In the Studio with Donald Fortescue

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Donald Fortescue with one of two identical parts of his latest sculpture, ‘Nio’.

Donald Fortescue was preparing to join the last of the coopered sections of his latest sculpture yesterday afternoon when I dropped by his home-based studio in West Oakland for a chat. I arrived just in time to help him and his talented assistant, Yvonne Mouser, flip one of the two, seven foot diameter discs made of heavy Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), a sustainably-harvested eucalyptus native to Southwestern Australia. The identical discs will ultimately rest vertically on elliptical steel bases, framing an entryway like twin sentinels. ?????? ?????? Donald elaborates:

“I decided to call the pair of sculptures ‘Nio’. This is the term for the two sculptural guardian deities that stand on either side of the entrance to a Buddhist temple in Japan. The one on the left as you enter is called ‘A’ the one on the right is ‘Un’.” Continue reading “In the Studio with Donald Fortescue”

Bioneers

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Ene and I will be speaking at this year’s Bioneers Conference at the Marin Civic Center, October 15-19, 2009. We have been invited to “present an in-process, imagined work of art inspired by a breaking environmental news story” along with fellow ‘eco-artists’ Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Anne Katrin Spiess, Doug Buis, Susanne Cockrell, and Ted Purves. The session will take place on Friday, October 16, 2009 2:45pm – 4:15pm, hosted by artist-author-curator Linda Weintraub. We’re beginning to troll for environmental news stories and are actively seeking suggestions. ??????

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Polished

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polishing the Dining Commons tables at MLK Jr Middle School in Berkeley

You might be surprised to find well-polished, handmade wooden furniture in a public middle school dining commons, let alone any lunch to serve upon it. You might be equally surprised that the tables, benches and stools of Martin Luther King Jr Middle School survived their first year of use and abuse by over a thousand kids a day relatively unscathed, in support of the inaugural School Lunch Initiative.

Some may assert the seeming absurdity of providing our kids with the highest quality things we are capable of making, like gardens, food and furnishings, as a waste of effort. easimec ivermectin 0.5 10ml Others like myself see the gesture as the beginning of a long overdue conversation about the importance of respect, maintenance and refinement in public education.

I consider the term ‘polished’ an apt description for just about anything well rendered and thoughtfully executed. ivermectin tablets south africa side effects Whether applied to a feat of athleticism, academics or art, it implies that something is worth the effort to polish in the first place, and that there remains room for improvement in the future- the thing in question simply gets better when polished. This was thankfully my experience earlier today when Ene and I revisited the Furnishings I Made for the Dining Commons to assess a manageable regimen of routine maintenance for the years to come. We rubbed petroleum jelly into the grain of the tabletops, an inexpensive, non-toxic and durable polish, and recommended a monthly routine of the same. german shepherd and ivermectin The process confirmed my adage of Maintenance Equals Improvement, and I loved seeing the first dings and dents in the wood be buried under the sheen of a hand-rubbed polish, adding the welcome first layer of ‘user-generated’ character to the tables.

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The Week in Bloom

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“There’s nothing that keeps its youth, So far as I know, but a tree and truth.”
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Deacon’s Masterpiece, 1858

After last year’s bumper crop of apples and the disarmingly early drop of the Gravensteins, we vowed to do our best not to let any go to waste this season. Our Gravensteins and Pink Pearls peaked over the past week, just after the Golden Delicious and at least a week behind the Winesap, Roma and pears. Last year we hosted the Apple Jamboree on the Wowhaus compound, pressed cider and baked dozens of pies, all of which were consumed or given away that day. This year we have less fruit but it is of a more consistent, higher quality following another year of improved pruning.

We harvested several bushels with family over the past weekend which we will store until our communal cider pressing next week. Until then, we’ll eat the best of the delicate Gravensteins, a versatile and delicious heirloom variety recognized by Slow Food USA as among the 200 endangered foods in their Ark of Taste. We’re proud to care for our aging trees and relish the endangered fruit each season, especially baked in pies with fresh blackberries.

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Expedition Cabinet

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sketch/proposal for the Expedition Cabinet

I have nothing against Fine Furniture, except that I typically favor the opposite. Give me a scavenged roadside pie safe over a Biedermeier sideboard any day. It’s not that I’m into ‘outsider art’ per se, or even collecting antiques, or that I find comfort in reverse snobbery. It’s just that I prefer when things are made with a kind of looseness, without compromising overall quality or durability. I love when a design allows for the inevitable nicks and grime of daily use as opposed to living in fear of the same. I guess I just don’t like fussing over details and appreciate when my living arrangement agrees. More important, I find that when the design and making of a piece of furniture is approached with an analogous philosophy of living, it translates.

This is my dilemma as I set out to make a series of Expedition Cabinets for exhibition and speculation. I resist the temptation to elevate my concept to the realm of contemporary art, mostly because I currently lack the venue. Consequently, I’m torn between developing a product that is accessible in a roadside, vernacular way, versus one that is a kind of physical record of the performance of its making and use. Formally, the end result will be about the same, but the price points may be inversely related. I’d rather make furniture that looks just fine, as opposed to making ‘fine furniture’.

Regardless, I plan to continue to develop the concept by eye, which is how I made the sketch above, unaided by measuring tools or straight-edges. I will use hand tools as much as possible and have the unit’s proportions and detailing be obviated by the constraints of time and material, in sync with the overall goal of finding delight in its making and use.


Introducing Pappy

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Pappy likes to repair things, preferably without spending money, using things diligently saved and gleaned, collected in coffee cans and baby food jars.  Pappy is a uniquely American archetype, a perennially frugal character forged by hardship, perseverance and optimism. We all hopefully still have a little bit of Pappy in us. ????? ?????

Between projects in my woodshop I don my Pappy apron and gear up to make the necessary repairs and fixtures, with frequent trips to my Pappy larder to rummage around for just the right fastener or gizmo. It seems chaotic to the untrained eye, but I have a mental inventory of where everything is- plumbers tape, bailing wire, brads, etc. ??? ????? The random access, pappy-logic is a welcome contrast to my orderly wood world. I’m very lucky to have my own repair shop on the wowhaus compound, pre-stocked by the original owner, whose broken glasses (above) still live on the shelf, next to the transistor radio.

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