matters of importance

things that back up

2010-08-28T16:37:00.001-07:00

Finnial for a knoll post done for Greg Schopps working on a house in conjunction with the Philadelphia Historical something or other. Very official.

Shutter

Display booth and tables in "Reward," a boutique with cool clothes on 2nd just north of Market.

Run of table legs

Spindles

More spindles

Cherry bench for my brother before finish

Butcher block. Red oak from various reclaimed warehouse beams.

things that go

2010-08-28T15:54:00.001-07:00

Walnut coffee table/bench

Old fireplace mantle from my pops and ting oil finish, killer slab donated from Ian (Sustain Design) for the top

- Posted using meh ehphone

wenge dining room table

2010-04-14T12:33:00.001-07:00

Finished in November, just received pictures so I thought I'd post them.

things i've made that are still sitting around the shop today

2010-04-14T12:29:00.001-07:00

one DJ booth/commercial shelving unit

one unfinished pepper mill

one arm repair still unpainted on red velvet Victorian style couch

four pieces of cherry that go to a bench i still haven't made for my brother

five sapele railings, unfinished

fifteen spindles, still need paint

chisel mallet

2010-03-30T21:25:00.001-07:00

I made a mallet today, mostly a product of boredom but also because I needed a mallet. I've been using Evan's chisel mallet which was actually his grandfather's who was a woodworker. So in order to abate the wear and tear which is already abundant on this mallet I made one of roughly the same design because it's a shape and size that feels good to me and I'm used to. Here are some pictures of both mallets. Both are oak.

three-legged stool

2010-03-22T12:30:00.001-07:00

Just finished a version of a three-legged stool, a design taken from Tage Frid (widely considered the dean of woodworking teachers in America, originally from Denmark then came to The U.S. when the American Crafts Council asked him to start the first woodworking program here after WWII, also taught at RIT and RISD for years). This is my favorite design of his and I may be doing a run of a few of these very soon. This one is oak from some reclaimed beams my father gave me with wenge wedges and a simple Tung oil finish.

Oh Tage...such a goofball.

-from my little helper

miscellanea

2010-01-26T21:43:00.001-08:00

Oak cake pedestal

sapele window mouldings

- my robot

for Ruth and Barlow

2010-01-22T11:45:00.001-08:00

coffee table. cherry with turned walnut dowels. a wedding present for my sister and her husband.

-from my robot

keeping up the shop in Frankford

2009-08-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

So, I finally made the move up to Philly for a woodworking apprenticeship with a cool dude named Evan. (Def check out his shit which is undoubtedly the tytetron: evanleedesign.com) And for now I'm sleeping in the shop, working for him during the day and just picked up a busboy job near Center City at night. Doesn't leave a lot of time to make work or to make any friends for that matter, both of which are non-existent so far. If you guys, you readers (whom I fear are just as well non-existent), know any Philly connects give me a ring. Regardless, here are some pics of Evan's ridiculously chron shop I now have access to. Also there are some pics of work I've been doing for Evan. Also if you have not read East of Eden do so right now. Steinbeck is my personal shaman.

chimney sweep

2009-06-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

The first day back in Charlottesville I am hired to go to work on a house on the Rivanna River in Earlysville for my father. It's a family affair, really. My first task after hauling all my stuff back home from Richmond, (not to mention helping all my friend's move their stuff the day before as well), my dad asks me to help him tear down a chimney. After finishing the 2nd floor on Saturday we took a break and finished the rest on Sunday. After pondering all day how demolishing a chimney is surely a great sculpture I regretted not grabbing my camera on Saturday. Now that I remembered my camera, these are some pics from Sunday.

the wrecking crew

alex, my little brother

me

rachel, my younger sis

ben, rachel's manly beau

dad, the overseer

the other chimney, to give you an exact replica of what we had to take down

the opening for the chimney after 2nd floor demo was complete

the flu

casualty from a heavy load

quick fix

the 1st floor

way to step it up this time, ben...

about halfway done

the 1st gangway of planks

oh, how quickly we evolve

our dump pile at the beginning of the day

and at the end of the day

a short stump

now just a little spread

all swept up

then i thought i'd take some pictures of the river

the river halfway from the house

downriver

upriver

nessie's vacation home...

the tall grass

ahoy! from above or below

2009-05-24T09:15:00.000-07:00

This is my last piece from undergrad sculpture with liz king. It's mostly wood, steel, pink foam, and hydrostone and the structure as a whole was quite a feat for me to accomplish in our small studio spaces. The larger structure which is akin to a lifeguard stand is embedded with a kidney bean pool shaped swath similar to either an iceberg, or poured cement, and renders the chair without function. The somewhat humorously short diving board, besides being converse in size, is functional as the artist is asked to bounce unremittingly making the anonymous cube wiggle and hop. Although I wish not to delve too deep, I find both of these an exercise in idle contemplation.

how can you be blue when you've got the greens

2009-05-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to a book on one of my later projects at the end of school. This project was a process marinating in my basement for a month before being relived in the fab lobby. Much caretaking, conversating, watering, and growth occurred. You should check out the book, its cheap on lulu but also a free downloadable pdf. I might be posting pictures soon as well.

"Greens Keeper"
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/greens-keeper/6857824

goodbye studios...

2009-05-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have much much remorse in leaving vcu probably most of all because I no longer have their great facilities to exploit. In my deep sorrow I have stitched together this panorama shot of the studios from the viewpoint of my lifeguard stand, a piece of a sculpture I'm still working on. And although I've been bad about keeping this blog updated, I will soon hopefully piece together on here some of the last things I was working on in the studios and hopefully that will lead into things I'm now doing outside of the studio, like starting a band with my little brother!

the pillow, the whale, and the storm

2009-03-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

This is a piece I have recently been working on. I'll include a picture of the title card so hopefully it will make sense. It's an installation of three sculptures, one being mostly performative, but they all directly depend and play off one another.

=[]

the drawing desk

2008-12-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

Although this is an otter-related project, I'm still unsure of what it's really about or where it really lies in the larger breadth of all things Peter. An attempt at subtly sliding a drug-related theme into the nostalgia and science of botanical and wildlife illustration is nothing short of odd. Whether it be positive or negative I am still skirting between. But don't take my word for it LeVar, maybe they're just plain good-old American drawings.

Summer Fun

2008-11-24T08:12:00.001-08:00

These are from an installation this summer. Just never got around posting the pics...until now.

neckerchiefs

2008-11-13T13:57:00.000-08:00

Late night printing session at sean's getting the neckerchiefs printed for the troop.

Lo Siento Mucho

2008-11-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

I know I've been infrequent to say the least about updating my work on the blog, however I now am taking a hiatus from posting here since the latest project with the Otter Patrol. I'll try and fill in the gaps with this guy when I have time, but for now to see what I've been up to you should refer to the troop website:

troop2012.blogspot.com

This is an important project, I think, with my progressions of dealing with childhood, organizations, a nostalgic America, masculinity in society, post-apocalyptic survivalism, processual work, and also mixed-media and performance in general. So stay in touch!

failure lies around ambition's corner

2008-05-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

This contraption is an attempt at making two rotating landscapes in proximity, one powered by a handcrank and the other by bicycle, put in relation to each other so as to fully encompass the viewer with an amount of madness that can be described as experiencing four seasons in four seconds. However, these are photos from a critique as a work in progress and I hope to finish it and also include various performative aspects as well.

the river runs so wild

2008-05-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

Three days in the wild rafting down the James quickly turned into only one as my first attempt at roughing it in this fashion is very much a learning experience...

the tower in the mountains

2008-03-05T22:46:00.001-08:00

A 2-dimensional landscape made 3-dimensional, this piece stems from a paper-like dream I had in which I found myself trekking through mountain passes LOTR style trying to reach an enormous radio tower in which I could send a distress beacon to outlying intelligent life forms for help. O, how I long for the attempt at contacting the unknown, but, yea, how the fear I have of actually facing them still grips me.

the nature of nature, naturally

2008-03-05T22:33:00.000-08:00

a blob of artificial, shedding, and overall disgusting green seeding that decided to sprout dollar tree flowers and hypnotic, ambient music.

Christmas in January

2008-01-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

I know this is a belated entry but I just came across these pictures on my camera of a festive gingerbread house lovingly sculpted by my little brother, sister and I. I just couldn't pass up showing Alex, Rachel, and my group installation...

elephant stomps

2007-11-30T23:19:00.000-08:00

After finding an amazing blue plastic elephant toy at fan-tastic I apprehensively cut him in two in order to make him some friends. I loved how they looked when they were coming together so I started distorting them even more only to come up with a herd of misfit elephants that were cut in two... oh bother. I feel like I was doing surgery in order to find their soft insides but had the realization of a child who found that their favorite animal has only stuffing on the inside. The whole experience was fun, though, and minus the chemical burns on my hands and the cough I'm still getting over from breathing in silica, concrete was a rather fun material to work with.

so we can see your lion's mane

2007-11-27T00:24:00.000-08:00

So I've been committing absorbant amounts of fakery in keeping up a blog but at least to be somewhat legit let me show you some friends I've made along the way... (some new and some longtime scrabble partners)

here's a slideshow

2007-06-11T21:29:00.001-07:00

the maiden inception of my contemplative precipice

2007-05-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Thus being the inaugural post in my newly formed blog I feel as if I should lay a foundation in terms of what I have been thinking about lately. This is to not only be an introduction of my overly serious and sentimental work but hopefully help you to understand a broader sense of what constitutes "me." However, the "I" I am refering to I now realize cannot be explained through words and can only be generated as one continues to change. I am sure, though, of a couple things about myself. I'm sure that I'm typing this right now, and I'm sure that grown-ups are worried about so-called "matters of importance" and go about daily routines of thoughtlessness and excess. I am not innately condemning society in this statement, I am merely making a personal statement in which I would like very much not to live in a routine manner. Also, to be able to look objectively at my actions in order to live out a sort of satire in which I exhibit thought and energy into things many people might see as frivolous and puerile.

the little prince - "If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossome grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: 'Somewhere, my flower is there...' But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened... And you think that is not important!"