morning on the maumee

My friend Sayaka was visiting for the weekend so we decided to take our morning coffee with us and walk a block from my apartment down to the beautiful Maumee River.  The water was silky smooth, the air was crisp, the seagulls were singing and all around us tiny fish were jumping.   It was the perfect early morning coffee sipping with a friend moment.    

farm art 2

summer storm coming

I took these photo's from my car on the road to my parents farm.   The clouds look beautifully menacing don't they?!

Stewed Poem

It's always fun to find something that you did in the past and than look at it with fresh eyes. That being said... I was doing some "cleaning" on my computer, transferring old files and pictures to my new computer, when I came across an old poem that I had written in school.   After reading through it a couple of times, I made some changes.   I moved a few words, threw out some words and then added some words.   Sometimes it's good to let things stew for awhile and then dip your finger in and sample it and maybe add some more ingredients until the taste is just right.   Right now I think this poem is ready to serve.   I hope you enjoy it!

PICK-a-POEM

Should I make it sing in rhythmic time

or keep it simple with a playful rhyme?

Maybe It should flow clear and clean

or slow........ with pauses in-between;

should I aim to please or to ignite?

No--- I don't want to start a fight

I could expatiate with my nose in the air

or would that be too arrogant and unfair?

I suppose it could be witty, or even funny,

or for that matter sad or sunny

Then there are meter's and stanza's and iambic pentameters

all fighting to fit within its perimeter's

I'm beginning to feel like my head is full of birds

flying around, each one a different word

If I had it my way, poems would grow on trees

and I would simply pluck one off as i please.

Sneak Peek

This is a new piece I'm working on. I have it hanging on my bedroom wall at the moment. It's only a partial piece so far, when it's finished there will be many more racks. So far I like the look of it, I'm loving the shadows! It's working conceptually and aesthetically for me. Of course I'll ANALize it some more just to make sure but I'm digging it so far! If you're wondering what the hell it's made of, the red rack is a commercial retail hook rack... you know the kind you see with cheap crap hanging from them. The little yellow "tags" are livestock ear tags used to keep track of livestock. They're basically animal ear rings. I'll post the final pics when it's finished.

Deer!

I was in my car when I spotted this deer, luckly I had my camera with me. Only later, after I looked at it closer, did I realize how cool it was. Just follow the arrow!

Farm Art and Daisy

Farm Animals

Farm Flowers

IN CASE I WASN'T HEARD: part 2

This is a sculpture that I built my senior year at BGSU; I called it "In Case I Wasn't Heard". It's a megaphone cannon and yes it works quite well! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish it in time for my BFA show. Nevertheless, I took it to a photographer and had it photographed inside his studio. Technically, they were great photo's but the piece just didn't feel right in a studio environment, it wasn't working conceptually. Fast forward to this past weekend... I was at my brother's farm, it was one of those sunny summer days, the sky was bright blue and full of fluffy marshmallow clouds. Mark mentioned that I should take some pictures of my cannon; I had brought my camera and tripod along so I figured why not. So after taking pictures all day I came home and starting working on them. I was pleased at how well they turned out. The pictures brought this piece to a whole new level. The clouds were perfect; they look very menacing, especially in the pictures where I'm pushing the cannon. It looks like I am heading to war! In the ones where the cannon is all alone, there is a real sense of loneliness, of searching, of waiting for a response of some sort. Taking these pictures out at the farm helped me learn something about my work. The object, in this case the cannon, became a "prop" in these pictures, it was no longer a precious object, it became nothing more than a set prop for the story. I think the cannon could still stand on its own as an object but it took the right environment for it to work conceptually.

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!