A Walking Song

walking song

sometimes I make up songs during a long walk

There is no better design tool than a good long walk. It may not always lead to creative breakthroughs, but does reliably clear the noggin and put things in perspective. ivexterm in usa Before I begin to think about a particular project during a walk, I usually find myself simply getting into the cadence and breathing of walking, sometimes making up phrases and melodies to help me focus. efeitos colaterais da ivermectina em ces Whether or not I make progress with the project at hand, I always return to the studio feeling relaxed and optimistic, eager to field the inevitable challenges of the day. ivermectin toxicity treatment

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Greet the Elders

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Living and working in West Africa many years ago, we learned to Greet the Elders

When Ene and I worked in West Africa as US Peace Corps Volunteers, we developed some habits that still inform our community-based projects. Principal among these is a kind of public ritual we call Greet the Elders. In remote villages, before introducing a new idea like a fuel efficient woodstove or method of filtering water, let alone seeing it adopted and integrated, it’s key to follow a certain protocol, at once formal and convivial. It always begins by meeting with the village’s key decision makers- the tribal chief and other elders, market women, the village shaman and sometimes a government official. These greetings could easily last all day and into the night, taking place either in French or Konkomba, a regional language we struggled to use for the basics. The most relevant information would be exchanged through a ritual call-and-response series of questions about the ‘news’ of the day, ranging from one’s health to the crops, the animals, the children and the neighbors, all without making eye contact while loosely shaking hands, nodding and bowing,

“Ajoko-poya?”, “Alafia”, “Amonko-poya?”, “Alafia!”, “Ditunde-poya?”, “Alafia-weh”, “eh-HENHH! horse health ivermectin ”

After the exchange of news, the bonds of trust would be sealed by spending the remaining day together, eating fufu and drinking chukatuh, then dancing together into the night to the ‘mento’ beat of Ashanti drums.

Our latest Wowhaus public art project, designing a system of ‘watershed markers’ for the City of Oakland, is a good example of how the final product relates to the process of engaging with the community. Although Ene and I have strong ideas about the importance of maintaining a healthy ‘watershed’ in an urban environment, we approached the project with very open minds, not knowing if the general population of any city necessarily knows what ‘watershed’ means. how to use ivermectin powder for rabbits In a kind of sponge mode, we randomly surveyed people in diverse neighborhoods about what images and symbols connote water and stream ecology. We shared our findings with Oakland residents invited to public meetings, and learned more about how regular people think of the idea of a ‘watershed’. We were surprised to hear similar stories across cultural and economic spectra, boiling down to childhood memories about playing in urban creeks, turning over rocks to discover life teeming beneath, and finding ways to cross the stream.

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in-process detail of one of four relief sculptures in clay and stone, to be cast in bronze

We decided to make a series of ‘stepping stones’ to capture this spirit, to be cast in bronze and embedded in concrete paving over culverts where creeks have been diverted. Ene has made great progress sculpting these ‘stepping stones’ in clay. We have a sequence of four, which can be arranged in any order, and will be sited at Oakland’s busiest pedestrian thoroughfares, drawing attention to the hidden creeks and waterways draining to the Bay. ivermax dosage

To read more about the wowhaus ‘watershed markers’ for the City of Oakland, please click here and scroll down.

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In Praise of the Sawhorse

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I made my ‘indoor sawhorses’ to double as a table base

In all my years working with wood I’ve never felt the need to own or build a proper workbench. For a long time, I simply lacked the dedicated space and opted instead for working mostly outside, preferring to stage my work on sawhorses and collapsible building jigs tailored to a particular use. tab ivermectin 6 mg The scraps from one project would have an afterlife as the rudimentary furnishings to make the next. adverse reactions following annual ivermectin treatment of onchocerciasis in nigeria ???? ?????? ???? 2023 During the rainy season, projects would occasionally migrate indoors, so I made sawhorses as though they were furniture (pictured above). The prolonged lack of a dedicated bench opened up my thinking to the kinds of projects I would consider taking on, and I learned how limitations can be liberating.

To me, there’s also something inherently a little sad about a workbench. ????? ?????? Like a well-intended New Year’s resolution, a workbench tends to be over-built and under-used, its function shifting too easily from utility to burden. ivermectin paste for pygmy goats Sawhorses, on the other hand, take up very little space, and both their construction and use are perpetually open to interpretation. ????? 31 Now that I have more space than I ever imagined, I still opt for sawhorses over workbench, a strategy more in keeping with the ever-fluctuating scope and scale of my projects.

Here are some ideal characteristics of good sawhorses:

  • Lightweight
  • Strong enough to stand on
  • Stacking
  • Flexible enough to conform to uneven surfaces
  • Able to live outdoors for extended periods
  • Constructed of recycled or scrap lumber

However you plan to use it, the most important feature of a good sawhorse is that it be owner-built; designing and making a sawhorse is the perfect, first furniture project.

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Sand Trees

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These elegant ‘sand trees’ are unique to the low tide conditions of Doran Beach

As Ene and I begin to fabricate our relief sculptures for a system of watershed markers we’ve been commissioned to design for the City of Oakland, we’ve been returning to our local beach at low tide for research and inspiration. The way the sand behaves at a certain angle of incline, at very low tides, makes a lovely tree structure that micro-cosmically mimics the contours of drainage patterns constituting the local watershed.

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mussels cluster on rocks alongside barnacles, starfish and anemone

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The Beach Fleas (Orchestoidea) are everywhere along Doran

To follow the progress of this wowhaus public art project, please click here and scroll down.

Fish Sculpture Progress

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Our hand-printed wedding invitations were an auspicious omen of the fish theme

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish. ????? ??????? ?????? -Ovid

The theme of fish has been a constant touchstone for Ene and me since we first met over twenty years ago, when Ene wore fish earrings and we lived in a one room house cantilevered over the Hudson River. We decorated our first Christmas tree with foil-covered chocolate fish, and printed our own fish themed wedding invitations from a woodcut I made one winter, the ice floes buckling and cracking with the changing tides beneath our feet. ?????? ??????? As Peace Corps volunteers in West Africa, we subsisted on a diet of dried fish and fufu, then soon after, as deckhands on a salmon seiner in Alaska’s Alexander Archipelago, our boat hauled in over 250,000 pounds of fish in a single season. It’s just like that with us and fish. We never consciously decided that fish would be the theme, it just seemed to fit.

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trowel in hand, Ene skins the anchovy

Needless to say, we were pretty excited when the San Francisco Arts Commission funded our proposal for two monumental, ceramic mosaic-skinned sculptures honoring the importance of ‘feeder fish’ to the ecosystem, to be installed at the new Ortega Branch of the Public Library, near Ocean Beach. The project has been an ideal collaboration between Ene and me, and combines our skills more evenly than other projects, giving Ene more of an opportunity for hands-on, full scale fabrication. Ever the intuitive baker, Ene has a feel for doughs and plasters, and seems supremely in her element with trowel in hand. ????? ???? ????

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the rockfish is almost ready for its golden mosaic skin

To read more about the progress of the wowhaus public art project, ‘Abundance’, please click here and scroll down.

maoist fish

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NOMO Tattoo

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Our NOMO logo was designed by Sheboygan-based tattoo artist, Steven Bossler

Ene and I (aka wowhaus) are gearing up for a cross-country, family road trip, the final destination being the final, three week leg of our residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 6/27- 7/18. Somewhat ironically, the focus of our project is non-motorized transportation, which we’ve contracted into the catchier moniker, ‘NOMO’. During our residency, we will be setting up an outdoor NOMO Studio under a tent on the grounds of Kohler Arts, where we will work collaboratively with the community to interpret and celebrate NOMO culture in the region, culminating in a day-long exposition and related gallery exhibition, that will remain open to the public for the remainder of the summer.

We’ve already laid the groundwork for the body of work we plan to produce and are looking forward to pulling it all together in true wowhaus style. To promote the project, we asked Steven Bossler, a Sheboygan-based tattoo artist, to contribute his take on a NOMO graphic identity (see above). The NOMO logo will be featured on all print materials, and we will be giving away NOMO tattoo decals during our residency. We will continue to tap the creative energies of the citizens of Sheboygan throughout the process as we explore alternative modes of transportation in the region. ivermectin safe for pregnant dogs

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A Chair with Bay Area Pedigree

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Greens Restaurant manager Mike Hale helps unload and install 140 Greens Chairs

Early this week I delivered 140 newly minted, Greens Chairs I designed specifically for San Francisco’s Greens Restaurant in honor of its 30th anniversary and subsequent interior renovation. Fourteen of the chairs are made of walnut and will surround a functional sculpture by J.B. Blunk (1926-2002), dating to the restaurant’s origins. The commission came to me through my friend Mariah Nielson, J.B.’s daughter, who runs the J.B. Blunk Residency and was hired to consult about how best to honor the carved, massive redwood sculpture, in keeping with its contemporary surroundings. The other chairs are made of maple to compliment handmade tables and furnishings crafted by Paul Discoe and other artisans associated with the San Francisco Zen Center in the late 1970’s.

My design for the Greens Chair evolved from my Elder Chair, a design I originally prototyped for the School Lunch Initiative associated with Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley. The Greens Chair was inspired as much by the Buddhist ethos of its namesake restaurant as by the restaurant’s dramatic setting on the Bay, with views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

As Greens Restaurant manager Mike Hale helped unpack the chairs, they happily basked in the California sun and were kissed by a stiff sea breeze coming off the Bay, before finding their way home inside the iconic restaurant at Fort Mason. I’m very proud of my chair’s uniquely Bay Area pedigree and hope to see it become a contemporary classic.

To read more about the development of the Greens Chair, please click here and scroll down.