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Art Handling Bus, Who Wants In?
The idea is pretty simple and works well. Find a reliable group of neighbors, get a truck and share costs for maintenance and insurance. Set up a calendar to schedule use and everybody keeps the tank half full.
For myself and other artists in the Gateway Arts District in Prince George's County Maryland, this would be fantastic with the right vehicle.
I'm a member of a group like this that shares a little pickup truck. It's great, but for artists handling art it is simply inadequate. That's where a short bus with a wheelchair lift comes in. Start there, take out some seats, install tie down points on the inside like in any regular box truck, make an oversized rear door, add a roof rack/mural painting platform/ stage for events and side rack for ladders and things, etc etc and bam, you have a fantastic custom art handling/ art install/ music and events vehicle! Whether you're a visual artist, musician, theatrical performer or something completely different, this vehicle would meet needs for moving things, making things, and provide a mobile venue to perform things from, while still being small enough to navigate DC streets and alleys.
Since I haven't seen anybody else rise to the challenge yet I guess it's on me. Who's in? Margaret? Alonzo? Val- you're in on the little shared pickup with me, tell me you would not want in on this truck also. I'm looking for 15 to 20 brave souls with one or two hundred bucks to spare per year to get this started with me, opt in or out every year after and take it as it comes. Oh, and a few thousand in grants funding to subsidize startup costs would would be great buy-in to the idea as well, if you happen to know of an organization that would fund this initiative.
A decent short bus costs about 5k. Add another 5k in retro-fits and it'll still cost less than a used box truck of the same size and be better suited to boot.
Please share this page on social media in the Gateway Arts District, send it to any artist you think needs to join here in the North Brentwood/ Hyattsville/ Mount Rainier/ Brentwood/ Gateway Arts District/ Unincorporated Northern PG County/ Near My House/ Near Red Dirt/ Near Glut Food Co-op/ Near Pyramid/ Near Joe's/ Near Otis Street Studio and Blue Door Studios / You Get It, Near Here (kidding) area and anybody that needs to fund this.
If this vehicle would help someone with their Emergency Relief Funding application as a way to show that they will use the grants funding to replace lost income with new revenues instead of spending on immediate expenses let me know, we get enough of us together and we could make something beautiful. Bus and beyond.
While it is hard to prove I've lost income since most of my future projects are still “maybes” but not any time soon, I know my income has dropped. I'm sure this is true for many of us, where it is hard to say what will happen when, but in the meantime money is scarce. Point being, let's make our case.
So yes, I'm moving forward on this in the next couple months. Holler at me if you want in or want to help fund making it happen.
Rock on,
Bob
Look at this sweet ride I found on Craigslist. What a beauty. You can get something like this for $5k. Maybe not worth it on your own, but worth one twentieth of the total cost? Yeah, probably, if you're renting a truck more than once a year and could make some extra money with it, improve your art practice, just need to go for a drive now and then with it, move, etc. I'm not trying to do a hard sell here, just, you know, excited for this little slice of the future.
Calling This Series Done
Double-sided paintings on antique panels cut out of old doors. Still trying to figure out what they mean, with the solar eclipse/portal things from one side to the other and all the weird imagery. Hoping to put some good out in the world with them, somehow.
Trees For Sale
Holler at me if you're in Brentwood and need a tree-Paw Paw, Persimmon and Coast Redwood! Plenty to choose from. Any money I make off of this will just get folded back in to more environmental efforts.
Also, my cat says hello. Hello world, how are you?-the cat.
Rania's Sculpture
Cnc plasma cut plate steel, rolled to an exacting radius. Now all Steve and I have to do is remove the excess material that was left in for the sake of rolling (think cutting on the dotted line, but with a plasma cutter instead of scissors), weld, stack, paint and install. The goal is to make a sixteen foot tall public work of art that will reflect in steel the delicate sensuous beauty that Rania brings to her fabric works.
I'd do the thing where I include details, like renderings, location, Rania's full name, etc, but that will have to be in future posts. Not today, internet, not today.
Happy Spoon
Buddy made me soup the other day and lent me a spoon to eat it with. Couldn't not fix it for him before returning it.
Happy Spoon- a little angle grinding, a little drilling, a little filing and sanding. All the ingredients you need to make a drab spoon into a happy spoon!
Windom Road Historic Barrier Park
It is a solemn and humbling thing, to be part of this project, and I do not take the responsibility lightly.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the team and I come up with, in terms of communicating with and listening to the public via this information display/comments box/library that I finished building today.
Please do reach out if you have any thoughts on this project.
Check back soon for links to more information, details on upcoming events and further updates.
Double the flask, double the fun?
Please understand, I don't even drink. This just made sense to me at the time. It's all going to the same place… maybe?
I'd like to say the intent was some sort of commentary on how horrible Bezos and Amazon are. Shopping being the new opiate of the masses, built on the backs of wage slavery and leading to environmental planetary suicide etc etc. And yeah, Bezos is human cancer, don't get me wrong, but this art project was much more of a satisfyingly square peg in a round hole thing for me. You know, to be playful.
Go Potato!
Detail from another painting in progress.
Oil on antique panel, potato life-size.
Popcorn!
Detail from a painting in progress
Oil on antique panel, popcorn approximately life-size.
Ball, Filled To The Brim
Finished up this latest bowling ball- holds over a quart of just about anything. Stainless steel and copper liner, cork to plug the opening in the thumb hole. It makes perfect sense.
Process shot of the hollowed out bowling ball, with the liner I put inside before reassembly. Liner is a stainless steel saucepan that I brazed shut and soldered a copper pipe to, at the necessary angle to fit through the thumb hole.
Un-spoon Spoon Revisited
I took two more old spoons and made another non-spoon with them. The second time is always easier. Still learning as I go, which is nice. The next logical step will be re-plating them with a fresh coat of silver. Pondering that option, even if the these un-spooned non-spoons will never spoon again.
Spoon Man
For my mother.
Repousse metal working on an old spoon, using both wax and lead-shot bag backing. A fun experiment- the brass in the spoon is not as ductile as other alloys, but it works!
Enjoy, ma ;)
Moe's Chairs
Just finished up restoring a set of three folding chairs for renowned local filmmaker Moe Jordan.
Disassembled, repaired, reassembled, refinished and reupholstered. I left enough character and wear to showcase the history of the chairs, without letting them be shabby in a non-chic way. If I say so myself.
Thank you for your patience, Moe!
Spoon. Spoon…
Duchamp thing at the Hirsshorn got cancelled so I made a spoon a not spoon spoon instead.
That old copper kettle has a new life.
This water bottle/ canteen/ kettle project started out as an effort to make a liner for another bowling ball full of whisky. Once I happened upon a saucepan better suited to that task, I thought you myself, why not have some fun with it? So I removed the original spout I'd put on the flat face of it and plugged the hole with an antique spoon. Then I gave it feet with similar old silverware scraps. After that I went ahead and gave it a new mouth with the use of a stainless steel water bottle, followed by a handle quickly melted off of a damaged teapot. I let myself get pretty painterly with the solder moving the molten metal with palette knives and paint brushes. Moving solder around like paint and sculpting with it is so satisfying. Making it wick towards heat, observing its flow, sculpting it in that moment between liquid and solid. It’s fun.
Vision Quest in Broken Metal
Old spoons, broken glasses, studio scrap and a late night. When the future looks uncertain, make new ways to see.
Fine copper mesh makes an excellent see-through lense, focusing light with each pinhole.
Slit spoons are reminiscent of the eye protection made prior to inexpensive glass. Ready to cut stone and traverse the arctic.
Willson Safety Glasses, what was left of them anyhow, provided the frame and inspiration for this piece.
Happy Birthday Mom!
Some tests for an exciting possible upcoming project fabricating things for Leigh Davis. Gilded lotus pods with black 3.0 and ivory paints. Also, it's my mother's birthday. Happy birthday Ma!
Higgins Cockatoo Collaboration Creation
While testing out some conservation processes and materials with Reed Higgins, we went ahead and made a cockatoo chicken thing. The more you know.
Thanks Steve!
Steve Jones, one of my studio mates, gave me some more salvaged sheet copper to play with. Dunno where it came from, but now that I've soldered it into a kettle it is definitely going in a bowling ball.
