Advancing toward the Metaphor

Had a little family gathering last night up at Nephew Will's crystal garden place in the Berkeley hills and was saying to Taylor I was going to take her piece to a certain point but would have to set it aside for another project.

She said, "So, it's going to be another 7 years?"  Had a good laugh at that one.

The carcass will be mitered but the miters will be truncated pretty heavily so for strength I inlayed some finger joints.  These are just sitting there before glue.

A slight dry fit to see if it's going to go.

Thin spacers (.045") on the drawers so I can mark the proper distance of the runners on the carcass side.

The drawers in cross communion while the carcass is glued.

Carcass in clamps on the right this morning.

Drawers roughly fitted.  And the metaphor for the piece starts to take some physical presence.  Explanation to follow when it's completed.

And this is where it will sit until I finish up something else.

Bonus pic!

Last jam night with the random horizon shadows down the side

Revival!

This is one of those projects that started with pages and pages of sketches and hours and hours of thought.

I started making it with great gusto.

Maybe 6 years ago.  Maybe 8.

And something got in the way, probably had to do with someone wanting me to do something for some money and then another thing came along and another.   I moved and took the various pieces with me and still it sat.

Wrote a bit about it here.  Correction, I see now it was 7 years ago.  I've given up on the idea of twisting it, way too hard and I'm not sure if I could do it to begin with.

Looks like I'll need to do another trip out to see my wood sensei for one more signature piece of something.

Medium Format shoots Large Format

A primary Studio Manifesto of mine.

Keep it fluid.

Put it on wheels.

Try not to make it permanent.

For the past three weeks, the only thing that hasn't been moved in the studio is the table saw, the liquor cabinet and kitchen stove.

I named this restaurant Large Format in my head to keep on point messaging wise while I built the photo.

Going back to another of the early mantras that was pounded into the head at photo school was...

"You don't take a photograph, you make a photograph."

And this is why I love studio work.  Every single thing within the format is on purpose, every color, every shaft of light, every prop.

You build it.

To non wine folks, Large Formats refer to oversize wine bottles.  I included a quantity of Large Format bottles in the shot but I also used it conceptually with large rough textures and other big elements.

The kitchen taken apart so I could shoot across that space.

Of note is oh maybe a hundred napkins in the foreground of every color and print that has been amassed over the decades.

I'm particularly smitten with myself on the solution of flipping over a dragon because this "table" needed a base.

You don't take it, you make it.