This black, granite, wedge sculpture was there when the Powells bought the place. It was damaged by workmen (thank goodness not us) and the gouges bothered Sharon. She asked us about "fixing" them. I put fixing in quotes because it strikes me as a lose lose situation. Who knows if a professional granite guy can mix up some dust with glue and make it less noticeable or invisible but your house has an endless number of these imperfections and where does it end? In this and other situations I try to ask myself, "Is there a way to accentuate the damage, essentially avoiding a headache and/or expense with cleverness?"
The Powells live in the Boulders just down the street from my mom. My first thought when I saw their backyard was, great view but the patio is too narrow. We took out every other post and brought the patio out to the edge of the pool. The new spa is out in the pool so you have to walk through cold water to get to it. We replastered the pool all black and used all white tile for the spa.
We just installed this guy. The photos were taken by my good friend, John Romero. I think this piece is my mature voice. Mature what? It sounds pretentious but I feel like it's a breakthrough. I've wanted to do figures (like my heroes Antony Gormley and, the late, Juan Munoz) my whole life but the cost, lack of buyers (would you want this in your backyard?) and the perpetual discouragement of my wife, Pilar, left me doing everything but.
The Logans were last mentioned in our April 27th, 2010 newsletter (see next entry, below). The article ended with, "Pinch me..."
They had just given us the Venus of Burning Man sculpture commission. It's been three months, it's done and here it is.
The Logans are among the top contemporary art collectors in the world. Kent can be a tough nut, sometimes crushingly decisive but I just knew this piece was going
to be a slam dunk.
We've been busy.
The breathing tube in the decapitated head references Antony Gormley's self modeling (he uses his own body to pull molds and suffocation is an occupational hazard). Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning but the truth is that I love the softness and foreverness of lead. We're wrapping everything in it.
We've been going 100 miles an hour with landscaping and real estate projects. Here's the latest.
Our clients Lloyd and Sharon Powell (that's Lloyd on the left) were not killed. Was it our fault it came down? Probably. After this day all other challenges seemed minor.
The Powells live at the Boulders and a giant boulder is just what we found a few inches under the ground when we started to layout a new path thru the front yard. We jack hammered through three feet of solid rock and ended up with a flat path that's "real" stone.
There's nothing quite like looking at your neighbors' ugly fences every day, especially if there's six of them in every shape and texture imaginable. Matthew and Alison King, founders of Modern Phoenix.net, came into owning their Haver Home knowing they had a big security and beautification problem: a doublewide urban lot with over 208 linear feet of fencing to replace, and a rustic modern aesthetic that forbade the use of any more cheap cinder block.
We helped them get started on a landscape plan and turned the property into a virtual fortress.
