Saying Goodbye....

Geez, it's been over a month since I had time to sit down and add a new post here. Lately I have felt like I jumped on a carnival ride that on second thought wasn't such a good idea.....let me try and explain

My last post was just before the big Walldog event in Pontiac, Il. Not to take away anything from any other past event but Pontiac was an incredible meet. The locals were great. The host family (the Diaz Gang) are the best folks....Ever. We had many great food options every day. Music and festivities in the evening. The temps were as high as the spirited Letterhead painting crew. We really painted up the town on this one. It was a great event all around.

A thousand little things have happened over the past month and a few rather huge ones also. Shortly before the Walldog event, my Father had major surgery and only had a 50/50 chance of survival. He did make it through the surgery and was put into an induced coma during the week of the Walldog event. It was suggested by many friends that I continue on with the meet (as planned for over a year) and spend time with my Letterhead friends who are like family to me! It was very good medicine to be in the company of such wonderful caring and fun people. It really helped me out and my Father was not able to receive visitors until the following week, so off I went.

After the event, I returned to my home town up North (300 miles from where I live now) for the 4th of July weekend hoping that my Father's health had made a turn for the better. Unfortunately the opposite was true. His condition had deteriorated rapidly when I visited him on the 3rd of July. He was not doing well at all. The morning of the 4th of July, my daughter called me and said I should come say my goodbyes because they were not sure how much longer he could hang on. So I spent 25 hours by his bedside at the hospital saying goodbye, and yet he hung on.

On my return trip to Milwaukee on the evening of the 5th of July I received the call saying my Dad had passed away just after 9pm. We had his memorial service on Thursday the 9th of July with military honors, and many friends and extended family members showed up to say goodbye.

Now I had been planning on closing on my house on July 10th for six weeks or so. So instead of canceling until who knows when, I drove the 300 miles back to MIlwaukee and managed to make the meeting in the late afternoon. I'm sure my dad would not have wanted me to make a big deal out of it, that's just the way he was.

I closed on the house on July 10th and finally moved in on the 25th of July. I do have several renovation stories related to the move in but first i wanted to finish this post with a story about my Dad and mural painting.....

Back in the Summer of 2000, I painted my first real solo mural for some good friends of mine on their barn in Northern Wisconsin. The barn happened to be close to my home town and my Dad was in the area and drove out many days to see how I was progressing. Each day he would usually pull up a chair and sit and watch for a while. The mural was only 28' to the top but he made many comments about the height we were working at. Things like...."back in the navy (WWII) I could hang off the side of a ship but you couldn't get me up there now".

Well, for some reason my Dad really thought that mural was something special. Near the end of the project he told me..."Nice work Son, I'm proud of you". Heck, I was just doing what I love to do. Slinging paint in the hot summer sun, high up in the air!







When one of my dear Letterhead friends suggested I go on down to the Pontiac mural event, have some fun and dedicate the mural to my Dad, that's just what I did. I found a way to put his name on the mural that would not take away from the historic nature of the original theme. Growing up, I heard my Dad tell many stories about the Model T and Model A that he had. So, while I was painting the Model T car on the mural it came to me that I could put my Dad's initials and birth year on the license plate.





That's all for now. I shall return with my adventures in home renovation sometime soon I hope. It's all those little things that catch you off guard right?

Goodbye Dad.....My Heart Goes With you!

Chief City Runs with the Dogs

On June 24th I will be driving down to Pontiac, IL to take part in the "Chief City Runs With the Dogs" mural painting event. I am one of 16 project leaders heading up one of 16 or 17 murals being painted over a four day period. There are 150 artist registered for this event from as far away as Germany. The city has put a lot of effort into planning and organizing this event and turning it into a city wide celebration! You can find more info at this site.....

Chief City Website

In preparation for this event the project leaders are provided an information packet and asked to submit a mural concept for review and approval. I posted an earlier blog regarding the concept rendering process that I used for this project. I have finished the hand rendering of the maquette and will be framing and donating it for an auction taking place at the event on Saturday evening.

Currently, I am in the process of printing out all the reference art sheets that will be used during the painting of this mural project. I have no idea who will be helping me paint the mural over the course of the four days but I know it will be completed at the end of the event. Basically the artists attending the event just walk up and ask, "can I help". So, when someone walks up to volunteer, I need to have reference sheets to hand them to get started. I am printing both transparencies that will be used to project and layout the mural, as well as color images of the art. The color copies of the art will also be used as a reference for paint color mixing/matching.





Here is a "simplified" version of the transparencies that will be used to project the image onto the 8' x 12' aluminum panels....removing most of the color and getting it down to basic outlines works best for projecting.





I also cropped and enlarged detailed areas of the art in Adobe Photoshop and printed them out on good quality photo paper to make painting a bit easier when the time comes.





I'm never sure if there will be printers available at the event to produce additional reference materials, so I try to print all the copies I think I will need before hand.

When it comes to overhead projectors, I have used many different machines from various manufacturers. The one I have chosen and hold in high regard is the Apollo Ventura Portable Overhead Projector. Hands down the best projector for this type of work! It's lightweight, portable , and best of all produces an excellent image with very little distortion.





Another thing I have found pretty handy for this type of work is a projector stand. There are quite a few available from different manufacturers but I am in the process of building my own. Back in 2006 I helped Kurt Gaber of Gaber Signs with his second running of the "Brush Bash" Mural painting event in Chippewa Falls, WI. In preparation for that event, Kurt asked a local welding shop to build a projector stand to be used over the course of the event. After the event was over, Kurt kindly gave me the stand to take home to use on future projects. Below is the unit that was built in Chippewa.




Although this unit has served me quite well, I am redesigning a new lighter weight version. The original stand was constructed of steel tubing, while very sturdy, it is fairly heavy. On occasion it is required that we project images on two-story roofs which requires carrying or lifting the sections of this stand up ladders or scaffolding. I have purchased aluminum tubing for most of the new parts and also bent the projector platform out of stainless steel. I think over time you will notice my love of all things stainless steel! I will post some pictures of the stand as it comes along. But first I have to learn how to weld aluminum! Or as they say across the pond Al-U-minEum!

HGTV Junkie

It's official....I have become an HGTV Junkie! For the past several years I've been renting and probably haven't watched more than an hour of HGTV in all those years. Now that I am purchasing a house, I can't stop watching that crazy channel. I mean I flip it on and think..."Oh, I can use this info somewhere"...for sure! After several hours I start feeling really guilty for putting off all the stuff I'm really supposed to be doing!

Tonight I watched an episode of Curb Appeal, I think it was anyway? After several hours they all blend together. Anyway, they were renovating a Tudor style home and playing around with different colors on the exterior walls and trim. It started me thinking that I would like to try that on my house. Seeing as I haven't even closed yet and I can't go down there and start slopping paint on someone else's house, I needed a plan B. I started thinking...."I do have a photo of the house and PhotoShop! So I quickly applied some color to the white aluminum siding to see what it looks like.

Presently it looks like this....





And with the aluminum siding painted similar to the brick, the windows and door seem to pop a bit more?





And around the back.........









Now, you see the neighbors fence behind the house in the picture above. It is really old and needs to be updated. I spoke with my brother tonight and we talked about trying to salvage some barn boards off the structure pictured below. It's been a while since I shot these pictures so I'm not sure if it's still in this shape?








I would sure like to put some of this material to use if at all possible! Why cut down more trees if there is perfectly good wood just sitting around? I guess I will see in a couple weeks when I head back up there. Until then it's off to learn more stuff! HG here I come!

Keeping it Simple!

One thing I am going to need in a studio space is a utility sink. In the home I am buying there is an existing galvanized double tub utility sink in the basement. It looks to be the original equipment installed in the house back around 1960. The faucet also looks to be original as the hot water handle was frozen shut when I did the walk-through. The seller said they would make sure that it is working before the closing but it's going bye bye anyway. The area in the basement that will be used for the laundry, including the utility sink are definitely in need of a re-do! So all of it will have to go or be changed, but to what is the question?

Most people would probably just spin over to depot or lowes and pick up a new plastic utility sink. There are really only two choices in that category. One is the old standard single tub unit....about $30-$70 depending on the quality?






Or you can go all out and grab the double tub for around $110.





Or if you want to really drain the wallet, you can go with Stainless Steel! There is the single bowl stainless utility sink. But then I would need to buy or build a vanity or cabinet of some sort? Since most of these vanity type things are built of wood and basements are generally damp....I think I will avoid the wood option for now. And even these sinks are not very cheap.




If I wanted to go all out with the stainless option I could pick one of these little units up for about $800 - $1000?




Not so much, Next option. I also saw a wall mount sink set into a wood base. This option is nice looking but also very expensive, $900. Plus you have the wood thing going on again!



So on to plan D! I thought I would just build my own. I am thinking of using one of the counter top glass reinforced single tub sinks like this one....




But instead of dealing with any wood substrates, that can take moisture on, I plan on building a stainless steel base unit. I did a little ideation sketch to figure out how this thing will go together. Then I went ahead and did a 3D rendering using Google's SketchUp.




The proportions are off a little bit on this but hey it's my first real sketch using this program....





The sink itself runs about $70. The legs are about $30 each or $120 per set. Since I have access to some pretty cool tools, I can just bend up the upper portion. Using the smaller sink will free up more space for the washer and dryer and possibly a stainless steel folding table!

Ah, the mind of an Industrial Designer - everything can be made better, you just have to figure out how?