Chicago River Mouth 20210719 v2 ©2021
After a harrowing gauntlet of covid tests that didn’t arrive when we needed them, unclear rules and restrictions, and massive lines of travelers the likes of which I haven’t seen since before the pandemic, we made it back to the U.S. It’s amazing to be back home in Chicago. It’s been over a year and a half since we’d seen our family and wow. It feels entirely surreal and has given us overwhelming joy. The boys, in spite of serious jet lag, are so visibly happy to be with their grandparents and out in America. I asked Malcolm how he felt about it, and he told me he was having some culture shock, and to be honest, so am I, but it’s good.
We took an architectural river boat tour and it was excellent, as always. It’s been at least a decade since I’ve been on one, and there’s been a great deal of new development along the riverfront including lots of public park space and a wonderful river walk. This time our docent was a serious post-modernist; I’m generally into Modernism and Art Deco in the architecture arena, so it was really nice for me to hear from a different perspective. I got a new appreciation of many of the contemporary buildings including Trump tower, which was designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, of Willis (aka. Sears) Tower fame. I also managed to snap a few decent photos in spite of having full midday sun directly overhead. I played with them a little in the phone editor and then in photoshop. I couldn’t decide if I liked v1 or v2 better. V1 has several post processing layers of hue/saturation and level adjustment. V2 is just tweaked slightly with one hue/saturation layer. I think the colors and contrast on V2 are a little better, but I’ll admit, it looks more subtle here. Maybe it’s a little bit lost in the jpg compression. I should probably use lossless files more often.
Protoa WIP 20210711 ©2021
Originally, I was going to start applying gesso to my first large Protoa, but I decided it was too flimsy and needed more layers. After continuing to add papier maché throughout the week, I realized that this series is going to be a bear to produce. I’m going to finish the first one and think about how to proceed with the rest. Currently, the Amsterdam sculpture biennial is set up on the parkway adjacent to our building, and there are a couple of enormous works made of polyurethane. I imagine they’re hollow cast, but I can’t say for sure. Seeing these sculptures, I think about how the Protoas would be amazing as enormous works in cast resin. I don’t know how to get such pieces produced, and I don’t have the money in any case, but I wonder if I could write a grant proposal for such a piece. Since they’re not full round, they could also be made of molded fiberglass. Something smooth and shiny in brilliant colors would be fantastic. It occurs to me that it’d be a good exercise to build them in Rhino and render them as part of the exploration process. I’ve been resistant to going too far with work on the computer, but it makes sense for what I’m thinking. It does not achieve the aim of using repurposed materials; however, maybe there’s a way to do that too. Plastics recycling has become very limited in many places in the US, and I suspect in the EU too given some of the recent changes to our local recycling program. Maybe there’s an opportunity here.
Shadow Blossom Ring 1 20210713 ©2021
I also finished a silver Shadow Blossoms ring. I like how it came out, but I need to refine my finishing technique. I think I’ll try several ultra-fine grit sandpaper and polish paper swipes, and then fine polish with a chamois to mirror finish.