Reiterations

At the beginning of 2009, I pulled out an idea I had worked on a few years earlier and began a complete redesign, using some of the concepts from a first version that I had given up on developing. Over several weeks of intensive research and design, a series of free standing case furniture that I called "Glasgow" took shape. I went as far as to put together a little book of computer generated renderings, and my manufacturing partner, Premier Custom-Built, made a prototype. It had lots of promise and the piece was beautiful, but for complicated reasons, not the least of which was that I simply ran out of steam, I set it aside. I could no longer see where it was going. But last summer, I decided to develop it into a full design system for built in cabinetry. Many versions later, I've finally arrived at a core design that over the next few weeks I will be working feverishly to complete. Much of the journey has been difficult, but working with it and thinking about it even while I've been occupied with other assignments, I've gotten to know the Glasgow system very well, and I'm starting to feel really excited about what it's become and where it's going.

In some ways, the hours I've invested into sharpening my skills as an artist these past months is a similar effort. I sometimes feel discouraged, and see no future in the work. Yet if I give up . . . So I persist with these reiterations, if only to better see where it might go.

self portrait before a Glasgow review with a Rad Davis pipe, 2B graphite and Prismacolor pencils