Time ... a work-in-progress

(Above: Time, found art object assemblage. Approximately 40" x 25" x 20". Click on image to enlarge.)

In October I started converting a back room at Mouse House (the first floor/business area of our downtown, historic house) into a new, 3D studio. Until July 2001, Mouse House was a very, very busy custom picture framing shop with up to 14 on payroll. Up until that time, I couldn't even admit to myself that I wanted to be "an artist" ... because I knew there was no time for such a "hair-brained" dream.



Then, I fired my head mat cutter and we started to forcibly downsize. I got an off-site studio at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios and went to work with my needle and thread. Now, Mouse House still does very limited framing but we don't really have to use that back room in the business. Slowly, I'm taking over the entire room. I made a lectern for The Book of the Dead and then started on this piece. It seems very fitting that I'm created work based on the concept of time in a place that formerly had so little of it!



Appropriately, this piece is titled Time. The clock cases, gears, and almost everything else came from my favorite place for "found art objects" ... Bill Mishoe's auction. Some of the other, interesting items came from my neighbor Gita who now lives in Asheville and is in the process of getting the-house-next-door ready to "go on the market". Some things also came from Slippery Rock, my parents' old house or garage. Symbolically, all the bits and pieces are mementos of from the past ... ways we mark our days ... saved trinkets ... relics of yesteryear that serve as reminders of a certain moment that is ever more distant away. Time is moving quickly. We can hold a remnant. We can cherish a memory. We just can't still the pace of time.



Generally, I don't take a lot of photos of works-in-progress but we're about to travel to Slippery Rock, PA for Christmas to visit my parents. I can't bring the piece to share with my Dad. Thus, I took photos. My Dad taught me how to use an electric screw driver, how to pre-drill holes, how to use various types of glue, where to put C-clamps, how to measure angles, how to saw wood, how to select the size of a bolt and its nuts, and why a level was important. He'd love this piece; he has a great workshop himself!



Actually, I took loads of photos ... well over 130 of them. I saved about 38 and posted them on a Flickr set. Click HERE to see them. (As a slideshow, click here.)



There are a few places on this piece to which I want to add a few more jars of collected items and a few surfaces to which I want to collage vintage paper (handwritten notes and a few late 19th c. cancelled checks and stamps). Then, I think this will be done.



I have several more clock cases, an old step stool, a bag of piano keys, old license plates, lots more random pieces of Victorian furniture, two more cradles, about ten pairs of wooden crutches, a pile of clock gears, and hundreds of "things" that used to belong to "something". The new year is going to be great ... because this new "home" studio is going to be used even more!



Enjoy the rest of the photos! Each one can be clicked on for an enlargement!