Change Table

RJH built a change table! Isn't it awesome? He's pretty handy, but he basically taught himself to make furniture. The drawers have dovetail joints and the piece holding the change pad has box joints. There are magazines about woodworking scattered thoughout the house. He found instructions inspired by a piece you could purchase for an outrageous sum from Restoration Hardware, and then made all sorts of changes where he thought they were cutting corners (why use screws if you can use dowels!). Then when he was finishing he found the original which had inspired the plans and realized that he actually built something far more sturdy and complex.

I had a good laugh when Portlandia did a skit about a local monthly newspaper's "Man Issue" about a well, basically a hipster douche who decides to become a (as it turns out, very bad) furniture maker and the women swoon and say things like how he could make a crib for their baby. RJH said defensively that he was only making a change table... and that I was laughing a little too hard. But of course, he did an amazing job, is very unhipsterish and did this on top of working very long hours at work.

Logos, the cosmos in art, & the history of science from print to textile form

This is a peak at the linocut which formed the basis for a logo I designed for a small English furniture company called Galapagos Designs. The specialize in German furniture from the 50's. My lovely customer stumbled upon my portrait of "Darwin on Galapagos" and liked the look of the tortoise. She requested a similar tortoise with a specific German chair, within a circle. The final logo has some further work I did with their name and slogan, in Photoshop. I can share that when their website is complete. I've enjoyed working with her and making this print. I like the whimsical idea!













The Etsy blog posted a great little article last Friday, called Art Scouting: The Night Sky. If you know me at all or have perused this blog more than once, you'll know that an article about the place where art intersects astronomy and a round up of representations, both representational and fanciful, of astronomical phenomena is just my thing. So, I was really pleased to see my "Imaginary Antarctic" screenprint included, especially amongst the works of so many wonderful printmakers. The author even sent me nice little note saying she thought it was a gorgeous depiction of the aurora.



















This is my linocut portrait of Mercator, famed 16th century Flemish cartographer and originator of the ubiquitous Mercator projection (the last of which just flew to Chicago with a friend... though I think I'll print a 2nd edition). You may recall, I was really pleased to be invited to submit of of these prints to the City Museum of Sint-Niklaas, in Belgium, who were hosting a year long exhibit in 2012, to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Mercator's birth. Recently, they wrote to me to say they would be sending me a knitted version of my print. Nothing could be less expected. It arrived today.






 









This is without a doubt, the single most unusual item I have received in exchange for my art. I don't know what to do with it, but I love it. (That's a metre stick for scale, by the way).