In the spirit of process art, we are once again sharing our development methodology for the LUTZICK SNOWDRIFT ARRAYS exhibit in Winslow, opening on 8 November 2025. And yes, we have made a slight modification to the name to include Dan’s name (LUTZICK), his space (SNOWDRIFT), and his work (ARRAYS).
Overall, Dan has a clear concept regarding what the show will encompass, and while he continues to play with a variety of arrangements and create new pieces, the main space of the Winslow Studio Artists gallery is more or less planned.
The Problem Spot
One part of the space we have struggled with, though, is the entry to the Winslow Studio Artists Gallery, an area we call the “Canyon.” This is the viewer’s first experience with the work, so it should set a tone for the show. We talked about doing a chronology, but reading and viewing would be difficult in the narrow hallway, plus it would impede the flow of traffic.
We talked about pulling quotes from Dan’s journal defining arrays, but again, the display wouldn’t make the right kind of impact. Plus Dan wants to let the visitor come to their own conclusions instead of providing them with explanations.
This week, Dan came up with a solution to our canyon dilemma, based on thinking about an actual canyon’s true essence, with its vertical walls and ledges.
Dan: 4/21/25 – Here is a new, and likely final solution for the exhibit entry arch in the “canyon.” It is a flexible type of installation that lets me pick the size of the display space for each sculpture/drawing, and it repurposes the old headers from the doors in the El Garces project. I have attached pictures and a journal entry to explain.
The Story Behind the Headers
From 2005 through 2009, Dan was project manager on the El Garces renovation in Needles, California (closed in 1949). As Allan and Dan had done with La Posada Hotel in Winslow, they hoped to save another Harvey House, but after three years of work, they had to leave the project when it became clear that an historic easement blocked their plans for a hotel.
During Dan’s work on the former hotel, he salvaged several antique door headers that were left over from the construction, knowing he would someday find a use for them.
He indeed has found the perfect use. An important element of Dan’s work is his repurposing of salvaged materials, so these headers add yet another significant and meaningful layer to the exhibit.
Dan: I have enough of these headers that I could do the entire canyon wall with them. We could add framed journal pages, studio shots, etc… Hard to say if that would work. We could lay these shelves out on the floor and try different items to see how they work.
Brainstorming the Canyon
Seeing things in context is key to making decisions, so Dan loaded up his van with a pile of headers and a variety of small sculptures, and–since the Canyon itself is too narrow to lay the sculptures on the floor–Dan and Lori laid them out in the Winslow Studio Artists Gallery where the main show will be, to get a feel for whether this concept would work.
A few of the sculptures are maquettes of larger pieces that will be in the show, made while developing a larger piece. Some are unfinished. Many are rough. Since Lori was recording video of the process for the exhibit film, she extracted a few quotes from the experiment.
Dan: So I like the fact that you’re walking up to the canyon, you’re seeing miniature versions, maybe without realizing what you’re going to come across when you walk into the space. And unless you’re paying real close attention, it’ll take you a while to match that up. I hate people telling me what something is. I love it when there are clues and I can kind of match things together and say, oh, did this come before he made that? Why did he put those together? How did that work? And so that’s certainly the way the canyon can play as you come through it.
After Dan and Lori each climbed a ladder and looked over the array of smaller sculpture, Dan had this to say:
Dan: This feels more like me. This definitely has my character in that the things that I make are kind of beat up and rough around the edges, and sometimes you’re not quite sure if they’re finished or not.
Incorporating the Show Name
The canyon is generally where the show name is displayed, along with any show statement, so the dilemma is how to include the name without disrupting the beautiful pattern of the headers and sculpture.
Dan: So if there’s this canyon of all these little figures, where does the name of the exhibit come in? How does the the visitor understand what it is they’re seeing and how it relates to the exhibit?
Lori suggested the name be incorporated as art into the array itself, an idea that Dan then expounded upon:
Dan: And maybe if we do the hand-painted signs and not, you know, printed signs, that will add to it, especially if they look like they’re on a board, like somebody ripped them off the wall and then stuck them on the shelf.
The concept grew to each header displaying a sculpture and a word:
Dan: And so the concept that comes in on the canyon now is that as the visitor walks through it, they’re seeing words and the words are Arrays. Restoration. Kugelblitz, Accretion, words that I associate with my collections of sculptures, They see those positioned on these artifacts, these old headers from El Garces hotel in Needles, California, with all these little sculptures.
The Canyon Solution
Dan and Lori ended the meeting feeling confident in the plan. It achieves the goal of setting the tone for the show. It adds another level of arrays. And it engages visitors, who will not simply be told what the show is about…
Dan: Instead, I have people walking by and they have to put those puzzle pieces together, and they may put them together in a way that is exactly what I want them to think, or they may put them together in a way that gives them ideas about what an art exhibit or sculpture is, which, you know, bingo! That’s the golden moment, you know, that you hope for anyone engaging with an exhibit to have.
And now, we return to working on the book and the film.
