books END?

This picture was taken a few years ago in the Library at BGSU; I was a student there at the time. I remember it was one of those AH-HA! moments. I'm not sure why all of the book shelves were empty at the time, maybe they were placing them elsewhere, maybe they were downsizing. As I was walking down one of the empty aisles I happened to glance over, through the rows of stoic book ends, at this lone computer sitting by itself on a desk on the far side of the room. Here was this little computer with its pastoral screen saver sitting there smugly glowing out at the rows of empty shelves once filled with books. At that moment the book ends looked so cold and naked, so old fashioned, so obsolete. It was a surreal and powerful moment...maybe a glimpse of the not so far away future? In any case, I happened to be in the right place at the right time.

Chicken day

Here are some pictures taken earlier this spring (march) of chickens being butchered at my brother's farm. Growing up I remember doing this every year. To some people it might look gruesome but this is the real deal. Whether you realize it or not, this is where your chicken comes from. They don't magically appear at the store! I hadn't participated in quite a few years so it took some getting use too but it wasn't long before it all came back to me. And best of all, the chicken, and their eggs, taste so much better than what you buy at the store.

compass seat and kite

For the past year and a half I've been working as an Exhibit designer/fabricator at the Toledo Zoo in Toledo. For most of that time we ( our department is connected with the graphic designers) have been working on the new Children's zoo being built, the grand opening is this Friday the 19th. One of the projects we were given was to come up with a solution for lost kids. What could we make so that if a child got lost they could go to a certain place and be reunited with their parents? We choose a kite as an easily identifiable symbol. With that in mind we could do anything as long as there was a kite involved. Since I'm a sculptor, I thought it would be nice if it was something three dimensional so that kids could easely spot it from anywhere inside the exhibit. I thought if we created a seat then they could also sit there too. A compass came to mind because if you are lost it's good to have a compass. So it evolved into a compass seat with a big ball of string and kite at the end. Everyone liked it so I "won the commission" so to speak.   I want to thank my two co-workers Dennis Blackwell and Brad Schuster for there help with this project,  I couldn't have done it with out there help.   I think it turned out quite well and hopefully it will serve its purpose well.

Wall Shadows

These are some pictures I took recently of shadows on my apartment wall. I have a bamboo plant in front of the west window, when the sun shines in it creates these beautiful shadows on the opposite wall. The surface of the wall is textured which makes the shadows look as if they were drawn on the wall with graphite. As the sun began to set, they slowly slid across the wall quietly fading away until there was nothing left. It was like watching a silent black and white movie on my wall!