Great people of the Internet, here is your irregularly updated Woodshed tidbit from Chesterhill, Ohio. I have been abandoned to the wilderness by my cohorts who have too many parties and too little time, but worry not, that blinking tower on the hill is piping these pictures and words right to your screen.

It is surely correct that I sit and stare intently at nothing, and that this informs the type of objects that I make, but there is a larger portion of practical thinking that goes on as well. With the Woodshed, I think of the sculpture's fundamental qualities, and then work backwards for the specifics. My thoughts focus on the fundamental task of creating a musician's practice space with a view to the stars. So I imagine the most comfortable way to view the stars and the kind of space that would be interesting aurally. Naturally being an Odd one, I thought to make a room with 11 sides, no parallel surfaces, and a rotating stellar observation deck that you can lay comfortably on while touring the night sky.

Right now, it's a lot of prep work and looking at flowers and getting to know the neighbors who are typically smaller than a basketball and startled at my intrusions. Between walks in the woods and cooking experiments, I've been sharpening chisels, finalizing scale drawings, and prototyping the jointery and forms for the build. These first cuts help me get a sense for the material and tests that I am necessarily equipped.

 Lady, Guardian of the Perimeter

After doing a rough site layout, I determined that I would need a tripod, so I made one with some flooring scraps. But first it was necessary to make a worktable. These generally enjoyable activities are made even more so with the ever stalwart lady, guardian of the perimeter. Please leave a comment if you have questions or would like further detail of some aspect. Until next time, your itinerant art worker, Conrad.

timbers at dusk and what will become the Woodshed

At dusk before a serene late Spring night, I am sitting on the pile timbers that will eventually be a kinetic building for musicians so that they may hone thier songs, and maybe go up top to catch a twirl around the stars.  This is the precise moment when an idea becomes real, and is for each blossoming project the time with the most potential.  None of this would happen without the terrific people at Harold Arts who are making room for me in thier life and who I thank deeply for having the courage and generosity to support the making of such a place.  These are hills where the stars are milk, and the whip-or-wills echo down the evening time, pals are drinking moonshine, and the silence of a falling star lights up the purple sky.

This eleven sided structure, called the Woodshed will enclose a distinct acoustical space.  Additionally, a fully rotating sky-deck will allow comfortable observation of our heavenly rotunda.  More will be revealed as the project unfolds, but for now I can tell you this: the Wood was harvested on the site near Chesterhill Ohio, and milled a couple miles down the road by Amish neighbors.  All the jointery and construction methods are directed toward the creation of a sculpture that serves as a contemplative zone for relaxed creativity, and focused observations of the natural universe. 

pile A