Descending Ashtray

As you can see from the image above, we’ve really got our work cut out for us in building a larger-than-life version of Brio’s Labyrinth game for the Holocene Mini-golf event. Andrew and I began a few days ago by milling some lumber, and I assembled the center portion of the game last (Monday) night. This evening, Bruce and Andrew came over to help finalize this part of the game. Here’s Bruce locating one of the bumpers. It was pretty math-y work, and Bruce did a great job, though he was a bit lippy.

I cut the bumpers to length, and Andrew was the nailer. (The odd-looking brad nailer is my cordless 18 ga. nailer, sans battery. While it’s a heavy nailer for plugged-in work, it is one of the few 18 ga. nailers I’ve seen that accomodate a 2-in. brad.)

When all the bumpers were installed, we were pretty proud of ourselves, and more than a little surprised our cocktail napkin of a plan actually worked. All in all, there are more than 40 holes (thanks Bruce), 2 and a quarter inches in diameter, cut with a hole saw. Took 3 batteries to cut that many, but it looked great all put together. The holes are not scaled to the game’s size, but rather, scaled to the golf ball’s size. So, it should play a little easier than the small version. We hope.

And of course, we had to test it out. We haven’t built the x-y tilt mechanism yet, but three guys can do a fair approximation after a beer or two. It took about five tries, but we actually succeeded in navigating the maze. We were pretty sure it would be impossible (just like the real thing), but the dimples in the golf ball slow it down to a manageable speed.

Stay tuned!

This technique is a good way to capture the feeling and light of a space in a short period of time. Even though it does not look like much up close. The application of paint is something I like looking at with actual paintings beacause you can see how it was done. It is impossible to see this from a photo or a print of a famous painting.

We just returned from our trip out east and even though we had a great time it is good to be home.

I went to a show in Boston at the MFA called “Americans in Paris”, it was compiled of impressionist painters from the US who went to Paris to study art. Among them was one of my favorites John Singer Sargent. It was a good exhibit.

After looking closely at the paintings in person, I was inspired to focus more on light and how I apply color to my drawings and paintings. On the way home we stopped at a park in Pennsylvania and went for a hike on a trail that had more than 24 waterfalls. I stopped and did a drawing of one of them.

You can see that the application of charcoal is rough and almost scribbly but if you squint your eyes it looks a little more realistic.

Here is a picture I took at the sight were I did the drawing. Looking at it in the picture, it seems I could have used a more darks in the drawing.

We have a pesky little critter that has been eating our tomatoes. So I set up this deadfall to see if I could catch it!

I’ve been adding texture to this piece and contemplating a finish, if any. I feel like a wax or oil might accentuate the light effects that are possible with the alternating textures, but I’m not entirely sure. I had thought of painting at least part of it, as well, with red, white, or black. Thoughts?

I worked out two new flowers tonight, bringing the total to 7, I think. I’d been on hiatus for awhile with this project, so it felt good to go out there and knock a couple out. I have been sketching ideas for other flowers, and I think I’m most happy with the smaller one with 9 small flowers, one I sketched out a couple weeks ago. The stems are made of pop rivets, a tool I haven’t used in awhile. Pretty fun. I think I might expand on this idea again in the near future. I like them all massed together. Might try some small circular flowers.

Here’s another large circular flower. I got a little Jackson Pollock with the solder. It was really flowing for me today for some reason.

I have been working lately more on a yellow cedar wall piece, adding texture with the crooked knives. Hopefully I’ll post that this week; it’s almost done.