Summer Project

 I spent my summer on a different art form. The art of crafting built-in bookshelves, radiator covers and Built-in Benches. This is actually what I do to make a living and it is truly an art form. I still prefer more colorful and abstract forms of creativity, but people rarely want that in a bookshelf.

The Bookshelf is like an alter in the home. It is often the place that defines you. It tells visitor, "this is who I am." Besides holding books that interest you or have shaped your life, it holds momentous of travels, pictures of loved ones or art that inspires you.

In the long process of a job this size I often have to remind myself I am making a place for a family to be and be comfortable. As an artist I find it difficult to make box after box, which is what cabinet making is, and not get board. Remembering I am making a home more comfortable for others is often what I use to keep me going.

 jeffkimsey-carroll.com

 

The making of a tail

Still working on the Dinosaur at the Discovery Museum. Now the Dinosaur needed a tail, but the tail needed to bend around the slide. In the first picture I built a form and glued together 4 pieces of flexible 3/8" ply-wood. Clamped it and let it dry.

Once the bend was set I was able to cut out the vertebrae and spine element's. Then in order to give the tail some dimention I cut out and attached individual vertebrae pieces.

The tail will now be painted and hung in the next few days. I'll post pic's in the next few weeks. Follow the link below to see the latest pictures.  

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.226011260760911.70249.150455301649841&l=df47743a3e

Jeff at the tail end

Lines and Spaces

All winter I have been coming and going from a large furniture project that has at times overwhelmed my level of woodworking skill. This is good. It is good to be challenged. The fun part of the job has been the accent on the side panels of the furniture I am creating. I'll be sure to post pictures in the future of the finished products.

For years my thing has been to find ways to put a bit of organic-ness into every wood structure I create. Okay yes, how much more organic can you get than working in wood in the first place? What I am talking about is that I really do not enjoy straight line I prefer irregular and non symmetrical. If you look at my portfolio you'll see what I mean. I can do the square and true work and it's wonderful, but I am happiest running my jig saw through a large piece of plywood with no line to follow just popping out abstract it is extremely freeing.

This image is a sample I did of the accent that will adorn the furniture when it is complete

Now with this furniture project I am playing with line and space. the cuts add a fluid accent to an otherwise square piece of furniture. There is this feeling of movement, growth or change. There is a positive or negative to it depending on your experience and perspective. You might see growth as something pregnant or expanding, bringing new life or you may see a tumor, an invader of a destructive nature. Either way the accents on these pieces of furniture will reflect the natural world, as was my intent.

These images show a chair back and a closeup of the same back before it has been sanded and finished. The lightest wood is Ash. The mid tone is oak and the dark is Walnut.

This shows a more defined accent in the same style finished. to see more of this follow the link to my web.   http://www.jkcwood.com/Bigoak.html                        Jeff in the sawdust

Why Build a Ladder?

Photo Titled "construction"

I am building a ladder to reach my soul

It is not made of wood or steel

But something much stronger

It is made of all the emotions

I have the courage to claim as mine.

I have been building all my life. First with toys and then scraps of wood in the backyard with hammers, nails and lots of band-aids. I also build with words, sounds, pictures, pencils, paper, etc. I like combining materials sometimes with a vision and other times just to see what comes out of combining different materials or media. This I guess is the job of the artist.

I think this is what we all do.The cook puts different ingredients together with different temperatures and time to create a new recipe. Those who combine numbers, space and time to seek understanding or organization we call mathematicians. Teachers bring together resources, tools and a joy of learning to inspire their students. We are always building, changing and hopefully growing.

One day when contemplating purchase of a software to allow me to do even more combining of materials, and lacking the funds to make such a purchase, I came to the age old question of, why. Why am I doing all this combining? So I mused poetically into one of my journals the short phrase above. Yes I asked why and jumped right away to my soul. Do you have a visual of your soul? The place or non-place that supposedly houses your very being. I've heard said that Leonardo da Vinci and comrades did all their dissections and drawings of the human body to identify the location of the soul. Okay I'll add that to Wikipedia. I'm sure it's real.

I am trying to get an image of the soul here but I need this ladder to get up or down to get a handle on it. For me the road (or ladder) to this is in emotion. So I go forward combining what ever I can to evoke as many different feelings as I can to add to the rungs of my ladder.

Enough for the moment!

Jeff building one rung at a time.

On the origin of the soul - From the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Richter-NotebooksOfLeonardo/section-14/item-837.html