Hi all!!!
There's a bit of redundant info (and images) in this
newsletter, since there was some sort of confusion between Cox (my ISP) and
Microsoft a few weeks ago, and any of you with MSN.com or Hotmail.com did
not receive my previous newsletter. Aint technology grand!?!?!
I continue to have fun at my giant sandbox, building my
sand-castle! :-) I am truly having a love affair with concrete!
(below) Two friends help me prepare my entryway for the day's concrete pour.
Dwayne, on the right, ties together the rebar grid above my radiant heat
tubes (which will carry solar heated water during the winter). Rick, on the
left, looks all around the foam blocks to make sure I haven't dropped any
tools into the shafts that will soon be filled with concrete. If walls could
talk . . .
(right) The entryway and steps down into the kitchen, shortly after the
pour. SHEESH! You'd think I would've learned my lesson during the first
concrete pour in January, but I guess I'm a glutton for harsh life lessons.
What a lot of hard work. If any of you are thinking of building your own
house, I DON'T recommend doing your own concrete work! :-)
and yet, as always, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!
(left) Incapable of simply 'leaving well enough alone', and inspired
by the concrete benches (see below), I placed decorative crown moulding
against the front face of my stair step forms. I'll find out in a few days
if the desired effect (a reverse of this pattern in the front of my steps)
was successful.
"SHEER DRIVING PLEASURE"
Meanwhile, since
many of you did not receive the last issue, I decided to include the
painting below, again. "Sheer
Driving Pleasure"
was a
challenging piece, but worth the effort and wait. As many of
you have heard me confess, I'm really not much of a fan of just "automotive
art", and with this commissioned piece I strove to find some more engaging
way to display the contemporary BMW. I photographed the car, and from that
created an 'ad' for BMW, which I then inserted in a magazine and created the
layout you see. The props were all things I had lying about; an 'Investor's Business
Daily' newspaper (which they desperately tried to get me to subscribe to),
an Am Ex bill, an electric bill, my wallet, glasses, a copy of a kitchen
design magazine, and an issue of American Cinematographer. Reproductions of
this piece are available in two sizes 24"x36", and 16"x24".
