Sunnyside Menagerie Update

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“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” -Marcel Proust

Following years of planning leading to over a year of extensive renovations, Sunnyside Conservatory is nearing completion, and wowhaus recently made a final site visit to confirm locations for our Sunnyside Menagerie prior to installation. Thanks to the Conservatory designers’ wonderful feel for period detail and dedication to following the collective vision of the community and agencies of the City of San Francisco, the Conservatory has been updated to code while respecting its fantastical, nineteenth century origins. Our cast bronze creatures of the Sunnyside Menagerie were funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission and will be installed early next month by Atthowe Fine Art Services. The official opening ceremony is tentatively scheduled for early December. Please stay tuned for details!

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Sunnyside Conservatory (restoration), Western Elevation, drawn by Andrew Maloney, Project Architect

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original 19th century interior, Sunnyside Conservatory

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two of the Sunnyside Menagerie creatures, sited outside of the restored Conservatory


In Praise of Neighborhood Parks

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community garden, Berkeley, CA (toolshed by wowhaus, 1995)

“The older I grow and the longer I look at landscapes and seek to understand them, the more convinced I am that their beauty is not simply an aspect but their very essence and that that beauty derives from the human presence.” -John Brinckerhoff Jackson

As much as I admire John Muir and appreciate the profound heritage of our National Parks, I did not watch much of the recent Ken Burns documentary. It may just be that our laptop-scale TV screen is too tiny to do justice to the purple mountain’s majesty that consistently defined the visuals, but I also found the timbre of Peter Coyote’s voice to be too flatly mock-authoritative, reminding me of the sleep-inducing filmstrips of my youth. Ultimately, I fear I simply find depictions of Big Nature of the awe-inspiring sort to be boring, whether coming from Ansel Adams, National Geographic or Ken Burns. kilox gotas precio guatemala ??? ???? ????? ????????

Like many of my generation, my landscape sensibility is more informed by cultural geographers like J.B. Jackson and art historians like Lucy Lippard and Simon Schama. I prefer not to extract ‘nature’ as something above or outside of culture and can’t help but to find inherent hypocrisies in a romantic view that emphasizes the implied virtue of unspoiled nature, especially when it models a kind of divine order requiring the removal of native peoples from the equation.

Of course we all benefit from the preservation of land and resources, and should laud all who have fought to position conservation at this scale as a national priority. what us ivermectin ???? ???? ???? But it is equally important to acknowledge much smaller scale efforts, which often take the form of neighborhood parks, the usual venue for Ene and my collaborative work as wowhaus. If we expect to sustain any model of ecological balance, it needs to be cultivated in the collective imagination of people who lead ordinary lives in ordinary places, particularly among youth. how much ivermectin to give a dog per pound ???? ????? However artificial in origin, a well considered neighborhood park can provide the framework for understanding how to interpret landscape, which I believe lays the foundation for any meaningful dialogue with nature.

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Wishing Wands Dedication

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detail of one of three Wishing Wands crystal-embedded ‘heads’, approx. 32″ d.

Wowhaus was honored yesterday at the dedication ceremony for our Wishing Wands project at Berryessa Creek Park in San Jose, California. The three 13′ high sculptures are sited adjacent to a playground in a paved seating area frequently used by children with physical disabilities who attend the nearby elementary school. The design for Wishing Wands was largely inspired by meeting these children by chance during our initial site visit. Ene and I wanted to make something that changes dynamically with the light that children who lack mobility could enjoy interactively as a daily destination. After the ceremony, we were both deeply moved to see these kids energetically scramble in wheelchairs and walkers to catch rainbows cast by the clustered crystals and giddily make their wishes. My only wish is that I could make them all come true.

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kids love catching rainbows cast by the Wishing Wands and making wishes

Ene and I are delighted that our original gesture translated so magically to the finished product, and we truly enjoyed each step of the process over the past year. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who participated in the ceremony, including San Jose Council Member Kansen Chu; Patricia McDonald, Chair, Public Art Committee of the San Jose Arts Commission; Barbara Goldstein, Public Art Director for the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs; Lynn Rogers, Project Manager for the City of San José Office of Cultural Affairs; Beverly Williams and all members of the community in attendance. We hope to work with all of you again in the future!


Bottling the Cider

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the Golden Orb Weaver (Argiope aurantia) sets her net in the breezy autumn garden

Like all the other creatures marking this time of year- spiders weaving webs around the garden, hungry deer grazing roadside, the long-billed Dowitcher foraging the beach or geese flying Southeast in their familiar, honking ‘V’- we’ve been busy making provisions for the shortening days as the season measurably shifts and our languid days of sun quietly recede. I cannot think of a more apt occasion to mark the seasonal transition as bottling the cider, which we did for the first time under the guidance of our friends Sherry and Joe, who supplied the knowledge and gear.

I have a new-found patience this year and welcome the shift, knowing that the darkening days are tempered by our sweetening cider, soon to be shared with friends in thanksgiving along with the golden memory of a late summer harvest.

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Joe siphons the cider into bottles, which Ene caps

You may follow the thread as I track seasonal cycles by clicking here.


Fish Sculpture Progress

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1/4 scale, schematic model of the Vermillion Rockfish, carved from pine and redwood

Between meetings for new wowhaus projects over the past week, I’ve completed two 1/4 scale models of our mosaic fish sculptures for the Ortega Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission. I’ve borrowed a few techniques from boatbuilding to visualize the forms in 3d and consequently loft the structure to full scale. Traditionally, a marine architect would carve a ‘half hull’ model in wood to test a new shape, from which all sections and measurements would be made for full scale construction. The model would literally be cut into sections, which translate directly into construction plans and building jigs.

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Ene made a lovely sample panel of the reflective, tile mosaic for the ‘anchovy’ sculpture (photo: Genevieve Masse)

To make the models, I laminated scraps of pine and redwood and roughed out the shapes with a bandsaw. Using small spokeshaves and rasps, I then shaped the contours of the fishes, knowing I would later add a layer of clay for surface details. Next I will cut the models into sections to make templates for the interior steel armatures, to be cut and welded at full scale, after approval by Artur Tan, our structural engineer. I’ve been enjoying working subtractively with wood in this way, and would love to do more purely sculptural work in wood, which lends itself so forgivingly to precise carving. The entire process has also been great practice for designing and making my radical board boat and shapes my thinking about future sculpture projects in general.

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schematic sketch showing steel armature for the fish sculpture(s)


Radical Board Boat

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the lateen-rigged ‘jangada’ of Northeastern Brazil

Over twenty years ago, Ene and I built our first and only boat together one winter on the porch when we lived in a one room cabin perched over the Hudson. The cabin was built atop a sea wall on a narrow spit of land to the west of the railroad tracks, and the open porch, which cantilevered over the river, largely determined the size and type of boat- a 16 foot, hard-chined sharpie for rowing and occasional sailing. When the ice flows melted that March, we lowered the finished skiff directly into the river from davits hung from the porch rafters and set off to explore the contours and tides of the Hudson and inland sloughs of coastal New England aboard our newly christened ‘Calabash’. ???? ????? This marked the beginning of my adage all vessels originate with an imagined voyage, and initiated my annual, autumnal obsession with boatbuilding that persists to this day.

This year I’ve postponed planning the perfect cruising boat in favor of the simplest boat for optimal adventure with minimal effort. ????????? ??? ????????? The dilemma to date has been how to build a vessel that is seaworthy enough for local conditions but adequately small for car-topping or trailering, without taking up too much space or time in my busy woodshop. An open boat would require double ends and high freeboard to prevent shipping seawater, and a decked boat would require a self-baling cockpit and perhaps a small cabin for stowing gear and for sheltered, coastal camping. I currently lack the time or resources for either scenario, so I’ve decided to radically shift the program and design my own board boat, essentially an elaboration upon the time-tested, sailing surfboard.

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sail plan for a 19th century, gaff-rigged, Barnegate Bay ‘Sneakbox’

The board boat I have in mind will combine elements from the traditional Brazilian jangada (at top), the Barnegate Bay sneakbox, the early DIY sailfish from the 1940’s, and the Wyliecat 17, which appropriated the wishbone boom and the flexible, unstayed mast from sailboarding. I reason that if the problem is to avoid getting wet and potentially capsizing or swamping the boat, best to use these as the starting point for braving the rough conditions on local bays such as Tomales and Bodega. Crew will wear wetsuits and life vests and any gear will be lashed to the deck in waterproof bags. ????? ???? ??? The goal will be to efficiently get out on the water whenever the conditions are just right and pack minimal provisions to ensure either a furious and fun day-sail or a night of camping on the remote beaches of Tomales Bay, where we have the seasonal option of digging clams or jigging halibut for our supper. The board boat project will also provide me with a visceral sense of local conditions which will ultimately inform my annual obsession with finding the perfect boat for extended cruising.

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We still row the original ‘Calabash’ on Tomales Bay in calm weather

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Interview with Jim Christensen

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photo: Todd Hido

My interview with Brooklyn-based artist and woodworker Jim Christensen is the latest in an ongoing series of interviews and studio visits with other makers/artisans/crafters. You may read these by clicking here. If you would like to introduce yourself and your work to a growing Deep Craft network, I invite you to visit the PARTICIPATE page of this site. Meanwhile, allow me to introduce you to my old pal Jim:

DC: Describe what you do as a maker/artisan
JC: I’ve been making things since I was a kid. Like a lot of guys who grow up in small town U.S.A., my father and grandfather were both woodworkers, as well as my uncles. The craft of woodworking has informed the way I see things in this world and has influenced the types of material culture that capture my attention. A good introduction to my worldview can be seen at: www.youroldpaljim.blogspot.com Continue reading “Interview with Jim Christensen”