TAHOE: 

I always had a love for art and was always thinking up things to do in the studio and just smaller projects. But I must say, nothing really to the effect of the mammoth. As soon as the idea came into my head, it was done. I was completely taken. And nobody could convince me that it wasn’t going to happen.

STUART: 

Hi, Tahoe.

TAHOE: 

Hi, Stuart.

STUART: 

Hey, everybody. We’re back with another episode of Burning Man LIVE. I’m Stuart Magnum, and my guest today is the artist Tahoe Mack, whose honorary piece for Black Rock City 2019 — you may have seen it, The Monumental Mammoth — is now going to be a permanent installation at the Tule Springs National Monument in Las Vegas. Thanks for coming on the program, Tahoe.

TAHOE: 

It’s my pleasure. I’m really happy to be here.

STUART: 

Yay. You know, we had your friend and mine, Dana Albany, on the program a few episodes back and she mentioned a little bit about working with you on the Mammoth. But why don’t you just start for our listeners who have zero idea what we’re talking about here. Can you just describe the piece to us? 

TAHOE: 

Of course. 

STUART: 

Set the mood.

TAHOE: 

Yeah. Set the mood. So when I was 15 years old, I heard a presentation from Tule Springs National Monument. And at the time I was a Girl Scout, and I was finishing up my Scouting. And there’s this project called the Gold Award, the final Golden Star of scouting. And once you complete this award, you’ve completed Girl Scouts. It’s a huge project. When I heard this presentation from Tule Springs, I was immediately, completely enraptured in the story.

Tule Springs is a National Monument in Las Vegas, the first of its kind. But I don’t think there’s any other State Parks in Las Vegas, and there are huge amount of fossils out in the Vegas desert of monumental mammals, sabertooth cats and all these animals from the Pleistocene Era. 

When I heard about this park, I was just absolutely taken by it. So excited by the possibility and the potential of what it would bring. And so drawn to the story. It was a group of eight women who came together after hearing that this land was going to be completely destroyed, and for eight years they fought the government and ended up getting this land saved.

And now there’s a State Park. And there’s a whole facility there where they’re going to start to do excavations, they’re slowly going to start to open the park up to more and more visitors. But, it inspired the mammoth, because there is a huge dumping problem there. So it was a really cool way to bring the community together, to collect all this trash and to be able to work with Luis Varelo-Rico and Dana Albany, who created so many amazing connections and communities.

And it was truly an incredible project. And it visited Black Rock Desert. We received an Honorarium grant for 2019 and it was just to be able to share it with the world was truly amazing, and Burning Man is so fun! And, I had a blast. And I also just love what it’s all about.

STUART: 

Well, we’re definitely going to talk some more about that. I want to know, what does it look like? If I had never seen this thing, and I’m just listening to, I don’t know, a podcast, how would you describe its appearance, size, texture, all that? What’s it made out of?

TAHOE: 

So the Monumental Mammoth is a 40 foot sculpture of a Columbian mammoth. She is massive and bold and beautiful, completely covered in recycled metal. So the interior structure is a skeleton, almost rendered kind of like a puzzle piece would be. 

STUART: 

Right. 

TAHOE: 

That structure was created by Luis Varela-Rico, and he’s very prevalent in Las Vegas. He’s done a lot of public work here, and it’s just an incredible piece of sculpture in itself.

And then that in combination with Dana Albany’s work, which is this beautiful collage of all these recycled materials that come together to create an outer skin of a mammoth. And there’s gaps left, so you can still see this skeleton structure within the mammoth sculpture to kind of give people that full story of what the Monumental Mammoth is inspired by Tule Springs National Monument, this whole story of the past, the present and the future.

So the past being, these amazing megafauna that used to roam the Vegas desert. The skeletons that are being found now and all the trash that was left behind by people, and now just this kind of like imaginative space, where you get to see and feel the presence of an amazing, gigantic creature.

STUART: 

So, okay, so let me get this straight. You were inspired by the story of these women who saved this property from developers. And you got it in your head, to – how did that turn into an art project in your young… I believe you were 15 years old at the time?  

TAHOE: 

Yeah.

STUART: 

Well, that seems a little audacious. How did that idea come to you?

TAHOE: 

I have a very busy mind. So, as I’m listening to this presentation, and they said there was a dumping problem. There’s so many artists that I’ve been inspired by and I’ve always been into art, it’s always been my like, hobby, and so I’ve just was exposed to all of these inspirations throughout my childhood, of all these incredible artists that work with recycled metal.

So it was a no-brainer, when I heard that the park was completely littered with trash to make a sculpture out of it, it just kind of was like, Oh, of course. So I was just sitting there listening to it, and it just popped in my head. I’m like, “Oh my gosh. We have the potential to really tell this story, and communicate to anyone that comes to see the park about what’s here with the sculpture.

STUART: 

So many representations of mammoths that I’ve seen – I grew up in Los Angeles and we have the La Brea Tar Pits. The closest you’re going to get to a representation of the mammoth is its actual skeleton, which really doesn’t tell you what the animal looked like that much at all. 

Why a mammoth?

TAHOE: 

I was thinking after hearing the presentation: What’s the biggest thing out there? This story is massive. All these women that came together to protect this land, and the importance of protecting treasures is so great. We’ve got to have something that represents this fully, and I feel like a mammoth does that perfectly. It’s a massive creature. It’s hard to imagine anything that big ever walked the earth. And also, elephants are so wise. They’re full of wisdom and empathy. The whole idea of an elephant tells the story of longevity and meaningfulness well.

STUART:

Well, So this prehistoric pachyderm… Let’s see, is a mammoth and a mastodon the same thing? Did you learn a little bit about this particular species, the Columbian Mammoth, and where it fits in that whole evolutionary jumble?

TAHOE:

Yes. So Columbian mammoths are from the Pleistocene Era. They actually aren’t wooly, so they don’t have any hair. They look a lot like an elephant. They’re the biggest mammoths. They’re massive, huge. Our mammoth is actually to scale to a large big boy. But she’s a lady. Don’t forget she’s a lady mammoth!

STUART:

How tall is she at the shoulder?

TAHOE:

I think she’s 18 feet tall. 

STUART:

18 feet with her proboscis in the air, right, her legs in the air.

TAHOE:

Yeah!

STUART:

They’re substantially bigger than even the biggest African elephants that are alive today. Right. Which I think are like ten feet or so at the shoulder. 

TAHOE:

Yeah, they’re huge.

STUART:

There’s something about the elephant that spoke to you more than, say, I mean, this site must have had all kinds of remains in it, saber tooth tigers and whatnot, but it was the mammoths that won the day for you.

TAHOE:

Absolutely. Just the most majestic creatures.

STUART: 

Yeah, that’s amazing. I like the inside peek, and being able to see that crazy – It does look like one of those wooden puzzles, the way that Luis put the interior skeleton together. 

Tell us about working with Luis. How did you make that connection and what was he like?

TAHOE: 

I was connected through Pam Stuckey, who’s a Las Vegas native, and she has lots of relationships with different artists. She heard about the project. I was telling her, “Oh, I need to find someone to work with.” I had no metalworking experience at all, never knew how to work with metal or anything large. And she was like, “Okay!”

She set me up on a meeting with five or six other artists. Lu was the first artist we met with, my mom and I, and instantly it was just like: DONE. He was like, “We can do this.” We both love Volkswagens, little Volkswagen Beetles, and we just instantly connected and gelled well., and he taught me how to weld.

He is the most incredible steel worker, so talented, so precise and on it, like thinking through all of the pieces. I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to metalworking. He truly fostered my love for metalworking. And he’s incredibly humble and kind and amazing.

STUART: 

That’s great. Dana Albany is, of course, no stranger to metalwork. What was it like working with my friend Dana?

TAHOE: 

It was the best. I still have a close relationship with Lu, but I also have a very close relationship with Dana as well. We’re in constant contact still. I feel like a soul connection to her, truly. I think we see similarly when it comes to how we perceive the work, which is really nice. We’re constantly cheering each other on, and she definitely helped me instill that confidence in my vision and on my creation, which is just so invaluable.

She was definitely just the most incredible mentor and teacher and still continues to be that for me. And she’s always making cool, fun projects, and any time I have the opportunity to come and help her, I’m always there. It’s so fun! And working with Flash too. It’s just the best. Dana’s a really special person and her and Lu still have a relationship as well, and they’ve worked on a couple of projects together to this day, which is just like, so special for me to think that they work, they just worked so well together and they still inspire each other. Yeah, Dana’s a really special person, and just incredible artist.

STUART: 

Now, you mentioned Luis and Dana as catalysts for helping bring this idea to life, but I’m sure there are others before and after them, Girl Scout leader, parents? How did the people around you support and help mentor you in this process?

TAHOE: 

Oh wow, there’s so many people to thank. My mom was the Girl Scout leader, so she was like that… Girl Scouts is a huge part of my childhood. And we had a huge group too. We had 16 other Girl Scouts in our troop that were also doing billboard projects. And my mom was… I could not have done it without her. Being 15 years old, this was not something I could have accomplished on my own. But with her help and her guidance, and also Sherri Grotheer who is our partner with Protector, she was a huge help and doing all the reading documents, and like all the nitty gritty things, it was truly a team effort.

STUART: 

Protectors is the nonprofit that is ministering the land now, right? Protectors of Tule Springs. Is that correct?

TAHOE: 

So they have a plot of land, so Protectors has a protected area, but the mammoth is actually at a state park called Ice Age Fossil State Park. I When it comes to installing things on national land rather than state land, it’s a little bit different. The state park offered to take her and the timing just ended up lining up perfectly, and it was a great fit.

STUART: 

And the Protectors is a 501c3 nonprofit that’s helping you raise some money for this, too, right?

TAHOE: 

Absolutely. Yeah. We worked with them to raise money. I was also connected with lots of people and presented this project hundreds of times to fundraise and get donations, get people excited about it. 

And donations were not just monetary. We had a, XL Steel was a steel company in Las Vegas. They donated space to build this mammoth for five months in their warehouse. Not only that, they had the most incredible staff there that were so helpful and kind, and really became like the heart of that project. 

As it was being created we had volunteers coming out. We were teaching people to weld on the mammoth. We’re teaching them to grind. We were teaching them how to participate. So, it was a learning experience for a lot of people and also just sparked so many people’s hobbies. There’s lots of people that learned too weld on the project that are still making art today, which is really amazing. 

And we had volunteers that came out of town from San Francisco and stayed with us too. So it was definitely – there were lots of hands that came together to help create her.

STUART: 

So you learned how to weld during this process. Clearly, you learned how to do the big work of art, which is fundraising, right? What else did you learn with your hands on the project that you didn’t learn in art school? And by the way, those of you don’t know, Tahoe is a recent graduate of art school. What else might you have learned along this process that isn’t necessarily a part of the art school curriculum?

TAHOE: 

So I just graduated from the University of Oregon. I studied sculpture there, so I did similar kinds of, I was so inspired by the mammoth, I just wanted to continue my practice. At school I learned definitely what it takes to be an independent creator. On the mammoth it’s a collaborative event. So many people are coming in with their own creative vision.

But, what was so amazing, that I recognize now, after coming out, is how successful the mammoth really was. We have so many peoples’ visions that all came together into this piece and they were able to express themselves in a way that was true to them, and was not like overburdened by other people’s opinions or feelings. It was truly, magical, a magical collaboration.

The biggest thing I learned from working on the mammoth was definitely trusting in my creative vision and also working with people with true love and excitement that drew people in and made people feel excited about what we were all making.

STUART: 

Let’s talk about Burning Man. This was your first time in Black Rock City. How was that?

TAHOE: 

Oh my gosh, it was so fun. The mammoth was so well received. We got so much love from all the people that came up, and we got to speak with people every day. We had people at the Mammoth 24/7 from our camp because she wasn’t a climbable piece, like a lot of other Burning Man pieces are, so we were protecting her. We were the Mammoth Protectors. Because it’s not just like dangerous for the mammoth, obviously, she’s fragile. It’s very, it would be dangerous for anyone to climb her. So we had people out there 24/7 watching her. We also had presentations. I was there talking to people, understanding what the project was about, if they were curious.

I was just absolutely mind-blown. I truly think that it shaped how I imagine the future of art looking like. Gallery work and prolific artists in the past, compared to like the capacity that we have to share and create massive things now, it’s just absolutely mind-blowing and special to be able to share art in such an intimate way. Obviously Black Rock City isn’t accessible for anyone, but it does create a way for people to be able to experience art in a very intimate and close setting.

STUART: 

So was the piece completely built and then transported to the desert? Or was it in pieces? Or did you do finish work out there? 

TAHOE: 

Oh my God, it was crazy. She’s in pieces, so her head’s detachable, the tusks and the trunk are all detachable. And rigging her is just insane. It’s a project, for sure. But watching her on a flatbed truck completely wrapped with plastic, flying down the freeway was just unreal looking. It was insane.

And then once she arrived to playa, we had to assemble her, and with help from all the staff. Oh, my gosh. The people that choreographed all of the artwork coming to playa and like, all the assistance.

STUART: 

Our ARTery volunteers, yeah.

TAHOE: 

They’re incredible. They’re always, they’re on it; so helpful, so knowledgeable. They were a blast to work with. Really friendly. Yeah. So we put her together and took her apart all in that two week period. But also, the artists around us were all incredibly helpful, and open like and willing to lend a hand as well as we were open and willing to lend a hand for their pieces as well, so… 

Build Week is a really special time. It really set the tone.

STUART: 

So have you been back to Black Rock City or are you planning to return? What’s ahead for you in the desert? Was it one-and-done or?

TAHOE: 

Hopefully so many more times. I was just back this last summer. It was so fun to just go there as a visitor and not to be bringing something, just for that experience. And also so special to celebrate all of the artwork that was out there this year. There were some really incredible pieces that I had the opportunity of just experiencing, and congratulating the artists on their hard work this year.

STUART: 

The community that came together to work on this was family and friends and volunteers who just responded to calls for work. Dana told us a really moving story about a Vietnam vet who is involved in the construction of the project.

TAHOE: 

Was it Dav?

STUART: 

We can actually, we could probably play a little clip of her episode in here when she talks about it.

TAHOE: 

Okay. Yeah.

DANA ALBANY: 

And the same with the mammoth, it was just a phenomenal experience. 

The different walk of life that we had there. I had a lot of people from San Francisco come out and help on it. Wonderful people. We had a Vietnam vet that came by. And we found a lot of discarded bullet shells. The site where the mammoth is, it used to be a shooting range, illegal shooting range. And so, we went out with the Girl Scouts and collected a lot of these bullet casings. They line the tusks of the mammoth, similar in the fashion of elephant tusks, that, the bullet casings, they line that. And they’re also underneath the feet that the mammoth treads on, and they’re smashed and banged and, Tahoe’s brothers created this crazy little design in there and so did this Vietnam vet. 

One day I look over at him, and he’s this big guy with his long beard, and he’s just got tears streaming down his face. I’m like, “Dav, what’s wrong?” and he says, “I never imagined that I would use bullet casings for something, to create something.” And he had been deep in the trenches and was a sniper, and he, and never in his lifetime did he ever think that he would be able to make art out of something that, you know, his familiarity was war. 

There were times I would see him, this Vietnam vet just sort of walking around, you know, doing stuff. And then we got Tahoe, the Girl Scout, who is really the genius behind this project and brought all these people together. We had a beautiful woman named Roxy, a transgender, phenomenal photographer who offered to photograph while we were working, and just these relationships across a lot of different people, and bonds started to build, that still once again, continue to this day. 

I was just out there right before Burning Man, I went out. It’s finally now at the head of this State Park. Lu camped at our camp this year. Tahoe was there as well. I talk to her quite often. She just graduated from college and she’s turned out to be the most magnificent woman that I have had the pleasure to work with, and an honor to work with; very smart, very creative and just wonderful. So it definitely was, you know, just a phenomenal bond that grew out of that project.

STUART: 

Apparently this place was a shooting range, among other things, before it was rescued, and there’s a lot of spent brass that you used in the construction, right?

TAHOE: 

Yeah. The land was being misused severely. Not only, I mean, it was an illegal shooting range. You’re not allowed to shoot out in the desert. It’s extremely dangerous. But there was a lot of construction debris: mattresses, cars, tons of bullets. People were going out in their four wheelers, any kind of like outdoorsy cars. And the fossils were projecting out of the ground. That’s how fossil rich it is out there. There were mammoth tusks coming out of the ground, and they told us that they like to run them over because they created this like really cool puff of smoke, but they didn’t know what they were doing. But these skeletons were getting crushed out there from the misuse of the land.

STUART: 

Wow.

TAHOE: 

Crazy.

STUART:

So tell us a little bit more about the whole preservation effort, because that’s the story that’s been going along in parallel with the creation of your art.

TAHOE:

When I was introduced to the park, it was a year after it had been created as a national monument, and that was years after lobbying the government to protect the land, to stop any kind of infrastructure or development, to be built on the property, to protect the fossils. It was a huge effort. I think that’s what drew me to the idea of creating the sculpture the most is you go to these state parks and you don’t, you enjoy the beauty, but you don’t realize what it takes to protect land and how much land you can’t even imagine that is lost. It’s hard to imagine — it’s sad to imagine — what we have lost. Because if not for the big dig that happened out on that land, we wouldn’t have known that there were so many fossils out in the desert. So there’s a pretty significant find.

STUART:

Are there any theories as to why there are so many concentrated in this area?

TAHOE:

Yes. So a lot of people, the first thing they think of when they think of finding fossils out somewhere is the La Brea Tar Pits. What’s amazing about La Brea is it’s just like a jumble of all of these different animals that kind of fell into this tar and it was able to protect the bones very well.

The thing about Tule Springs is that it’s an even larger fossil bed and you’re also finding full fossils. You’re not finding jumbled bones and having a hard time distinguishing things. They’re full fossils of mammoths and all these animals. Las Vegas was a wetland before this, so all these animals that we’re finding are dying from natural causes as well, so you get a better idea of what life was like so many years ago.

STUART:

And then, though, suddenly 10,000 years ago: big extinction event.

TAHOE:

Yeah. The way that the land was preserved out in the desert is very pristine. So we’re hoping that over time when we start excavating the site, there’s going to be some really key pieces to understand what the change was, and different things that affected what happened then to like what’s happening now.

STUART:

Yeah, I think it’s really important to note that this is a creature that lived for millions and millions of years and went extinct within human memory. So as we get to the end of the Anthropocene Era here, I think the fact that it was a big extinction event speaks to all of us, too. 

So how did you get introduced to the Burning Man world? When this project first came to you, had you even heard of Burning Man? How did you get into that track of applying for a Burning Man honorarium grant?

TAHOE:

Oh my gosh. Best day of my life. I was a festival girl. I remember the first time I went to music festivals in Vegas in 2015 and I had the time of my life. I absolutely love music. I love the scene of everyone coming together to celebrate art, and the magic. It’s just, oh, the best feeling on earth.

And as I was building the sculpture, I didn’t have any ideas of anything like Burning Man or anything like that in my mind. But when I was introduced to Dana Albany, I remember having a phone call with her and her saying, “Oh yeah, we should take a Burning Man and music festivals.” I was in tears, overjoyed with the possibility of that, because as a young girl getting to see the art that would come to these festivals is what made those experiences really special.

The art that’s in downtown Vegas, a lot of it is from Burning Man, and as a young person, I didn’t really know how big of an impact Burning Man made on my childhood until, of course, going, but significant impact on my life. As soon as I did my own research and looked into it, I was absolutely captivated and so excited. 

All thanks to Dana, really, just explaining what it is and encouraging me to apply for the grant and getting to meet the community of people that make it happen. It’s just like the best.

STUART:

Even though it’s not a festival!

TAHOE:

It’s not. And I don’t mean to compare. What similarities they have, a bunch of people coming together to celebrate art and music and life.

STUART:

Right! And the art. And that’s interesting in that you grew up in the shadow of actually some very epic, monumental Burning Man art. I’m thinking of Big Rig Jig is in downtown.

TAHOE:

Oh, yeah. And I was a Banksy fan, die hard fan. There were some great Banksy pieces that were at Life is Beautiful Festival. But the Big Rig Jig was at Dismaland, which was in Paris. And I remember being a kid looking at Disneyland and being like, “Okay, how much is a flight to Paris? I gotta go.” And then getting to see it at Burning Man, my mind was blown. It was awesome.

STUART:

Yes. Mike Ross. Actually, Banksy famously said that that sculpture by Mike Ross was the most significant and important piece of sculpture so far of the 21st century. That’s a pretty big deal.

TAHOE:

That’s amazing. That’s a huge deal. Oh, I’m learning something. And I mean, I can’t say that I find that untrue. There’s something truly, it’s just a captivating piece, and I just want to try to imagine like how they built it. It’s kind of mind boggling.

STUART:

If you’ve never seen it, folks, this is two oil tankers suspended in an unearthly dance, creating a large letter S into the sky. It’s pretty amazing. 

So, okay, you look at something like that and say, “I could do that.” But I know that in your process of becoming an artist, to do this project, you had to learn a lot of things. You had to learn how to. Well, let’s talk about raising money, because when you first thought of this, did you have any idea that it was going to end up with the kind of budget that it had? It would be easy to be discouraged when you toted up the price tag of something like that. How did you go about raising the money for it? 

TAHOE:

As a 15 year old, you don’t really have a concept of money very much. At least I did it.

STUART:

Did you still have an allowance at that point?

TAHOE:

So I’ve always been very business oriented. So I actually started my first business when I was like 12. I sold stuff on Etsy. So I didn’t have an allowance. I actually did pretty well on Etsy, I must say. I had a blast and I learned a lot from it. 

So I guess when it came to fundraising, I just had the idea that if it was significant enough that asking people to donate to it. I didn’t find it to feel like I was asking too much, if that makes sense. I had something beautiful that I wanted people to be a part of, and that’s kind of where the vision kind of blossomed. 

But the budget turned out to be $250,000, and that’s including in-kind donations. We had a steel yard donate their space for four months to build this piece, which is just you can’t even put a dollar amount to that, on top of just their love and care to help bring it together.

And I was pitching hundreds of presentations to people all across Nevada, just sharing with them the project. And there were lots of people that said no, there are lots of people where nonprofit organizations that it didn’t fit in with. But at the end of the day, like, even though we get a no, they would say, “Oh, here’s one other person to talk to,” or “Hey, come back to us when this is at the state. We would love to get involved with getting kids out here and like fundraising in other ways.” So it definitely was a huge part of this project. 

And not to mention all the volunteers and the time people put in to make this happen, which isn’t included in that budget at all. How can you even fathom how much that would be?

STUART:

Yeah, it’s a fun thought exercise. If you total up all of the volunteer hours that go into making Burning Man happen, all of the theme camps, all the art projects, all the mutant vehicles, would it be comparable, you think, to building a pyramid or putting a person on the moon? or putting a pyramid on the moon? I think it’s putting a pyramid on the moon!

TAHOE:

I think it might be!

STUART:

But so $250,000, that’s that’s a little daunting, right? Was there a crowdfunding element to that and foundation money and individual donors? What did the mix turn out to be of where the where the dollars came from?

TAHOE:

Most of them were in-kind kind of what I was saying along the lines of people giving.

STUART:

The steel and the space and…

TAHOE:

Yes, and we also people in the community where we were buying our steel, too, were giving us really great deals, and were very willing to help in any way that they could. We did have a lot of donors that gave significant amounts of money and which of course helped a lot. And of course Burning Man gave us a grant, so we were able to take it out to playa. We would never have been able to take it out to Burning Man without that. So it was truly a gift. And we’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to do that.

STUART: 

So as a kid growing up, did you imagine.. Did you always have big dreams of monumental projects? What did you dream up before you brought the mammoth to life?

TAHOE: 

I always had a love for art and was always thinking up things to do in the studio and just smaller projects. I worked primarily in ceramics before. I absolutely love ceramics. But I must say, like, nothing really to the effect of the mammoth. As soon as the idea came into my head, it was done. I was completely taken. And nobody could convince me that it wasn’t going to happen.

STUART: 

That’s a required mindset, I think, for making a big crazy art project happen. So in art school, did you primarily work in ceramics? What other fun things did you do in art school?

TAHOE: 

It was definitely difficult to choose a particular focus, so that’s why I chose sculpture, because you really can do anything. You can paint, you can sew, you can work with ceramics, you can work with metal, you can work with wood. I experimented a lot with more found objects, things that were a little less stable, like metal is stable outside. I was working with fabric, I was working with plastic. I was working with baseballs, weirdly.

STUART: 

Baseballs? Okay.

TAHOE: 

Yeah, I played a lot with baseballs, and like stuffed animals and fur and things like that. Just playing, honestly, just creating interesting forms, and also like, drawing new inspiration, I think, was the biggest takeaway. I learned a lot about the art that’s out there, and it’s honestly so overwhelming. There’s so much amazing work out there.

And I got more comfortable with metalworking and I still have a well of curiosity when it comes to making. I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what I want to discover and make. Honestly, I feel like my four years flew by and I am like, “Okay, wait. This isn’t enough.”

STUART: 

Well working in found objects is always a gas. And it sounds like you had a pretty rich storehouse of flotsam and jetsam to apply to the surface. Do you have any favorites, anything in particular, that was a detail that might not be eye catching at first, but that you felt some special love for?

TAHOE: 

So many, actually. Just today, a friend of mine mentioned that she gave a doorknob that’s on the mammoth, and I didn’t even realize that it was hers. That was kind of cool. 

But on another note, on the very front chest of the mammoth there is a heart, it’s a clock part that’s in the shape of a heart, that I bent spoons over and created an orchid on. The spoons are Sherri Grotheer’s silver spoons, and then my mom’s favorite flower is an orchid, so I put those in the piece. 

But during our time at XL Steel, one of the – I’m not exactly sure what his title was — but he was an amazing contributor to the project and absolutely fell in love with it. His daughter passed away a couple of years before the project was started and he knew that she would have loved the piece. And her ashes are actually in the heart, that heart of the mammoth. So she’s always going to be a part of that project.

STUART: 

Wow, that’s beautiful.

TAHOE: 

So it’s a really special piece.

The mammoth is truly like a Vegas, Las Vegas’s community. She’s ours. Like, she’s… she’s home. It’s amazing that she’s been installed for a little less than a year, but the park is now open and so we’re having people at the park and being able to interact with her, and it’s so touching. Every time I’m there, I’m crying because it’s just kids running around and experiencing the magic of what was there. And, you know, if I was a little girl, I would have absolutely loved the park. There’s this beautiful trail that has other metal cutouts of different creatures from the Pleistocene Era, so they can like learn about it. And it’s just the sweetest thing. 

STUART: 

So it’s installed in place, open for business. And how do you keep people climbing on it when it’s not at Burning Man? You don’t have a bunch of protectors around it.

TAHOE: 

We do have the State Park staff and they’re amazing. Also, there’s great infrastructure around her. She’s on an elevated platform. There’s signage all around her so you can learn the story of the project, and the significance of the piece, and she looks like she’s home. And the mountains behind her completely, there will be no construction back there. It’ll always have this gorgeous natural scene of the deserts. It’s so beautiful.

STUART: 

I’m interested in technical details. When you install a piece out in the elements like that, was there any sort of treatment you had to do to keep the metal from corroding, or any of that?

TAHOE: 

Absolutely. So actually, right before Burning Man, the mammoth was covered in dust and we called it like ‘Cheeto dust’ because it was bright orange.

STUART: 

So this is not Burning Man dust. This is Las Vegas dust.

TAHOE: 

This is Las Vegas dust.

STUART: 

Okay.

TAHOE: 

So we spent probably a full week with little dremels and grinders grinding off all of the rust, and then we sprayed her with a clear coat to just secure it. But she’s going to rust. She’s not going to be this perfectly chromatic piece, but I think that’s beautiful.

And the way that those colors look in the setting, as she ages it’ll just compliment itself and it’ll be what it is. And we’ll probably go back and keep grinding and clear coating and making sure she’s in tip top condition. But if you are familiar with Richard Serra’s work, he just does these massive metal sculptures. They look gorgeous when they age. And that’s what I hope for the mammoth as well, just to let her, let the elements take her.

STUART: 

Ah, that’s a beautiful thought. Set me back a little bit: How does it feel at this point to look back on the last eight years and to see that it’s actually happened? 

TAHOE: 

It’s really weird. I think it’s really strange. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I’m like, “Whoa, I really did that.” It’s kind of crazy to imagine that me at 15 years old was so sure of herself, considering I knew absolutely nothing about what it would take. But I do reminisce on the days of the blissful ignorance and the absolute utter excitement of every day learning something new. It was truly magical. Blissful ignorance.

STUART:

What advice would you give to any, let’s just say, new artist, somebody who’s got a big dream, has never built a big project before, wants to take it out to Burning Man or somewhere out in the world. What advice would you give to that younger you?

TAHOE:

If you really want to make something real, you can, but you have to give it your 100%. Absolutely. And I think it’s about enjoying the process. I really like have the time of my life doing this. It was a joy. I think eight years sounds daunting in the budget sounds daunting, but it was, the four best years of my life was making this piece and getting to experience it.

And I just would share, like if you have something to bring to life, I don’t think you should be held back by the fear of the work, because if it’s meant to be, it’s going to be beautiful, like the whole thing, all the ups and downs. So I guess that’s what I would say.

STUART: 

So any projects on the burner for you? What’s next?

TAHOE: 

Gosh, I’m not sure. It’s very strange. I think what I gathered after finishing school was, I don’t know if I’m cut out for just my own private practice consistently, if that makes sense. What it takes to make it in the art world, It’s just so – it just seems impossible in some regards.

But I absolutely love working with people, bringing big ideas to life. All my artist friends, I’m always like around and I absolutely love joining in on a project and being able to help execute just for fun. It’s just a blast. And hopefully in the next couple of years I come up with a project of my own. Hopefully it takes a little less than eight years, but even if it does, I’ll get through it, and it’ll be awesome, and fun. I’ll just always be making things and just kind of figuring it out. 

It’s also one of those vocations, I guess, if that’s a good word to call it, where every artist has a different path, it’s not like any kind of streamlined thing. I think I’m still trying to figure out what mine, what it will look like.

STUART: 

Is it a vocation or a calling? I don’t know. It is notoriously hard to make a living at it.

TAHOE: 

Yeah, I feel that the pressure of that might be crippling. I worry that if I put that kind of pressure on my own creative practice, also to the wants and needs of what other people want out of what I want to make, is a little bit difficult to imagine. 

But I love being involved in public work. The beauty of being able to share work with the community, where they feel that they’re a part of it, makes the work really strong and also meaningful.

STUART: 

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

TAHOE: 

I just want to thank everyone. I think Burning Man is just this amazing community of people that come together to celebrate life, truly. And you feel that when you’re in the temple, that feeling. And so anyone who’s listening to this podcast, I’m sure, is either a supporter of Burning Man or a Burner themselves, so I’m grateful for all of your support in the arts. It really, Burning Man is the most magical place for art, and I’m just grateful to have been a part of it.

STUART: 

Well, I’m grateful to you for joining me today, Tahoe, Thank you.

TAHOE: 

Thank you so much. This was so fun.

STUART: 

Yeah. 

Burning Man LIVE is a fully de-commodified production of the philosophical Center of Burning Man project brought to you by the generous donations of listeners. Well, like you. And you. And you and yeah, you. I see you over there. We do our best to drop an episode every other Wednesday. You can get, as you probably figured out by now at all your usual favorite places to get podcasts.

And also if you listen to Shouting Fire Radio, you might hear us there. And if you are lucky enough to be one of the privileged few who get to see Gerlach, Nevada, at this time of year, you can dial us up on KFBR. I think we’re a late night treat. Well, because of all the F-bombs. 

I’m Stuart Mangrum. I love my job mostly because of the amazing people I get to work with. Thank you so much Vav-Michael-Vav, Kbot, Actiongirl, DJ Toil, Allie, Tyler, you’re the best. And thanks, Larry. He’s the guy who dragged me into this thing in the first place, this silly, silly thing. See you next time.

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