Saturday, May 21, 2011

What's Not To Love?


Is it so wrong for a man to love a sign? Not a sign like a Sign From God but an A-board sign you might see on the sidewalk in front of a business.  I am making some signs for a new restaurant that just opened on Alberta here in Portland called Natural Selection.  One blade sign that will hang above the entrance and one A-board that will age gracefully on the sidewalk.

The materials and the design are built to accommodate the weather and to change with age. Metal will rust, rough cedar will green/gray, colors will fade and history will be recorded.  Looking forward to decay does not sound optimistic in general but in this case, it is. These signs are going to look better and better and better.

The frame for the A-board is made out of one piece of the famous junglewood.  I sawed it on the '56.

I had been trying to get my beautiful wife to consider accepting this sign into our family as a member. An intimate member. I was surprised that she seemed warm to the idea when I first brought it up. You can imagine how awkward it was. We both decided together that it would be too hard to explain to the kids and let it go.


These messy, through tenons are the physical embodiment of the loose, overshot lines of a quick sketch. To me it indicates an infinite, unfinished, hopeful element. It adds life to inanimacy because it invites inquiry.

Everything is not so defined that it closes the door on subjectivity. Rather, it is a subtle, aesthetic catalyst for an emotional interaction between someone and something.  It is neither discrete nor exclusive.
good old Ruppert oil slapped the turnip and cabbage summa cum-laude
Even the refuse generated by this project please me. I am a sucker for a trophy, having won very few. But tell me the powers from beyond weren't shining on me when I generated this off-cut when I plasma cut the "S"s for the blade sign. I humbly accept this great award.


And here is a piece of metal I was testing some milk paint techniques on. I'm keeping it.
Extra added bonus!


All in all it was a bountiful project. Thank you, good night.

3 comments:

  1. Milk paint testing station absolutely brill! I'd hang that! And I'm a arcollector!)))

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  2. well anonymous arcollector, it just so happens that it is for sale!! Send me a picture of your shoes and I will tell you how much it costs.

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