power options, and remote desktop software. Here's how we run them together. Power your computer down like you normally would, then power off the smart outlet with the app to begin. Power on the smart outlet with the app and your computer should start up on its own! Make sure you've disabled the log-in screen on your computer first. You may have to look up how to do this- it's in lots of places depending on your OS. Otherwise, it can never boot into the unattended access we just set up. Then launch your Remote Desktop server from the remote machine to control your home computer. It should work just like it did at home, but some things may lag a little depending on what you're doing. For me, some of my animation and 3D software took a second to catch up to my mouse movements. It may not be great for timing animation or editing video remotely, depending on where you are (like a hotel with bad internet.) When you're done working, just use the Remote Desktop software to shut down the remote machine- this will end your remote session, so you can close that. One important point is to time how long it takes your machine to power up and down before you leave. Mine took a bit over a minute for each. This way you don't power off the outlet while the machine is still running (computers don't like that) or try to connect to your Remote Desktop software before it's on all the way to the OS. When the time it takes to power your computer off is up, just turn the smart outlet off from the app and it's ready to go the next time. My machine uses LOTS of power because of all the hardware, fans, graphics cards etc. so it's nice to have it all the way off when I don't need it (and saves on power bills!) I've run this setup from my hotel in Taiwan all the way to my computer at my studio in Chicago and it works great! Happy remote working :-)

How local art and traditions will integrate with our design Look at all those great kids adding their own voices to the Tree of Light! These are children from the local native villages, adding fish-themed designs to panels that will reside on the corners of the tree at each level. Different villages will add themed designs that reflect what they're known for- from leather to pigs, fireflies, and iron. Here we see them working under the guidance of local artists and their teachers on a collaborative painting. You can see one of the finished panels here, featuring a fish motif with mountains inside of it surrounded by abstract native patterns in black and white. So colorful! The natives have their own distinctive visual language featuring all sorts of great animal figures like this, often painted on rocks. There are quite a few on the road up to where I'm headed in Alishan: You can see here how we've designed these panels to integrate onto the Tree of Light sculpture: Levels will alternate between my designs for the corner panels and native designs. Here's another corner panel- made by a local professional artist along with some very colorful tires that will be used for tables around the Tree of Light: This will be backed with colored acrylic so that light can shine out from behind it to light up the tree. Aren't all of these pieces fantastic? I can't wait to see it all come together in celebration of this place and its people.

Climbing to the heavens and shining to the 7 continents Enjoy this glimpse into the inner workings of realizing a big beautiful light sculpture: My favorite part of this is that workman's table- basically a huge tree stump! Before they cleared it out, this lot had huge piles of lumber under that tarp in the background. So they kept a few for doing their work on. You can also see the beacon has been added to the top from the digitally cut shapes I designed. I got a little swoon-y seeing the beacon on top in that shot! It's a really special part of this for me and seeing it look more like a tree is pretty great. I'm leaving quarantine tomorrow morning and will finally get to see all this in person. There are so many people and so many parts to this! The core structure of this tree is steel, which you can see going up in the first video. On top of that, we have mesh on two sides of each level and acrylic on the other two sides which will be lit from within. The mesh will hold art designed by natives that can be rotated out or changed for different occasions. All of the mesh and acrylic panels are being delivered to the site today, and soon every thing can be fitted and sized on site. After that, we'll be adding finishing touches like lighting, bamboo scroll work and grass elements, etc.

Sketches to models to metals- oh my! I showed you this initial sketch of mine earlier, and a little of the process to build this. Here's a bit more! As you can see, it starts by building a simple 3D model: This model is based on a really simple two-dimensional heart-shaped outline, which we bevel. Each part of this is built with the simplicity of the final model, in terms of number of panels to assemble, in mind. Then, we run it through a neat program that unfolds it into flat panels and I can just draw over that! Here's 3 minutes of that process in real-time, it's kind of relaxing and mesmerizing to watch: Once we've got the basics together, we can split up all the parts and clean up the linework. This is something I've done a number of times- like this cool lamp I designed and the heart sculpture below, which were both designed digitally with plans to be cut them out of wood: Here's the cleaned up version of it- the black areas I've shown here indicate the POSITIVE space on the front of the sculpture. The colored areas denote what acrylic colors will be behind those shapes. This is a light sculpture, so translucent acrylic will be behind the shapes with lights inside illuminating them to give it a nice glow at night and allow the sun to shine through it in the daytime. And this is the two sides assembled, waiting for the center spaces and acrylic: This image gives a sense of scale- these are each bigger than a person! The flat shapes are all angled so building this is like making them out of paper- just attach and match the right sides and it's ready to weld! Soon, we'll have some install and finish photos to show.

Sketches start to become reality We're making progress! This light sculpture has LOTS of parts, but it all begins with the structure. This is just the basic from, with bits and pieces all over that come together to hold this all together. Here's a few more for you- corner panels and parts of the beacon on top: Since it's such a large light sculpture- over 30 feet (10 meters) tall and 18 feet wide (6 meters) at its base, much of it starts out in segments that are being welded on-site as we speak. How'd they get all these parts figured out? Well they took my initial 'visual design' made in 3D and had an architect create a structural model from it that will support all the elements I've envisioned. The 'mesh' parts you see on alternating sides of each floor will hold native artist designs, while the other sides will be covered with colored acrylic to let light flow through them. The top will be solid red acrylic with steel overlays to act as a beacon, shining out toward the 7 continents. Most parts are being cut and welded. Some parts, like the hearts and stars on the edges shown earlier, are cut from the steel with a water-jet cutter using my digital files. I draw, they cut it out of metal and people enjoy it!

I'm so glad you asked me this! The short answer: so many delicious and adorable things! I mean, c'mon, look at those two adorable owls! And it's adorable on the outside too: That breakfast was one of my first days here- the little rice balls have pork inside them and the sausages were sweet and snappy. Lots and lots of rice and garlic-y veggies, along with some noodle soups and marinated chicken and other tasty things. Here's the best part: they never ask what you want, beyond if you eat meat when you check-in. Three times a day at the same times someone just leaves a bag outside your door with food and rings the bell. No ordering, no menus. Food just shows up. I'm like the best-fed zoo animal ever! Here's a sampling of what I've had in just a week: Sometimes we had rice, sometimes soup, and at breakfast conghee was a big staple. This one came with custard even! Those little strips are breaded potatoes. The purple corn was a treat. Most of these I just tossed in with my rice in varying degrees and ate while watching some great shows. All of it feels like restaurant quality food made like at home. If you want to see more of the food, I've done daily unboxing videos explaining what's what on my Facebook page and there's also some daily photos exploring different parts of my view out the window on my Instagram page to get a feel for how life is in a quarantine hotel in Taiwan.

Welcome to your new home for two weeks Aside from what's in my room, this is the only view I have to the outside world. Luckily, it's a beautiful and ever-changing mountain landscape. What's it like staying in just one room for two weeks? It's different, but they've set us up nicely. I've got plenty of tea- black and green. And, well, an apple peeler? But they've given us quite a few apples while we're here, so that's nice. And of course, a hot water kettle. It's China, after all. Enjoyed a lot of tea in this so far :-) And a ton of toiletries! Because, you're not leaving this room to go buy some!! There's two weeks worth of shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, body wash, some razors, soap, cream, etc. They also include a nice desk to work at, two cases of water, a TV in the main room and the bedroom and a full kitchen that you can't really use. I have a two burner stove but no pots or utensils of any kind. Also, who flies right into town with food ready to cook? The microwave and fridge have been nice with the occasional left overs. There's really no forks or spoons in this room, or dishes for that matter. I'm pretty good with the chopsticks we get with each meal but, man, if someone stayed here who wasn't it'd be a rough couple of weeks! The TV is a selection of Chinese shows, some Japanese shows and about the equivalent of basic cable in English. I've enjoyed hooking my laptop up to the TV to watch Netflix, which seems to offer just as much here, but suggests more Asian fare than at home. Disney+ isn't available here in Taiwan, so I can't enjoy any of that. I'm not afraid to yank wires out of connectors in strange places, but some of you may not be so bold. I've even fired up a few aerobic workouts on YouTube so I can get a little blood flowing, because it's not like I'll be heading to the gym or the pool or out for a walk. So if you're really active and heading to another country right now, plan accordingly. The biggest thing I can say is have things planned to do! Work, blogs like this, a regiment of photos to take or people you need to call for meetings. I've been painting while I'm here, shooting videos, creating some animation, and even making a rubber band ball from the ones securing my food each day. Otherwise time can get very weird in an empty room with one view. But also, take some time to goof off- listen to music, watch some fun shows, take a nap. You'll thank me for it.

Fast responses and great tracking are key In Chicago, we have signs on the highway that read 'If you've traveled here from a COVID hot spot, we recommend you quarantine for 14 days.' But there's really no measurements in place to insure that. Taiwan is handling things a bit differently. Once we got off the plane, we headed straight to a special area where they confirmed you have a Taiwan-based phone number. If you don't, there are only two options: a vendor there will sell you a new SIM card that they'll set up, or you can rent a phone with a local number. Or you just don't enter. Remember that online health declaration form I filled out before I left? It automatically texts you when you land with a link to finish it. There's a spot for that number there. They test it before you move on to the next section, put it in the form and bam! Your location is being tracked to insure you're not breaking quarantine and it keeps track of anyone you've been near in case they show an infection. You have to keep it on 24 hours a day and it must always be with you. Once you're past that, it's on to immigration who will want to see your test results. Taiwan has a 14 day quarantine policy, so it was off to a special hotel for me next. They don't allow you to take public transit- you have to take a cab or have a ride. On arrival at the hotel, you can't even enter the lobby! There's a special square on the ground you need to stand in, show them your declaration and results, and they send you straight up to your room. I've got other posts later about how the hotel stay has been (spoilers: the food is AH-MAZING!) Day one, I got a call from the local police. They know I'm here and need my room number. They tell me a few regulations about what I can't do, ask me how I'm feeling and tell me we'll talk again. They've called a few more times each week since this. I also get this text EVERY DAY at 10 am here in quarantine. Like that guy on 'Lost' who had to enter some random number into a machine each day while confined to a box, I press '1' each day like clockwork. The hotel staff that brings my food 3 times a day wears full body Tyvek suits and face shields when they leave it (I saw one after he left one day.) The CECC will keep track of me for a week AFTER my quarantine is up to see how I'm doing, and then we're good. Taiwan has had just over 700 cases TOTAL in an island of nearly 23 million. So they're doing something right. The U.S. had 3000 deaths each day recently.

You can't just jump on a plane to Taiwan right now. Taiwan isn't offering entry to ANY foreign visitors for tourism or family visits at this time. Normally, you'd just book a flight and show up with your passport. Things are a bit different. My time here falls under 'Cultural Exchange' so I was allowed- with some hoops to go through. First, you need a Visa- and they're not taking appointments. You have to mail your paperwork in- after you've emailed them scans of all your documents to make sure you have it all in order. For me, I needed a physical invitation letter mailed to me with signifying stamps from my partners in Taiwan and all sorts of other things- a guarantee letter, their business license, some current photos, declarations that I haven't had a fever lately, my passport, etc. Then they looked it over and I went down to pick it up! Once you have all that, you need to fill out a health declaration form online (that you'll finish filling out on arrival) like the one below- with your hotel name and address, contact at home, where you sat on the flight, etc. On arrival, you'll find that MANY places will need to make use of this- my hotel asked for it, the local police will use it to call you occasionally to ask how you're feeling, the Central Epidemic Control Center will put you on a list to robo-text every day with questions on your health... Like many countries, they're also requiring a negative COVID test within 3 days before departure. This is a whole other ordeal to work out. There are two kinds of tests... Cheap, unpredictable, and slow Precise, fast, and expensive Many reduced cost tests at places like the local drug store or free municipal sites have uncertain wait times or may run out- and can take up to 72 hours for results. Since I needed a test in a certain time period, I just had to find a local lab and pay a few hundred dollars for an appointment that got my results that same night. I printed it out and headed off to my flight- yeah! You can read about my flight in this post. Upon arrival, of course, there were a few more hurdles to jump over ;-)

Getting to Taiwan wasn't easy! It's a weird time to be flying right now. Mind you, flying all the way to Taiwan from Chicago is kind of surreal ANY time. But especially now. Security was the funniest part- I literally was in and out in about a minute at O'Hare on a Monday afternoon with no one in line with me at all for TSA screening. I just casually took my time putting things into my bin for screening, with no one in front of me or behind. The lane next to mine had one other person. There more at least 5x more TSA agents than people checking in. I'd say more than half the airport was empty, even though it was the Monday after Thanksgiving! Out of 6 arrival/departure boards, two of them were just blank. This is my flight to San Francisco- I'm 16 rows back in a 32 row plane. I got a whole row to myself, along with no one in the row behind me or in front. The flight to Taiwan was no different. This plane seats about 800- I doubt there were even 100 of us onboard. Which is good, because at 14 hours long- it was nice to lay across a few seats to sleep. And the flight left at midnight, so it was ALL in the dark, too! I know many people haven't had flying experiences as good as this- with crammed planes and all. But mine worked out pretty nicely. Still, it was over 28 hours from leaving home to my hotel in Taipei. Not for the faint of heart!