Getting the new space at the Camp up and running has been running me weary the past couple of nights, but I’m lovin’ it!
Here are some of my recent purchases for the space and some of the pieces I’m building:
Long Beach Flea Market purchase.
Glider, love seat. The cushions are out for re-upholstery.
These are some nesting tables that I welded up. I’m not sure what kind of top I’m going to put on them yet…
Got this sweet industrial cart from a cabinet shop that was closing. It’s a real work horse. 7 feet long.
Also picked up this cart. $20! score.
I also snagged this rug at the LB flea market a couple weeks ago! Check out that pattern! Are those alpacas?
I was gonna put this rug in the shop, but I opted not to get reimbursed for it because our new place has hardwood floors and we’re gonna need some sweet rugs!
Back from vacation. It was exquisite. Bass lake was perfect. A day trip in to Yosemite. some photos HERE via Samuel Lippke.
Then, Heather and I spent the weekend in La Jolla participating in Trevor and Kassi’s wedding – photos HERE.
I am building and making many things for the Patagonia store in Costa Mesa and preparing for the opening of a new store called the SEED at the Camp.
Heather and I will also be moving to a new place in about a week or so. Our own standalone little cottage bungalow housey thingy with our own porch, back yard, and a bigger garage!!! And a driveway in front of the garage for parking. Yes.
I might need to take a hiatus from blogging – suffice it to say that blogging will be sparse for the next few weeks…
I’ve taken up an additional job down in the Sobeca district of Costa Mesa. Though I do projects for them from time to time, we’ve worked out a more consistent schedule with an ever accumulating list of projects.
At the top of that list right now is the new Patagonia space at the Camp. We’ve trying to give it a little bit more vibe, rather than simply a collection of clothing…
Corner lounge…
A little curated crate of goodness by D Simon (below)
Big (temporary) canvas wall, and I hand stitched the graphic…
This past Saturday I participated in the Tour Des Artistes Sculpture Box Contest in Downtown Long Beach. Basically, we had to complete a piece inside the 8′ x 8′ x 8′ cube of 2 x 4’s. I decided that simply filling the cube would be too easy and that I needed an actual physical obstruction to my process. Thus, the boat. I also interpreted the rules of the contest as such that I had to be inside the cube while I was constructing. I definitely spent 92% of my time inside the cube working in and around the boat.
Here’s how it began (below): 1 boat, 54 sticks of 1″x2″x8′, 1 air compressor, 1 nail gun, 1 chop saw, canvas drop cloth, and red and white striped cloth, 1 nautical map of Southern California.
This is how it ended:
Simply seeing the end result really doesn’t get at the meat and potatoes of what this piece was about – that is, the process. I had no plan of what to do when I started on Saturday, I simply brought the materials and started building. One of the judges said, “I liked how I could see you working out your ideas as you went; you looked so frustrated!” It was super frustrating. So many times I just wanted to take an axe to that boat and cut it up, just so had enough room to move around and work.
It was tough, but it was a lot of fun – and I won $300!
The other 3 box sculptures were really great too, and at the end of the night I put the boat in the back of my truck and drove off with Amanda’s polar bear from her sculpture:
Picked up two custom pedestals I made for this weekends art show from the powder coaters today. Gold metallic goodness.
Now you’re just gonna have to come to the show(s) to figure out what they’re for
Tour Des Artistes this Saturday. I’m in 2 shows and I think I’m doing live sculpture too!
Yesterday on the the radio show, politics of culture on kcrw, they interviewed painter Ed Moses.
He’s a great conversationalist and can draw out those poignant distinctions that are necessary when talking about making
paintings. Above all those distinctions, the one statement that he made that I liked most was, “I know a painting is good when
it makes me angry or jealous.” He made this statement in response to a question about looking at other peoples paintings. How do you know
if a painting is good? – If it makes me angry or jealous.
There’s that clever phrase floating around the blogosphere right now that states “Modern Art = I could do that + Yeah, but you didn’t” So perhaps the nuanced version is “Good Modern Art = I wish I made that”
That’s what I feel when I see a piece that I really like. Man, I wish I made that. I want to be behind it. Behind the process, the formation of ideas, the execution, the failures, the second guessing, the brush strokes, etc…
I just ordered a new instant film camera and it’s not a polaroid. Should be coming in the mail any day now…
Fujifilm Instax 200
Here’s what it looks like via a google image search:
Film pops out the top. And it has more traditional photo proportions. Though it looks like a kids toy, the images are quite nice. Best part is the film is way cheaper than polaroids!
My new favorite blog pretty much sums up my general idealogy about life and the products for which I define my life. That is to say, as much as I want to escape it, the things I posess reveal what I value – and because I have a ton of stuff, I guess that means I value a lot?
If you frequent my blog you’ll note that I often state and sum up my acquistions, ie: HERE, HERE, and HERE, etc…
I think I’m going to do a better job of cataloging all these items in the future. (note to self: I need to streamline my blog categories). What I’ve noticed is that I purchase a heck of a lot of stuff that’s used. And in the light of the tsunami of “eco products” I still think the most positive purchase is still a second hand purchase. As a recent post on unconsumption said, “With all the hubbub about green products, the point that everyone seems to miss is that the greenest move of all is to buy used stuff. Variously called “vintage,” “thrift,” or “second hand,” its updated name might simply be Cradle-to-Curb-to-Cradle.” It’s true!
Not to mention, that most green products are horribly designed! Well, let me modify that, in the market of objects, furniture and furnishings, and clothing the vast majority of new green products are hideous.
Furniture makers/designers who are working with salvaged materials are doing a really fine job. The whole ready-made crew has a ton of ingenuous ideas – some of them may be nothing more than novelty, but at least you’re not buying new novelties.
I actually can’t think of a single furniture designer that is making a nice collection pieces using new eco friendly materials. There might be a few piecs here and there, but nothing to swoon over. (Side note: yes, furniture can make me swoon).
Special 5th Sunday Long Beach Flea Market yielded several greatd finds:
Heather and I have had our eyes out for an ironwood whale sculpture and we finally found one.
On a daring move, I purchased this cart and 8 1950’s sleeping bags. I got an insane deal, so good that I can’t even tell you, the guy was practically giving them away. Great thing is, they all come in the original covers and still have original tags and labels. These would be interesting to cut up and make cool insulated duffle bags, or totes, or surfboard bags for your 5′6″ fish. Great find.
A match made on earth, reflecting heaven. “JT Helms edited footage from La Ballon Rouge (The Red Balloon) to Grizzly Bear’sTwo Weeks and it fits the tone perfectly.” Found at Boooooom
Reminder: WE LOVE LONG BEACH BBQ SATURDAY!!! 1-5pm. Marine Stadium Park
The Bro Futurists will be out and about making stuff, community style.
We got a mention in the LBpost.com about the event – they sorta got it right [HERE].
Took the geodesic dome to the powder coaters today! Getting pumped. Limited edition T-shirts will be made on site, courtesy of the Graham Street Press.
This interview with designer/furniture maker Piet Hein Eek is interesting.
He makes a very interesting distinction about minimalism:
“Minimalism always tries to hide the details, which is not minimalistic, because you put energy into disguising what you’ve done.”
Bam. Lightbulb. It’s so true. As I’ve been working on the geodesic dome project, I’ve spend so much time filling in welding corners and grinding and sanding to create the minimalistic look. It’s bizarre how the minimilistic look is acheived after hours of painstaking detail work…
Also, I liked this: “I am not thinking about what the market wants, but what the market should want. I try to change people’s taste. I try to change their values or feeling of quality or beauty. I want to persuade people to see what I see.”
If you’ve ever taken a modern art history course then you know about this piece:
Fountain, by Marcel Duchamp. If you don’t know about this piece learn more HERE.
Well, according to Artnet News, some performance artists actually urinated into the piece at a recent opening of Duchamps work at the Tate gallery in London. [HERE]. It’s all fantantiscally ironic and wonderful! Duchamp takes a urinal and places it on a pedestal in a gallery setting , questioning the very nature of objecthood, galleries and art itself. And now, all these years later, the piece (though it is a replica) is returned to the very state from which it came. And the wonderful thing is, I think Duchamp would applaud the artists for doing so! Because in so many ways, they are furthering the ideas that Duchamp founded much of his practice on – what makes an object a work of art, and what is it about a gallery or museum that actually grants the authority to make a delinieation between art objects and non art objects?
I also scored this interesting oil painting portrait – though it is most likely a portrait of Jesus, I find it quite odd that any man in history that looks like this automatically falls into the “Jesus” category. It would be delightful to one day find a painting like this and to find an inscription on the back that simply states, “painting of Uncle Larry, July 1956″. Anyways, I liked the expression:
I also found these interesting aluminum pots at the metal salvage yard. There are tons of them – so I’m gonna powder coat a few and see how they turn out
Long Beach Flea Market purchase.
And this:
And a lot of staring and thinking:
I’ll be showing 3 sculptures from my “Variations on the Void” series.
The Bro Futurists will be out and about making stuff, community style.
5 gallon goodness
Modern Art is a Biatch
That is the subject of an email that I got from my friend Scott late last night.
The body of the email has a link to this image.
Don’t know where it’s from, but I like it.
Haha!
And this was floating around the interweb about a month ago. Don’t know where it originated from
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