LAW 132: Tesla's Revenge, a work in progress

We've 'been thinking lately about bespoke vs bought. Surrounding ourselves with beautiful, functional and other work made by people we know has always been important to us. Be it handmade clothes, art, furnishings, handmade ceramics, oh man are we suckers for beautifully made serving or dinner ware, we cherish the things that have been made for us by others, as well as what we have made ourselves.

Installing the cross members!

 I love my Nick Corso pitcher, we use it every day!

Beautiful, handmade, great pouring pitcher.

So, knowing the maker is important to us. It is even more important to be a maker. What's the fun  buying something that a whole bunch other people have? Cookie cutters. are, after all, for cookies. Not for our goodies, not for our art, not for the food we eat. So why should we have a boat that looks like every other one on the water? That has been a topic of conversation lately. Actually it is a thread that has run through our entire life together.

Almost the last cross member, its getting late and real hot!

Face it, we're Aquarians, artists, iconoclasts, old hippies, if you will. It makes more sense to us to build, rather than buy. Or, in the case of Tesla's Revenge, seriously modify.

On the two hottest days to date we erected the frame of the pergola style hard top over our existing cockpit. Creating in essence another room here on TR. Talk about buckets of sweat!

I love watching men work! Don especially!

By the end of day two we have 90% of the frame up, and most important, shade! It has been nearly impossible to use the cockpit, without shade the light is absolutely blinding,

Stern, cockpit view

The addition of a 6' bamboo blind on either side of the cockpit gives us pretty much 24/7 use of this space, which to date has been pretty much a collection of whatever we didn't really have room for in the boat proper.

Aah, shade! Glorious

Not done yet, but getting there.

Have to say that we are pretty unhappy with our GAS ONE dual fuel, butane/propane stove.  Butane can be hard to find, and expensive, plus it looses efficiency at temperatures below 50 degrees. So the possibility of switching from butane to propane was appealing. Except, something the manufacturer does not disclose, the pressure valve for the propane is not up to a 20# tank in hot weather. We've had two break down in the last month.

Salad, yummy! Just because i haven't share food photos lately

We're looking into counter top(RV) technology propane. I'll let  you know.

More later,
gail

LAW 131:, Looking for America, part 2, ART, NOT POLITICS

It would be way too easy to slip into political rhetoric with the idea of Looking for America, but that is not what this is about.

Toledo, Oh, 5.14.17, page 9

This is a showcase of the second signature of my newest artist's book, Looking for America. To recap, I created the pages out of maps from the index of a 1954 Hammond Ambassador World Atlas. Text is stream of conscious, based on answering the following 2 questions, have i been here? and could i get my boat, Tesla's Revenge there, by water. Drawings are mostly zen doodle playing off the gird of the street maps.

Toronto, Can., 5.18.17,  page 10

I try not to let one day's work influence the next, my goal, to simply draw until i feel that the drawing is complete. The structure provided by the map grids is sufficient.

This is about as unstructured as i get with my work. My background as a weaver/textile artist/bookmaker demands huge structure and preparation for success.

San Diego, Ca. 5.20.17, page 11

I can get pretty OCD about pre-planning. Just ask Mungo which one of us made a 'to scale drawing' of the Floating Empire and her components(during our remodel phase); and yes, all the parts were positionable.

San Francisco, Ca. 5.21.17, page 12

Some times it is nice to simply let go and play. It is all too easy to get caught with producing a beautiful object, instead of simply enjoying the process.

Shreveport, La. 5.22.17, page 13

Seattle, Wa. 5.23.17, page 14

Walt Nottingham, my first fiber professor(major hero), maintained that there two types of people, process and product. It is important to know which you are.

Trenton, NJ. 5.27.17, page 15

Any way, 8 images, 8 places i have or have not visited, 8 experiments in drawing, What do you think of this project?

Troy, NY. 5.28.17, page 16

More later,
gail