Despite ongoing gentrification, the warehouse district surrounding Oakland’s Jack London Square remains a muscular commercial hub. Nestled between a major highway and the bustling Port of Oakland, the waterfront district is a town within a town, an island of urban opportunity appealing to anyone who values the authentic remnants of a working city- barges and […]
Category Archives: project dispatches
‘Oakland Fusion’ Installation Commences
Over the next three weeks I will be installing our Oakland Fusion project at Jack London Square in downtown Oakland, CA. The project consists of four consecutive 10′ x 10′ lenticular murals, comprised of over 45oo hand painted tiles, mounted to a custom-manufactured, corrugated steel substrate. Each mural functions like a two-cell animation; the image […]
Comparative Menus
menu of bronze patina finishes, Artworks Foundry, Berkeley, CA To me, making is best the more closely it resembles cooking, and a day of making-related meetings is best when it orbits around eating. Our day began yesterday dropping off the completed and finally-approved creatures for our Sunnyside Menagerie Project at Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, where […]
Estero Americano Floods
I rode my bike to scout the Estero Americano over the weekend, the body of water dividing Western Marin and Sonoma counties. Almost exactly a year ago I made my first post on this weblog after a paddle on the Estero to explore the availability of sea grasses like bulrush for a furniture-making experiment. I’ve […]
Sunnyside Conservatory Menagerie
I’m putting finishing touches on a series of creatures for our Sunnyside Conservatory Menagerie project for final approval from the San Francisco Arts Commission before they are cast in bronze. The Conservatory building and grounds are currently under thorough renovation, and the creatures will be permanently installed over the summer as a complement to the […]
Stellate Geometries
The more time I spend away from the urban grid, the more I fall under the spell of non-rectilinear geometries. Straight lines and right angles are on the wane in my imagination, replaced by radial, spiral and stellate forms wherever I roam. I have a new appreciation for domes and geodesic thinking, and increasingly want […]
Windsor Longboard Roadtest
Aili took her Windsor Longboard for a test spin and loved how it handled- it carves with ease and feels rock steady going fast. The camber is just right, with just enough flex to ease road vibration and pump on a quick turn. I’m now taking advance orders for the deck on my GOODS page […]