Rocket Launch

The Maumee River and Ewing Island

red berry tree

These pictures were taken beneath a bright red berry tree at a park here in Perrysburg.  It was overcast and snowing the day I took them so the limbs and berries were silhouetted against the sky.   The berries were an intense red especially with the bright white snow behind them.   They remind me of delicate cut paper silhouettes.

tracks in the snow

The whole world in my hand

OIL

I came across this old oil can at the antique store the other day and immediately I saw a military tank...how ironic don't you think?   I plan on doing a huge drawing of it in the future.

Hmmmm.... Is this ART?

This is a board that we've used for the past year as a "backer board" on the drill press at work.   A backer board is basically a scrap piece of wood used as a buffer between the object you're drilling and the metal table of the drill press beneath it.  Beautiful isn't it?!

Shadows: Soap Opera Laundromat

Good-vs-Evil

I was at the antique store yesterday; I had to laugh at the placement of these objects.   I wonder if the owner  was consciously aware of how they were hung.   It's perfect!... booze ("The Taste Beyond 12 Year Old Scotch"), dancing, and a picture of a sexy woman right beside a painting of "The Sacred Heart of Mary" disapprovingly peering over the track that separates the two ... Priceless!

Poem by Bukowski

I discovered the poet Charles Bukowski a few years ago in a used bookstore in Brooklyn, NY.  I love used bookstores, for me it's like panning for gold.  I've never panned for gold but I'm quite certain the experience would feel the same.   Anyway, I had staked a claim and was in the process of digging through the finds when I spotted a book by a guy by the name of Charles Bukowski titled "Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way" I thought hmmm... this one might be a nugget worth saving.   My hunch was right, it turned out to be gold!   He can be somewhat course and crude but he's always brutally honest.   He doesn't "sugar coat" life.   He says it like it is.


nobody but you

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don't, don't, don't.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you're worth saving.
it's a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving your self.
your spiritual self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don't join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally
if necessary
wager your life as you struggle,
damn the odds, damn the price.

only you can save your
self.

do it! do it!

then you'll know exactly what
I am talking about.

-Charles Bukowski

CORN

I was playing around on the computer the other day and came up with a corn design.   For awhile now I've been interested in the language of computers, especially the "picture" language of symbols, emoticons, and computer acronyms.    The characters remind me of the ancient Aztec language, they too used a "picture" language.    The Aztecs developed a system of pictures that they used as their alphabet.  They had hundreds of different picture symbols.   They would then join these symbols together into sentences.   I think the language of symbols/emoticons  is really interesting and something that seems like it would have a lot of potential for exploration.    I can see combining the new language with traditional or even ephemeral materials and doing so with ancient techniques or it could also be interesting doing it with very modern computer driven techniques (laser, CAM, etc. ) I think it could potentially be approached both ways and be successful.  We'll see!   

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mice migration

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a summer past but not forgotten

a few pics

Dreamer

This is a ceramic piece that i made a few years ago.   Looking back, it was a lot of work but it was worth it.   Each wishbone was hand carved from a solid block of clay that I had pounded into a mold.   I remember enjoying the process of packing the clay into the molds, letting them dry a few days and then using a steak knife and a potato peeler to shave away slivers of moist clay until all that was left was a wishbone.   Carving and handling the moist clay really allowed me to feel connected to the material, it was a very rewarding experience.   I felt the same way when I was carving stone and wood.    

I included this sculpture in my BFA show but because of space limitations it was hung against a wall which was not the ideal place for this piece.   Because of it's height and location, it wasn't possible to get a good picture of it during the show.   Outdoors was where I originally envisioned this piece.    I wanted it to look as though it were an endless ladder reaching up into the sky... an invitation to explore, to search, to look for answers; I wanted the unbelievable, if only for a second, to be believable.   Once again, like my cannon piece, this sculpture became a "prop" to tell a story.   It became an installation rather then an "object".   The picture and the location tells more then the ladder could ever do by itself hanging in a gallery.   I think in a way I'm drawn to the childlike "realness" of this... if that makes sense.   As a kid, like most kids, I dreamed of "digging a hole to China" or "if i ran fast enough I could fly" and "if I built a ladder tall enough I could reach the stars".   It's that childlike "faith" that I'm interested in.   When we are kids we believe with all our hearts that the world is full of magic, that anything is possible if we simply believe it is.   We believe this until we learn or we're told otherwise.   As we get older and supposedly "wiser" we discover the "man behind the curtain", "the real truth", clouds are just clouds, stars are just stars and places we were told existed really don't exist.  But one can still dream... right?!

Awesome little cast resin random metal doo-dad thingies!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have to make a choice "should I buy this giant pile of widgets even though I have no idea what i'm going to do with them but they're so damn cool that it would be a crime not to buy them!?" of course you have!  Good I feel better now.   I found these little fellas hiding in a grungy green milk crate beneath an old work bench at the junk store the other day.   I was awestruck as soon as I saw them... my mind suddenly racing with ideas for future usage! (cabinet door knobs, table tops, lamp pulls, paper weights and so on).    The tag on the crate didn't help much, all it said was "sales samples".    When I got them home and started looking at them closer,  there's probably 300 of them (blue, brownish maroon, black and clear), I realized what they were...I think.    This is just a theory, based on the available evidence; it looks like they came from a material research lab of some sort.   All the little pieces incased in the resin are defects from industrial metal parts.   I think what happens is a manufacturer sends defect parts, etc, to this research lab and then they grind the piece smooth on one side and then pour resin over it incasing it in a resin block.  Then they probably place it under a microscope of some sort so they can study the metal to see what went wrong.   I'm thinking it's some sort of industrial material Forensic lab for small manufactured metal parts.   I suppose they find out what made it fail, what "killed" it!   On the back of each resin "core" there are "LAB ID" numbers and "notes" etched into them.    Some of them say "FAIL" or "GOOD" and a few even say "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION" which of course leads me to believe the FBI must have been involved.    I imagine they were TOP SECRET evidence from a ghastly industrial factory incident.    A small part in a big noisy machine decides one day he can't take the pressure any longer and snaps, sending an explosion of machine guts piercing through the air, maiming and killing anyone in the vicinity... these things happen!  I guess now it's my responsibility to give these little trouble makers a brighter future.  I'm sure it will take a lot of late night brain storming, decision making and lots of coffee but I'm up for the challenge!

new work

Ingredients: TP and Nylon ratchet strap

"Old Woman WIth Pink Hat"

This is a piece that I've been thinking about for awhile now.  I found the walking cane at... you guessed it! The Maumee Antique Store.  It was $6 so I figured I wasn't out much if it didn't work.   This is just a preliminary photo shoot but I'm happy with the way it turned out.   I'm not sure about the brick wall,  I'll have to think about that some more.   I'm digging the milk jug!   In the right light I can see it having an almost marble like quality too it.   This piece is quite a departure from my work at BGSU.  My work there was very traditional; I worked mostly with wood, bronze, clay, glass and cast iron.   In the two years I've been out of school,  I've found myself more and more attracted to, and heading towards, a more conceptual/ installation type of work.   I still see myself working with traditional materials but maybe not quite as much.