Descending Ashtray

I have recently put together a 5″x 8″, three ring binder to help organize my work notes. (I know it may sound a little nerdy but my memory just has not been the same since my college education). I have broken it up into two sections then there are three sub categories for each.

1. Art Notes:
a.Painting
b.Drawing
c.Sculpture

2. Shop Notes:
a.Woodworking
b.Home Improvement
c.Landscaping/Gardening

Basically I am trying to write down any key tips that have to do with any of these categories. Such as: How to make good canvas stretchers, what gesso I used, or what brushes really work good for different techniques. Or with woodworking, I am always experimenting with different finishes but often forget what I used for a certain piece.

This work notes binder is just a way to keep track of techniques and results that I learn from personal experience. And I can use it to organize magazine articles or internet print outs. This idea is a result from being frustrated when I am doing something that I have not done in a while and have to learn it all over again. So hopefully this journal will help solve that problem by making personal work experiences easier to reference.

As a holiday bonus this year, employees where I work received AmEx gift cards. My first thought was to use mine for my upcoming trip to France and Belgium, but then learned the cards are difficult to use for travel expenses. Luckily, Woodcraft takes them!

I had been thinking of acquiring a lathe for a long time. I think my hesitation had to do with the fact that most of my work is very geometric in nature, and I think of the lathe as a tool for decorative turnings: spindles, bowls, vases, etc. I also had no idea how much fun a lathe could be!

I ended up going with a “starter lathe,” the Jet 10×14 Mini Lathe, which seems like it will do the majority of what I want for at least a little while. The “10″ number indicates the diameter of work that can be turned on the lathe, while the “14″ indicates the length between the motor (headstock) and the tailstock. An extension is available to increase the “14″ dimension, which I may do soon-ish.

I forgot that with most tools, the minute you start playing with them, you can think of uses for them. I am going to be remodeling my attic this spring, and part of that will include spindles for the stairway railing! As you can see from what I’ve got mounted in the lathe, I’ve come up with a lot of artistic applications for a lathe as well!

The second major purchase with the gift card was the WorkSharp Sharpening Center. I’ve read about these a lot in the woodworking magazines I subscribe to, all of which have rated it highly. I think it’s easily one of the best purchases I’ve made in the last 2 years (tablesaw still wins the “lifetime achievement award”) since it does a mundane job quickly, which gets me back to work sooner.

Basically, it’s a motorized version of the “Scary Sharp” sharpening method, which I’ve used in the past for my chisels and plane irons. With the WorkSharp, a perfectly flat glass disc has adhesive sandpaper stuck to it. The glass disc is rotated by a small motor, and you simply rest the back/edge of the chisel on the rotating sandpaper to develop a mirror-like polish, working your way up through various grits of sandpaper. I took a 1″ chisel to “Scary Sharp” in about 2 minutes with the WorkSharp (granted it was fairly sharp to start), which would have taken 10 minutes the old way.

The new tools required a fair amount of shop cleanup and re-arrangement, too. I’ll take a few new pics of the whole shop once I sweep up all those lathe shavings!

I occasionally check out the Smithsonian Art Museum’s blog, “Eye Level,” and often I’m intrigued by what I see there. Last week, I was especially fascinated by a work I found in their collection after seeing this giraffe featured on the blog.

I clicked on another link, and found this snake, which upon seeing, I knew I could improve. I’ve been compulsively collecting bottlecaps for a long time, and I have every color in the rainbow. A few hours sorting the caps, some simple carving, woodburning, a quick paint job … and voila: my Sunday Afternoon Smithsonian Snake.

It’s going to be a little present for my godson Will, just because.

Even though my trip to the Southwest was last April. I have finally been able to finish (or get close to finishing) the second in desert landscape painting series that I am working on.

I am fascinated by the desert and its untouched wilderness. The colors and textures are so rich and full of dimension. There was something other worldly about some of the places I past through in Northern Arizona. Vast distances of space full of strange and beautiful rock formations. I was inspired to capture some of that beauty and interpret it in a painting.

It is really close to being done. There are still some details that need some finishing touch’s but overall I feel pretty good about it. The dimensions are 21″ x 34″.

I have been working on this flat file for a while now and it feels good to have it done. The drawers are 35″ x 44″, a fairly good size for plenty of paper and matte board storage. The most challenging thing was getting the drawer slides to work. I built the cabinet first before attaching the top, and had trouble with it staying square. But once the top was screwed on, the slides and the drawes lined up perfectly. I ended up using 16 steel balls for each slide. More balls gives it more support when opening and closing the drawers.

A close up of the homemade slides on the inside of the drawer.

I have to start this off with an embarrassing story. When I went into the Des Moines Art Center’s downtown location, I was carrying a coffee. A Starbucks coffee. I am not typically one for chain anything. I can’t remember the last time I went to Wal-Mart … I buy local whenever possible. But when you’re in a pinch, traveling … it’s tough to say no, particularly where much-needed caffeine is concerned. As I walked inside the front door, I swilled the last sip, coating my teeth with grounds (serves me right), and in one fluid motion, pitched the empty cup into a wastepaper basket next to the podium where the guard sits to welcome visitors.

“Oops. That’s a piece of art you put your cup in.”

1 art school education, rendered worthless by careless consumption of corporate coffee.

Still, I felt better once I got to know the show a bit better. Conrad Bakker’s artwork is all about mingling the real with the unreal, blurring the line between reality and fiction. Each of the sculptures and paintings on display in Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007] in some way challenges our perceptions, usually as it relates to commerce in some way. Take for example “Untitled Project: Gift Card [Des Moines Art Center] ,” a set of small paintings the exact size and shape of gift cards sold at the museum store, carefully painted to resemble the real thing, and sold for the face value of the card it represented.

Nothing in the exhibition was what it seemed - the security cameras that on first glance seemed to be protecting the artworks were in fact sculptures painted to look like the real thing, positioned in the place cameras would typically be. Ditto for the thermostat on the wall, the television set to “Mute,” the Epson projector on the faux George Nelson bench, and yes, even the wastebasket.

The works were roughly executed - no one would be fooled after a close look - but they passed a cursory glance, and when the works are photographed for placement on online shopping sites like eBay and Craigslist, they definitely require close examination. One series of paintings took as its subject matter items posted to Des Moines’ Craigslist, faithfully reproduced in small 4×6 paintings, and which Bakker then re-posted to the barter site as artworks for trade, listing the paintings under the categories depicted in the paintings. Very meta, very clever, and very worth seeing. This was one of the best shows I’ve seen at a museum for awhile, and hey - the price is right. Go see it before March 28th, 2008.

If you can’t make it to the show, check out Bakker’s web site - lots of eye candy to see and explore.