house of rock

well, it's been nearly a year and i'm finally blogging again. it's been a whirlwind time. lots of exciting things happening. i've been to the american craft buyers market of philidelphia to inform and prepare myself for taking my jewelry to market. i have applied for 4 more public art pieces and have won two of them. i am now playing drums for Giant Bear, an incredibly fine group of musicians. this has involved many nights of practice, gigs and studio recording. we are currently applying the finishing touches on our recordings before going into the final stage of engineering. and the new cd is slated for release this summer. in addition to this, my partner and i are having a baby! she will be the birth mother, as i am not only too old, but too terrified to take that journey. so, needless to say, i have been up to my ARSE in things to do, deadlines to make and emptying out the studio to make room for baby.

the first of my two public art pieces is, a 12-15ft sculpture that will be installed at the entrance to the new "legends park" downtown. we're in the early stages of this one. just now signing the contract and will begin building the model in the next few weeks.
the second, is part of the memphis botanic garden's build out for children of all ages, and is well underway. "my big backyard" is an amazing environment full of all sorts of visual delights to interact with and learn from. my particular piece will be on "playhouse lane". i'm calling it the "house of rock". it'll be a brightly colored, inviting playhouse that will be full of musical instruments to bang and play on. my hope is that my playhouse will spark an interest in music for these kids and that they will learn you can make music on just about anything.

here's a photo taken of the site in february. much work has been done to the surrounding areas since then and i've just begun my part.


since my initial plans i submitted, some things had to be changed with my design due to concerns the board had. so here is the revised blueprint. no tree trunk to climb into, no slide to exit the playhouse. instead, it is only 2.5 ft off the ground with a deck surrounding it.

....lost some of it's funky charm but i think it'll still be a success.

the deck w/ railing and steps are finished



saturday morning i went to home depot and loaded up the materials i needed to begin framing in the playhouse. this included 55 2x4 boards. 35 of them were 8ft. long, the rest were 10ft. 5lb box of nails, box of screws and a back brace. i later discovered, as with many things, the back brace was not designed for a woman; as it has your boobs positioned directly around your throat.
when i arrived at the gate to unload, the key i had been given didn't unlock the gate i needed to go in. after retrieving the security gaurd, his key didn't unlock the gate either. two more men came by with rings of keys and neither of them had the right key either. after deciding that the construction crew must have changed the lock and didn't give the garden a key, and that clearly i was not getting through that gate, i had no choice but to throw my boards over the fence. did i tell you there were 55 of them? and did i tell you they were 8 and 10 ft long? heavy. and hot.



so i go to the other gate, unlock it, pull my car in and begin carrying loads of the rest of my materials. by the time i had gotten all my things to my site, i then had to commence to picking up my boards; like 5lb, 8/10ft long pick up stix. remember those? yeah, not fun. all in all, i think it took about 3 hours to get my things to where they belonged. i was 2 hours behind schedule and exhausted! but after a break in the shade and two bottles of water, i was ready to begin. i was able to get a plan of attack and one wall built by time to go; which was about one minute before passing out. here's my first wall.


the view from the deck


packed up like a mule and heading home with my wheel barrel of tools


the next morning, since i already had everything that i needed there on site, i was able to load up my tools and get an earlier start. i was delighted to find that i was early enough to still have some shade! i took a few minutes to sit and listen to the birds and enjoy the breeze, put on my ipod and got to work. in no time i had the second wall built.


just as i finished the second wall, the sun started to move in. i spent the next 3 hours pretty much the entire time in the blazing sun. hammering away. and not just the nails. had to hit my finger a time or two. it's numb and a little purple today

more measuring and i built the back wall, the two sides on the front, cut in the windows and connected them to make a doorway. one by one i stood them up, got them positioned and prayed they wouldn't fall before i could secure them with the first couple of screws. remarkably, i was able to do this and everything still be square.
finally, in spite of the set backs on day one, i was able to reach my goal of having the house framed in by sunday afternoon. i tidied up my area and stood back proudly looking at my accomplishments.




quickly followed by a voice in my head, "what the hell are you doing?! get out of the sun before the salt burns through to the bone!" and then i remembered, ahh, yes.... a friend, a beer, and a pool. on my way!
now, let's see if they'll have that key situation worked out for the load in next weekend. please please please.