table, more

The top boards are not attached and the edges are not addressed, but …

first table on it’s way

This is one of the two tables for the group I am working on. The legs are reclaimed lumber. The sides and top boards are newer Maple. Tung oil today.

Ripped cut piece of lumber the legs came out of for this table:

recent Los Angeles visit

Los Angeles offered one great experience and that was at the “Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years” exhibition.  Although I did not go into the Hammer even though I had heard good things about their exhibition (The Valentine-Adelson Collection, 29 L.A. artists going back to work from 1995).

Christian Marclay’s art piece was the one great art experience.  This is the second time his art has impressed me to the extent that most everything around it in the museum didn’t quite measure up, but his multi channel video piece also extended my time with other worthy art at the MOCA.  The other quality art became even more compelling having seen Marclay’s circle of video monitors.

Marclay managed to make the more recent acquisitions by MOCA seem rather suspect.  Entering the collection, from the most recently acquired art to those that have been in the collection for a while, it did not require a critical mind in a bad mood to glean the difference in quality between acquisitions in the last several years and all the other decades.

Marclay’s collection of small sounds and controlled movements coming out of  televisions kind of circle-jerked around the viewer standing in the middle of the monitors. There wasn’t ever the sense of a question as to whether or not this art was worth my time.  Immediately I felt the need to look, to listen, basically stop and spend time.  It needs to be remembered that quality art can do that, and should. So much of what is out there, being shown, is good art that doesn’t demand time or attention. Forget about the notion of requiring time (as Marclay’s work does).

(This is not an image from the art work by Marclay at the MOCA. Video Quartet)

(Another highlight from the collection exhibition at the MOCA was a sculpture by Mario Merz.  I couldn’t find a good image of the object on the floor, so I threw up two images from his work in general.)

(There was also a much appreciated series of drawings, accounts by Suzanne Lacy: Prostitution Notes, 1975. Here is a link:http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=31977&int_modo=1)

 

(The redwood I am reclaiming took the first soak of hot linseed oil well.)

(A few sketches that are guiding my work on two 9 ft long benches.)

The group of furniture I am building will envelope nicely the single object of desire I am also building. I hope to show all pieces together much in the manner of an open tent market (or open barn…), exacting the presence of the furniture pieces while also placing my work, my ideas. The furniture are supporting cast for the art.

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stills from Inglewood footage

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(These stills are out of a video project- part of the red lips, war paint, half a horse block of work.  The footage is from time spent at Jeff Mohr’s studio in Inglewood, LA.)

I’m currently preparing to build furniture objects and furniture as part of my career transition work during these lean times.   I’m also gearing up for an initial Great Basin studio project with a guest, combining site work with bivouacking. I’m not sure yet of the location for this initial Great Basin fine arts studio project, but I’m thinking of the guest’s interests as I consider site or locale.