As It Was Left

 

This was the darkest corner of his workshop.  Chair well worn from the sitting and the thinking.  Mini fridge close by, a little table to hold his other helpers that helped him during the day.

 

Brother F had a way about him and how he composed his shop.  The entirety was an art piece, crammed with items that he arranged just so, each relates to the thing next to it.  You can't really isolate one composition, because the whole place was one big interrelated piece.

  

Photo of my father

 Not sure why he was into the church, sure it was part of life growing up in our childhood but

still I was surprised of his religion/spirituality.

 

 

 

 

He left one thing unfinished here in the shop.  The building he owned downtown was being converted from his Architecture practice to a gallery.  A family gallery.  Seems art runs deep in the Kirchners.

He was making a sign to replace the old Architecture business sign with the gallery sign. 

He was almost through hand painting the sign.  Did a full size mockup first....hand painted. 

 

He was expecting to come back and finish it and hang it.  His son Will is taking that on now.

 Let's say adiós to BroFred with a couple of his pen and inks that were hung on his walls from early 70's.

 And my print I did of one of his pieces.

 

 

 

Model 500 Miniature Elephant Display Cabinet

 

 

 

We'll get to the Model 500 later on.  But first let's discuss the elephant in the room.  My brother's kids decided to put some of his art work on the memorial postcard that got handed out at his service.

One of which was a pen and ink he did while being a teachers assistant for his Architecture Professor in Austria 1970-1971.

 

 

After the Europe trip, my brother came back and painted.  His stuff was stunning, visionary, new, fresh, exciting.  From the early 70's to 2010's I held my brother's artistic stuff in the highest regard.  Coming back from a daytrip in the wine country somewhere in the 2010's Annie and I decided to stop in one more winery for a tasting.  We picked it randomly while driving back down the Silverado Trail.  

It was set way back from the highway, couldn't see it until you came right on it.  The winery looked like it came out a Dr. Seuss book.  On acid.  We go inside and the place is covered with my brother's artwork.  Reality was quicksand, could not figure it out.

Well, it turned out the building was designed by an Austrian architect, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  And it turned out that Hundertwasser was also a painter.

 Friedensreich Hundertwasser 

Got home and called up my brother and said WTF.  He came clean, he was captivated by Hundertwasser and copied his style.  Brush stroke for brush stroke.

And with that, the luster was gone from my eyes about how great my brother was.

But I cut an engraving block of the pen and ink.  Traced and tried to follow the construction/path of his pen.  It was a nice exercise of getting inside his head.  Upon careful thinking about it, each figure was mostly done without taking the pen off the paper.  At least the major outlines and whatnot were done in one path.

The block, the memorial postcard, a quick proof pulled

 

Jules came back to for a quick bay vacay.  Four of us @9Agnes 

 

Now to the elephant in the display cabinet.

An old friend had a collection of little elephants that I think she got tired of dusting off and wanted them inside something.  That's what this is all about.

 It's made with some left over maple from a bigger project.  I glued them together to get them thicker.  Dovetailed on the WoodRat.

 Ok, that's it.  Now for the bonus pics.

Traffic sign emphatically says do not turn this way.  And I agree. 

 This block plane gets used a hundred times more than the other planes.

 

The A&P Mom and Pop Print Shop

 A's silkscreen for a print job

Tried my hand at making a printing press for the wood engraving process.  I don't normally print more than 4-6 prints and going to use the old Vandercook at Aesthetic Union in SF seemed like overkill

 

My version of a hydraulic press.  Used my automotive floor jack.  Goes up and down quickly.

Pegged the four corners with half inch rebar. 

First print out of it.

From a photo of a horse on Mykines in the Faroe Islands.

 

Some blocks

 Me and my brother.

The eye of the horse

 

Some church festival in Ibiza on the left.  Walking up the hill from the cottage in the Faroes on the right

 Bonus pic.  Front gate.  Kinda is print-like.

 

-2+3=Net Positive One

                                              Cuidad Rodrigo 2025

This past year a couple of good and close humans I know left, but the ones they left behind, are putting forth three new humans.

So I guess that's the way it should be. 

Two of the three have arrived already, the third one coming in a few months.

 

Engraved three blocks of the first photos sent to me of the newbies.

Can you even imagine what's going on inside their heads, fresh out of darkness?

Zealia and Archer 

 

To give you more content.  Engraved some blocks from photos I took in Cuidad Rodrigo, España.

A progression of energies 

 

Early bonus pics

Leather and Espresso cup