Mark White Installation / New Years Eve

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Installed this kinetic piece by Mark in a client’s garden recently.  They love it, we love placing the pieces, so it’s good for everyone.  Of course a still shot doesn’t show how the sculptures spin in even a light breeze, but this rather poor quality video we posted on You Tube does.  Have to fix that thing, but later.

Now?  Glasses of champagne and a party with old friends.  Time to celebrate another year.  Odd how I never get tired of doing that.  Then tomorrow, a road trip.  Damn, sometimes life is too good–at least between the times of challenges.

Happy New Year either way.

Raquetball, Dinner and Holiday Sales

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Beat my sons last night in raquetball.  Decent set of games, but I only beat them by a few points.  Matter of time before the score’s reversed, but I’ll enjoy these days as long as they last–which if I have it my way will be quite awhile yet.  We deflated afterward in the sauna–a good place to sit and talk about nothing.

Dinner later at JJ’s with Brown Eyes and friends.  More parties this week, then maybe I’ll leave town for awhile.  Need to blow this joint and go someplace peaceful to write.

Art?  We sold fairly well over the Holidays, but like everyone, sales are off this year.  The recession is settling in for real, and will force a lot of retail businesses to close.  Fortunately we have plenty of work, so all is good.

New Work by Derrick Breidenthal

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Rob Timber, Oil on Panel, 24 x 24, Derrick Breidenthal 

Well Derrick’s brought us five new pieces, one of which is already on hold.  The piece above is one of my favorites.  Will have to put him in my personal collection before long.  I don’t mean him personally, just his work.

Living Large

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Was interviewed last week on the designer program, Living Large.  Karen Mills is host.  Very sweet gal.  Somehow our paths had crossed when I took her for a bike ride 30 years ago.  When the bike hit 100 she mildly indicated she wouldn’t mind surviving the ride, so I throttled it down to 80.  She was cool with that.  Interesting show either way, as designers can often be an artist’s best friend, which I touched on, among other topics.  I gather the interviews are streamed.

Apparently Kathy Ireland was interviewed awhile back as well.  Yeah, the swimsuit pinup.  Does this mean I should consider same for an alternative career?  Nah.  Wouldn’t want to scare anyone.

Washington, Franklin, Adams and Art

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Reading Gordon S. Wood’s Revolutionary Characters.  Penetrating history/biography of what set the Founding Fathers apart: their incomparable brilliance, and their human qualities.  For instance, I never knew that Washington wasn’t considered an intellectual by his peers; that Franklin died a relatively unpopular man in the US (although not in France); that Adams’ critical nature caused him to be ostracized by the others; and that all the Yanks regarded Paine as common, regardless of the brilliance of Common Sense.  Sure McCullough touched on some of this in his book, but not in the same way.

What does this have to do with art?  Indirectly, everything. 

Cohen Sculpture Dedicated

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At last, after six months of designing, fabricating, assembling, and a lot of coffee, we’ve dedicated Pierced Sky, a sculpture in honor of the late Bart Cohen.  The piece was commissioned by Mary Cohen, is by Matt Kirby, and has been installed at the southwest corner of 103rd and Metcalf.  Does it allude to Bart’s life and achievements?  Profoundly, but you’ll have to ask Matt for details.

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The dedication was a great day.  I felt humbled by all this man had achieved, all the non-profits he supported, and how quietly he went about it.  A hard act to follow.

smArtist Telesummit 2009

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I’ve been asked to serve as a speaker for the smArtist Telesummit this year, hosted by Ariane Goodwin, author of Writing the Artist Statement.  Naturally this is a career summit , held online, where several experts teach on different subjects to an audience of about 1000 artists.  My subject is titled Corporate Collectors: The New Medicis, which I’ve already written an article on for Art Calendar Magazine.  Expect this gig to be a blast.

Tonight Ariane is introducing all the speakers via teleconference.  Should be interesting.

Installation of Cohen Sculpture Begins

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Have started installation of the sculpture Matt Kirby created in honor of the late Bart Cohen: Pierced Sky.  Began morning by meeting my favorite boom operator, Jerry, at the shop in KCK where we had the spar painted (this is only one element out of dozens).

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Trucked spar to the site at 103rd and Metcalf, where Matt met us, and we proceeded to rig it in place.  The piece weighs 3000 lbs, and didn’t want to hang vertically, so this took some doing, but that’s what I dig about rigging.

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The tolerances on the base-plate holes only allowed for 1/16″ of slop, so we had to torque the piece down the final two inches.  Matt and Jerry took their turns on the big wrenches, then I took mine.  Job went smoothly, and everyone still had all their digits by morning’s end–always a sign of success when rigging.

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We’ll finish install over the course of the next week.