The Merkaba Molecule sculpture was made by Launch pad artist Spencer Edgerton and his crew.

So in this present sculpture, the Merkaba is an illuminated sculpture inside another sculpture called the Molecule. The Molecule gets its name from the ball structures at the intersections of the circles, which he hopes to someday recreate in a larger form and integrate digital projectors into. This would fulfill the promise of being able to use holographic projections in 3 dimensions in conjunction with the current internal lighting system of the Merkaba Molecule.

He started with a 3D print of the Merkaba. The Merkaba is technically a stellated tetrahedron. All the stainless steel parts were made with Spencer’s plasma table from his original CAD designs. The Molecule is three tangentially intersecting rings.

The sculpture has 8 LED flood lights inside, but it’s ultimately a projection screen for sacred geometry video content.

The Merkaba Molecule was constructed at Launch Pad Enterprise by Spencer with lots of help from his friends and crew. He says, “I would not have been able to make this sculpture without a generous grant from the Arizona Regional Burning Man arts team. It was first shown at their event ” Saguaroman” at Landy McLandface in 2022.

Thanks everybody!

Kelsey Erickson, owner of Circus Sanctuary at Launchpad Artspace.

Circus Sanctuary was founded by Kelsey Erickson in January of 2018. The circus school was one of the original tenants of Launchpad Artspace and its origination coincided with the creation of Circus Sanctuary. The circus school offers private lessons, group classes, and intensives in a wide variety of circus skills including silks, pole, flexibility, inversions, trapeze and lyra. Personalized instruction is provided by knowledgeable instructors in a safe, supportive environment. Every body and every skill level are welcome to attend classes.

Kelsey describes her artistic work as vibrant, daring, otherworldly, striving towards technical proficiency, organic and flowing, sensual, sensational, meaningful and present. Her organization’s mission is to encourage people to play like a child, train like an athlete and perform like an artist.

Kelsey started training in Circus Arts over 12 years ago. She discovered Aerial Silks and Pole Dance at the same time, and later added in Fire Dancing, Stilt Walking, Partner Acrobatics as well as other circus disciplines to her repertoire.

Kelsey started the school in a 1,200 square foot warehouse with 24 foot ceilings, and one year later expanded to a second 1,200 unit where she could offer pole dancing classes. Kelsey says, “I was attracted to Launchpad Artspace because it was a little off the beaten path but close enough to be accessible. I thought we could build a community of artists here that could contribute to each other’s projects and draw a lot of lovely people to this space. The buildings we rent have great height and good lighting.”

Kelsey takes her business seriously, actively marketing her classes and investing significantly in upgrading her two units. Since she launched her business, Kelsey has installed a huge I-beam and premium truss structures to do aerial dance on, foam flooring, dance flooring, large mirrors as well as heat and air conditioning.

Her business aspirations for the future are to have an active performance troupe putting out quality work on a consistent basis. She’d like to reach more people that she can positively impact through circus. Her personal teaching mission statement is to invest in each and every student, teach a variety of circus skills to all ages, abilities, needs, aspirations and body types, in a way that is safe, scientifically sound, and technically proficient and to offer a process oriented approach that encourages self-love, awareness, personal responsibility and joy. 

Some of the highlights of her career include building her business Circus Sanctuary. Prior to starting her own business, Kelsey performed on Balloons 100′ in the air working with Flam Chen, directed and performed for the All Souls finale in front of thousands of people and performed in Pole Show L.A. with some of her pole idols.  She’s also directed and produced a full length show with a story line – Cadence. Kelsey spent a few years training and teaching at New England Center for Circus Arts (one of the most prestigious circus schools in the country) before returning home to Tucson.

To learn more about Circus Sanctuary, visit: www.circusanctuary.com.

Diane Bombshelter working in her studio at Launchpad Artspace.

Diane Bombshelter is an artist at Launchpad Artspace. She describes her work as Realism on black velvet. She explains, “I look at the world through black velvet glasses so if I think something will look great on black velvet, I will follow that muse. Right now, I’m inspired by Jazz Age nudes and the Art Deco movement.  I’ve also been inspired by Chinese Kung Fu movies, Tiki culture, Celebrity, TV and kitsch.”

Diane started painting on black velvet in 2007 after taking art classes at Pima Community College with her favorite artist and teacher George Welch. While researching books about black velvet painting, she came across the work of Leeteg of Tahiti. His masterpieces of Tahitian people completely changed her perception of what black velvet paintings could be. Changing people’s perception through her body of work has now become Diane’s goal.

Chinese Martial Arts Movie Actor, Lu Feng. Diane Bombshelter painted the portrait of him as a character from one of his movies, “Flag of Iron.” On the right is his autograph dated 8/24/2018.

Originally, Diane worked out of her house and progress was very slow. In 2012, when she rented space at an Artists/Tattoo collective called Southbound Studios, working in a creative environment with other talented artists sent her progression through the roof. She was featured in an episode of Arizona Highways Television in 2015. The following year she had her first, solo art opening in the Hotel Congress lobby. In 2017, Elizabeth Cherry commissioned her to do 20 paintings on black velvet that she had turned into a limited-edition card deck. And the following year, Diane had a show at La Matadora Gallery in Joshua Tree, California that was one of her most successful shows next to the one at Hotel Congress. 

Last year Diane painted a portrait of one of her favorite Kung Fu movie stars. She says, “He came all the way from China to a Martial Arts Convention in Burbank, California. There I met him in person and got him to autograph the painting. He was impressed!”

Diane Bombshelter’s Mosaic Mural of Saint Charles at Saint Charles Tavern. (The painted frame with the skulls was done by artist Amy Novelli).

Diane does a lot of commissions of pet and people portraits. And for something completely different, she loves doing mosaic murals and making Art Cars. It was a mosaic mural workshop that she took in 2010 with the world-renowned mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar in Philadelphia, PA that revealed another passion of hers, gluing and grouting. In 2017, she was commissioned to create a 7 ft. x 7 ft. mosaic mural at Saint Charles Tavern. The mural took her 7 days to complete and can be seen on the wall of the tavern’s back patio at 1632 S 4th Ave, Tucson, AZ 85713.

What attracted Diane to Launchpad Artspace is the funky, built-out loft space in a warehouse. She says, “I like the energy of the other artists in the compound and the communal Art Gallery. It’s a really great venue for events and to showcase all of the artists that work there. The events expose different audiences to my art. Since I am also now a working Yoga Instructor, holding classes at the Gallery provides a crossover audience that boosts both my art and my vocation as an instructor.”

As for her business aspirations, she’d like to continue painting on black velvet while simultaneously pursuing a career as a Yoga Instructor. Both provide an outlet for her creative expression.

Learn more about Diane Bombshelter’s work: www.dianebombshelterart.com, Facebook: www.facebook.com/dianebombshelterart/, http://www.facebook.com/yogawithdianeb/

Thom Jordan performing a live set at the 2013 Athens Slingshot Festival in Georgia.

Thom Jordan’s work is focused on the ongoing development and curation of unique computational methods (a.k.a. algorithms) for the generation and combination of music and motion graphics during live performance. His company is called Subobject Classifier. In category theory, a subobject classifier (Ω) is “a special object of a category such that the subobjects of any object X in the category correspond to the morphisms from X to Ω.” This allows one to create new combinations of content on the fly via the use of logic.

Thom is primarily interested in the blurring of distinctions between traditional composing and the improvising of music and visual art in real time, often simultaneously. Thom says, “My focus is towards applying the most useful algorithmic processes within the pursuit of three separate yet mutually reinforcing creative ends: (1) live performance (IRL and via the web); (2) creation of unique content for subsequent licensing, sharing, and supporting online DIY education; (3) app development for iOS, macOS and the web.”

Thom has worked as musician for many years, while teaching himself how to program in his spare time. He explains, “I eventually found the sweet spot between the two when I went back to college and started working toward a BS in Computer Science and Applied Math, which I completed in 2012 at SUNY Albany.” His senior project focused on developing evolutionary algorithms for the generation and deployment of musical patterns during live performance. In 2012, he began graduate-level research as part of the MS Music Technology program at Georgia Tech. Part of his work involved developing new and improved ways of applying these existing evolutionary algorithms during live musical performance, which culminated in three showcase performances at local music festivals in both Atlanta and Athens, Georgia.

Click on the image to see a short performance piece of Thom’s where he used a Theremin to create music out of thin air.

After landing in Tucson a year ago, Thom started looking for the ideal studio space. He saw the available studio at Launchpad Artspace, and according to Thom, “After visiting the space and getting a sense of the highly focused and committed artistic processes that unfold here daily, I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of it. I ended up finding the space of my dreams along with a wonderful and inspiring community of like-minded folks who both live for their work and for helping others realize their innate potential.”

Thom is an invaluable co-collaborator at Launchpad Artspace. He recently programmed the first-ever digital version of leading creativity researcher Dr. Mark Runco’s divergent thinking assessment using 3D geometric shapes for The Universe Within world-building course. He says, “We created a unique app for the iPad that was both rewarding to make and fun to use. The interactive curriculum materials help elementary school students to learn about geometric relationships in a maximally-intuitive way that fosters creative thinking.”

Thom is eager to start filming content for the web, and soon after, regular live webcasts. He explains, “This unique situation and the magnificent space here allows me to work on my methods and materials in tandem with producing and performing, all from the same site, so that the artistic flow can unfold naturally and be the primary guide of each next step in the process.”

Click on the image to see a recent test video Thom shot showcasing his new space at Launchpad Artspace in Tucson, Arizona.

His most recent major breakthrough took place during Mat Bevel Company’s grand opening event in March. Thom performed his original music compositions throughout the evening as guests of all ages were dancing and getting into the music. Most notably, several seniors seemed very happy yet somewhat surprised to hear rhythmic electronic music which also incorporated a higher degree of harmonic complexity than the usual fare. Thom likens the music to the harmonic content of Miles Davis’ modal jazz period beginning with “The Birth of the Cool” and culminating in “Kind of Blue,” which he often refers to as an exceptional model of musical magic made possible through the improvisational exploration of musical scales and modes for color and contrast.

“The use of webcasting as a regular performance medium is a strategy that I’ve been interested in for a while now,” says Thom, “to help minimize the often arbitrary amount of down time between each performance. I’m eager to embark upon this next phase at Launchpad Artspace.”

Tucson native Amy Dunn has been an artist since she was very young. Her mom, a visual artist and teacher, always nurtured Amy’s artistic side. 

After graduating from high school, Amy studied at Pima Community College where she earned an Associate’s degree in Graphic Design. She continued to study Graphic Design at University of Arizona, but after taking an elective Relief woodcut class, she switched to printmaking. Amy loved the print making process and earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with an emphasis in 2D printmaking in 2014.

After graduating, Amy founded Red Collar Press, a printmaking company that keeps traditional techniques alive…and creates radical artwork using her graphic design skills. 

Red Collar Press embraces the history of printmaking, what Amy calls, “processes for the people.” She loves the smell of ink, the feel of quality paper, the vibrant ink colors, and the impressions left from a carving are only a few perks of printing through laborious means.

Amy located her business to Launchpad Artspace in October, 2018. She was looking for a location for her business among other artists. When she checked the Launchpad, she felt very comfortable and at home with the other artists.

As far as her goals for Red Collar Press, Amy says, “I’ve only just begun. I feel as though I’m starting to find my stride, balancing working as a bartender with my art business.” Her goal is to be fully supported by her art business. 

Amy’s learning the ins and outs of how to manage and market her business. She is working on building her portfolio through social media to increasing her business’ online presence to reach a wider audience. She also finds support by connecting with other local artists in Tucson through markets and social media. She says, “The Tucson art community is very friendly. Artists are helping other artists, with art and technology.” 

Check out the Red Collar Press Facebook.

You can also see some of Amy’s designs at Tucson Pop Cycle, a gift shop that promotes local art made from recycled materials, re-used products and refurbished goods. On December, Tucson Pop Cycles featured Amy’s “Love Tucson” t-shirt in a Facebook post saying, “We have been in love with Amy Dunn’s sweet LOVE TUCSON T for a long while. She has graciously agreed to share it with us at Pop Cycle. There are so many reasons to love Tucson, and Amy has highlighted a multitude of them here.”

Amy is excited about the synergy at Launchpad Artspace. She looks forward to group art shows and open studio tours in the future, maybe even a small market. 

You can learn more about Amy’s business and her artwork at the Red Collar Press website.

One of our collaborators at Launchpad Arts Collective is Spencer Edgerton. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from University of Arizona in Sculpture. Spencer has been at Launchpad Artspace since its inception one year ago.

Spencer started his art career making jewelry. He was taught by his mom a jeweler. By the time he was in 7th grade he was making and selling his own cast silver jewelry. He now teaches benchtop casting at Desert Metal Craft. www.desertmetalcraft.org

Today he works at Metalphysic Sculpture Studio, a contemporary fine art bronze foundry that reproduces sculptures in bronze for artists across the country. The company utilizes state of the art technologies in combination with old world craftsmanship to create three-dimensional fine art. A typical sculpture might begin with the artist’s hand in clay, be scanned with lasers, be enlarged by CNC robots, molded, and hand cast in bronze by craftsmen using lost wax techniques as old as civilization itself. www.metalphysic.com

Spencer and his Deep Orbit team invented the Ei-Robot, a piece of art that makes art. Sponsored by the Burning Man Festival, it is a tool, a sculpture, and an interactive performance. It can cut steel spheres into sculptures that can be illuminated or filled with fire. Find out more about this project created at the Launchpad Artspace by visiting www.ei-robot.com

Spencer plans to build a workshop studio at Launchpad Artspace optimised for building public art and sharing his knowledge of sculpture and technology with others. He’s inspired by physical science and the natural world. At Launchpad Arts Collective, Spencer will be an integral part of establishing a Maker’s Space for 3D printing and digital arts, electronic music and robotics. This shared space will be an incubator for technologists and entrepreneurs.

To learn more about Spencer’s work, visit him online.