June 14, 2008 - New Lamps

The Bo lamp is one of my favorites but it's quite wide and people don't seem to have a lot of space to fit one in. I decided to make a smaller version. The large Bo is 22" wide. The new ones are 15". Both are the same height and use a similar base. There are two versions of the small Bo, one with straight sides and the other with a slight angle which I have come to like. I also like the square-ish shape. I've come up with some new compositions and have also made smaller versions of some popular Bo styles, like the one below. You can see these this coming weekend at the Milwaukee Lakeshore Festival of the Arts in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum, June 20-22. I'm in booth 36. See you there.

May 22, 2008 - For those into gadgets, large expensive ones

The Trilobis 65 is a 65 ft semi-submerged floating home designed by Giancarlo Zema, an Italian Navel architect. It has four levels and offers two single and two double bedrooms, each with a private bath. It has a fully submerged observation bulb in the lowest level that provides a 360 degree view underwater. Perhaps Neiman Marcus will offer this in their next holiday catalog, if they haven't already. It's on my wish.

May 17, 2008 - Ah Spring

 

Spring has sprung in Madison. And it seems so much more glorious after the long harsh winter we went through this year. The flowering trees are booming with blossoms, more abundant than I can ever remember.

With Spring comes the Farmer's Markets. The most well known is on the capitol square. Here are some pics I took this morning while picking up my breakfast, pumpkin and almond scones. Bakery booths are all too abundant and it's hard not to stop at every one to check out the fare. And Morel mushrooms. Luckily good friends brought some to me from my home state of Indiana so I didn't have to pay the $35 a pound price this year. Thanks Katie and Dave! And the flowers! It was a perfect morning.

Enjoy the pics. If you look back a few months you can compare this mornings photo of my block to the one in the depths of winter. It's a good reminder.

May 10, 2008 - Been busy

Hi all. It's been way too long since my last post. Been busy. As many of you know I'm a freelance graphic designer as well as an artist. The design side has taken over my life, which is good and bad. It pays the bills but takes me away from making lamps. I have two art fairs coming up; the Lakefront Festival of the Arts in Milwaukee on June 20-22, and my home town's own Art Fair on the Square on 

July 12-13. 

I want to congratulate the One Family Campaign for the Goodman Atwood Community Center for last night's gala event sponsored by Merrill Lynch. I was proud to donate a lamp to the silent auction. (The photo above is a quick shot of the front and back). Congratulations to the new owners and thanks for supporting the Goodman Center. I had a great time. Also a big congratulations to my friend Kristin Groth who, I'm quite sure, put a lot of work into the making the event a big success. 

It's the weekend and I'm taking a break from design work to build some lamps. I'm currently working on a smaller version of the Bo lamp. And it's coming along well. I'll post some pics when next time.

April 10, 2008 - Desktop Still Life 1

It's cold, gray and raining. It's been that way all week. Almost worse than getting a bunch of snow. I was filling lamp orders and got distracted. Listening to a audio book called "Heart Shaped Box" about a heavy metal rock star who buys a ghost at an online auction. Strange.

This is a picture of my desk at the moment. An artist's studio in detail. The central object is a little sculpture I created a couple years ago. I think it was going to be a birthday gift for a friend but it never happened. Structure. Well, it's part of the landscape now. (there's another view below). It's amazing to me how inspirations come and go. Fleeting ideas. This one may lead to some variations.

On the right is a lamp I'll be sending out within the week. More lamps in the background. A few cherry dowel rods across the frame. Fake flowers. Over time you'll have a pretty good look at all the interesting nooks and crannies of my studio…and me probably. Have a great day.

April 4, 2008 - Worth a 1000 words

Check out the web site worth1000.com. If you're into image manipulation or just like to see the amazing things that can be done by very creative people you'll love this site. This is a "contest website" where people submit creative images in many categories, like "Vintage Ads", which gave participants 48 hours to create an ad for a modern product using vintage advertising motifs. There are many other categories and you can spend a lot of time going through the galleries. It looks like you can also sponsor a contest. The top image is a winner from the "Vintage Ad" contest. Below is an image from "Edible Architecture".

April 3, 2008 - In Memorial

Kiersten Joy Faulkner - 1970-2008

A sad and premature end to a life that once seemed so bright.

My thoughts and prayers to her family and friends.