Steelers baby!!!

Capitals @ Currant

I just found these pics of me working on the column capitals at Currant.



Its still a mystery to me why they had the artist who painted the currants on the columns (which is a really cool idea for a decorative paint treatment in this context)start before everyone was done with the ceiling.

In these pix I'm trying to repair and clean up an installation butchered by the general contractor on the job; I actually landed a whole new contract just to fix what they did, separate from my original deal to design and fabricate the pieces.

Currant details: column capital recreations

The capitals on the square columns and pilasters of Currant are scenic recreations of the original capitals surviving in the main lobby.



I laid up these capitals from my favorite water-borne resin product on molds hand carved and designed in my old shop in Sherman Heights. The picture above is a slice of Ramona D'Viola's terrific SDHG shot; below is one I took and posted here last year.

Finally a good picture of Currant on this blog.

Not just a good picture, a fabulous one. My many thanks to photographer and journalist Ramona D'Viola who took this terrific picture for San Diego Home and Garden AND gave me permission to share with you on this page.



Part of what's great about this shot for me is that it shows all three interior components that I designed & produced over the summer of 2007 for Currant in one gorgeous and compelling photograph. Thanks, Ramona!

In the next post I'll mark up copy to show exactly what I did for designer Diane Roberts on Currant at the Sofia Hotel in downtown San Diego.

(If you've followed any of the Twitter posts I've been playing with since I got my iPhone, you know I've become a huge fan of this place for both food and mood, so if you have the chance, check it out.

Great thank you to start the year

I promise to get back to the restaurant posts I promised/started last fall, especially as regards Currant, especially now that I've eaten there (finally) twice in the last few weeks with Heather to have a fabulous evening/meal.

Also,I finally connected with photographer Ramona D'Viola, who shot Currant for the San Diego Home & Garden article I wrote about last fall, so more about that soon too.

Anyway, I wanted to post this very kind "thank you" note from Bruce Reznick as my first post of 2009, to remind me of all the reasons why I do things the way I do.

Busy December

The Frame Maker has kept me so busy since my last post that Christmas blew by and 2009 is the day after tomorrow.

The upside is my wife Heather made a beautiful Christmas holiday for all of us at home. We had beautiful wonderful food on the 24th, 25th and 26th including my favorite german chocolate cake, the first time Heather's ever made it at home. (It was awesome and didn't last 24 hours!)

Anyway, here's some end of the year follow up and detailing before 2009 is underway. First, it was fun to see this picture of my Ocean Abstract piece at the San Diego Coastkeeper Ocean Gala in a recent copy of 944 San Diego.


Photo: Brian Terry from 944.com/san diego.

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Ocean Abstract #3 for SD Coastkeeper

Here's a pic of the finished piece in its custom frame at The Frame Maker shop yesterday.



The final layers of varnish, plaster and wax mute the bright colors I started with on the recycled wood lengths (see last post), but still allow them to glow through the more opaque bits of glaze. I'm glad I made enough "raw materials" for more of these so i can work out a few things that occurred to me since its completion earlier this week.

New Ocean Abstract for SD Coastkeeper

If you've looked at the fine art pages of my online portfolio, you may recall this piece, "Ocean Abstract #1".



Created from plasters, wax and other materials from arsenal as a faux finish artist. I've developed a few other paintings out of this ideas of industrial, textural materials and the endless horizon-line division and interplay between ocean and sky.

One of these pieces was inspired by a fit of shop cleaning and recycling of unused materials at The Frame Maker, San Diego's premier custom framer, where I am now the general manager. Faced with a bin full of old rippings and cutoffs from our custom molding and construction endeavors, I began to consider all the different surfaces, grains and sizes of maple, ash, pine and basswood assembled there, and how differently they would take color, varnish and polish.

The long strips spoke "horizon" to me, and the piece was under way, utilizing only waste materials from The Frame Maker, and leftover paints, varnishes and wax from my shop.

This seemed a logical choice to donate to the annual gala and fundraiser for the San Diego Coastkeeper chapter this weekend, given their mission of removal of manmade debris and repair of manmade damage to our beaches and coasts.

Here are some progress pix of "Ocean Abstract#3".

Trompe L'oeil Chalk Painting: Little Italy Festa 2008

Here's two views of the finished chalk painting of Saint Domenic I did over the weekend for the "Gesso Italiano" part of the annual Little Italy Festa here in San Diego.





Hunter came down to chalk with me again on Sunday: