Categories
Thoughts, complaints, and loquacious ramblings.

23 June 2022

Cities are strange places, this one more than most. I’ve never before felt so denatured.

My last full week in California comes to a close on sunday. The project which took me here is nearly complete, though today my arm isn’t much use. I have the time to rest, but inactivity is my least favorite pass time.

Nothing has felt fully real since I dry docked Elias on the second. I’m far outside my normal spaces, both physical and psychological, and far far from my normal routines. Today is the first I’ve thought of thinking ahead by more than a day. It seems two and a half weeks is how long it takes me to get to know a place well enough not to be overwhelmed by it.

For all the declarations of what LA is, all the erroneous and inaccurate suppositions about its culture and geography, no one talks about the light. It hits differently, here. It’s sharper, it fades more slowly. It’s beautiful, but I haven’t fully slept for twenty days.

But, for nineteen of them, I avoided the majority of my arthritis. Having done so through nearly three weeks of almost exclusive hand tool use ain’t half bad.

Categories
Thoughts, complaints, and loquacious ramblings.

Update – 1 March 2021

Getting back into the studio has been a huge relief after laying low for most of the winter.

Last november, I bought a 93 Ford Ranger at auction. It looked great in the pictures, but the frame was so rusted the first mechanic I took it to asked me to sign a waiver to drive it home.

A few weeks after, while waiting for my checking account to recover so I could start Ranger repairs, a flying SUV wheel jumped over a hill and totalled the CARDIS. I was fine, but the Suzuki seemed to dissolve around me.

Another few weeks, and I dipped into savings to buy a 93 Dakota. I’d had pipe dreams of learning car repair by doing a full frame swap of the Ranger, but the reality was: I didn’t have the space, tools, or yet the ability to do that on my own. I needed some sort of vehicle for hauling the salvaged wood, metal, and plastics I build all my work from, and the Dakota was what was available. That was about a month and a half ago, and thus far, I’ve been able to learn car repairs faster than it’s been falling apart.

All that to say, I haven’t had much time to get into the studio, and when I have been able to, I haven’t had the energy for photography.

But, barring unforseen destruction, I should be back. I’ve cleaned up and rearranged the studio, set up some new old tools, and started down the path of turning. By summer I expect to have quite a few new kinds of hollow-forms within my making abilities.

Looking forward to spring and plants and the potential of open air art markets.

Can’t wait.