California glass artist Lea de Wit

As I said before, I'm very pleased with work we did together on the current show "Echoes" at The Frame Maker, and I'm putting up some pictures here today of the feature wall I helped contemporary California glass artist Lea de Wit bring to life in our showroom.

Inspired by the fluidity of Maire Scharpegge's 120" abstract water photograph at the other end of the gallery, we designed a custom wall installation for 14 of Lea's smaller vessels themed around water colors.



Here, Lea is laying out the pieces in front of the location. You can see we built a structural frame into the existing conference room window opening, which we then covered in plywood to support this and future art installations.

Next we made "section view" place holders for the different pieces and created a template for the mounting of pieces once wall was completed.



We mocked up the arrangement with the brown paper templates on fomecore on the floor, and then tacked the fomecore to the wall when we went to install. Lea commissioned clear acrylic shelves to mount into our reengineered wall, and her blown glass plates and bowls are secured with museum wax. We also painted a white panel behind installation to maximize the play of color, reflection and shadow of the pieces in the final installation.



In these last photos you can see interesting details of acrylic shelf installation and the lighting/ reflection/ shadow interplay of the wall.

ECHOES @ The Frame Maker

Among my other recent activities, I have helped two terrific artists prepare a show of their work at The Frame Maker. I met Lea and Maire at separate times in 2008 and introduced them with the idea of doing a collaborative show where their work would sort of riff off each other like a pair of musicians.

A week after opening the show in a whirlwind after returning from holiday in Cabo San Lucas and living with the installation "Echoes", I have to say I'm very pleased with the work we did inhabiting The Frame Maker showroom with these pieces and their arrangements.

Here is the online version of our printed postcard for the show.



This show couldn't have happened without Pete @ Moebius Color and Eric @ Level One Art Installation not to mention Steve Atlas (owner of The Frame Maker) who helped finance and install a significant lighting upgrade to our showroom for "Echoes".

Good work, everyone!

More Pirate Mural Pics & Details

Here is a much better photo of the central detail of my backyard pirate mural installation here in San Diego.

The pirate landing party was composed first on the panels covering the roll-up door, and these panels were painted separately in my studio. You can see the panels, attaching hardware, and some awfully fun painting in the next two enlargements.





I was inspired on this project not only by my clients Ron and Mary but also by my friend Helen Ward, whose illustrations for the book "Pirateology" fueled the project and whose design illustrations for "Into The Woods" helped set my high standards.

Pirate Mural Pictures

I'm jumping back to an older custom mural project that I never fully prepared for portfolio viewing at the request of woodworker Del Cover. The theme is pirates, and this series of pictures shows the beginning outdoor space, a design sketch and a few finished photos, including details of the mural image itself as well as the faux rock and wood grain treatments used as a surround.

The "raw" space for the mural, showing the clients' extensive collection of pirate memorabilia.


The final approved design sketch for pirate mural and surround.


Overview of finished mural and faux painted surround.


Detail of pirate landing party.


Detail of faux painted rock and wood grain surround for pirate mural.

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.