Art Catelogue

I have started a new project that I would like to tell you about; as if I didn't have more than enough projects already.  You may have noticed I haven't posted for a few days.  I have also been neglecting work on the second volume of my autobiography.  By the way the first volume should be hitting the bookstore shelves soon.  I got my courtesy copies and it came out great if I do say so.  You can check it with the link given below.

http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country

Back to my new project.  As you know if you have been following my posts, I have been making art for a number of years.  I have used shows and exhibits as a way to acquaint the public with my work and the primary way to sell.  Age and health issues have shut down most of my participation in these venues, so I have decided to use the Internet and social media to fill that marketing void.  I still have work in galleries, but I have started assembling an Art Catalogue of my work.  This listing plus a symbolic polished resin chip will be made available upon requests from interested parties.  I am asking $2.00 as partial coverage of the cost of materials and mailing.  An example of a typical polished resin chip is shown below in enlarged view.  The chips will typically be one inch to one and a half inches in diameter. Please send request and $2.00 to: Apatchablue Catalogue, 554 E. Channel View Pl., Oro Valley, Arizona, USA 85737.  I will need your mailing address to send the package and an e-mail address in case I need to check with you on details.  My e-mail address is: <apatchablue3@comcast.net>.

              resin orb

The photo above show how the art will be presented in the catalogue.   Four pieces of art will be shown on each side of the 8 1/2 x 11 page.  There are 67 pieces currently available for the catalogue and as I finish new pieces they will be added. Be watching in the various social media for announcements about these new additions and other information about this project.  I'm excited about it and I hope you enjoy the catalogue even though you may choose not to invest in the art.

   *More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
Also, my autobiography, volume 1, has more detail on the early period of my life.  The link to my books on the publisher's web site is:  http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country   

Foamed Cedar e/P 20

I grew up in a part of Montana where the canyons were decorated with Juniper cedar trees as shown in the photo below.  We used the dead wood in our cook stove and heater.  It burned clean and produced good heat because of the oil it contained.  The straight pieces, either dead wood or green poles were cut for fence posts.  They lasted longer in the ground because they weren't attacked by the bugs.  Here again the oil in the wood acted as a deterrent just as closets and chests lined with cedar wood are moth proof storage.  I love the smell of this wood, either worked dry or the green cedars we used as our Christmas trees.

I have used cedar wood in many of my art pieces.  One I just finished named "Foamed Cedar", is shown below.  The top and bottom sections are made of Tennessee Red Cedar, a close relative to the Montana Juniper Cedar.  The mid section and inlay on the top and inside of the lid are small segments of Montana Juniper Cedar.  The colored and filled resin flows around these segments and provides the main shell of the vessel. This vessel, from my e/P series uses a plastic container as the inside core.  The vessel is 5 3/4 inches tall and 5 1/4 inches at it's largest diameter.  It has an oil finish with buffed wax final coats.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

 Also, my autobiography, volume 1, has more detail on this period in my life.  The link to my books on the publisher's web site is:  http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country

Arizona Winter

If you live in the Arizona desert you don't expect to see too much snow.  The beauty of this is the mountains get their fair share of snow when we are getting the winter rain.  JoAnn's picture shown above, "Arizona Winter", gives a look at this condition as well as the fictitious activity going on underground.  This makes for a beautiful view that keeps us reminded of the changing seasons.  In the 26 years we have lived in the Tucson area I can count the times it snowed on one hand.  I mean a snow storm that dropped a measurable snow fall that didn't melt off in a few hours.  Numerous winter storms will paint the mountains and foothills with the white stuff that last for some time.  When it does snow in Tucson everyone gets excited.  The Kids and grownup alike get a coat on and venture into the seldom seen phenomena.

A little snow fell on our new and current home several winters ago.  The weather turned cold so it lasted a day or so.  Having grown up in eastern Montana, this was insignificant in my view.  The photo below shows the evidence of this desert snow storm.

*More detail on our art can be found at our website <www.apatchablue.com>

Doors inside a Door

When building front doors for customers, an unusual request came up from two different orders.  They both wanted a way to ventilate the door without opening it.  Of course a screen door would allow the front door to be open and keep out insects and other uninvited guests.  These two individuals did not want to use a screen door which would hide the design of the front door.  I had to agree with them so it was my problem to solve.  The photo below shows my solution on one of the doors.

This photo shows the inside of one of the front doors. In the center are eight panels in two rows made of  cholla sections mounted in frames and filled with clear resin.  They let the light through and in addition the four panels in the middle are hinged so they can be opened.  They are held closed with a friction catch.  Looking through the opened doors you can see saguaro ribs on the front surface of the door over screen wire.  My solution was to make doors inside a door to open on the inside of the front door and be concealed by the front design.  Air can pass through the design and on into the home, as the client requested.

The other door had a similar solution for providing fresh air to the home but the design was slightly different.  I will look up information and photos of that project and make it the subject if a future post.  I thought it quite a coincidence that two request would be made for this modification of conventional door design,  My answer was to put doors inside doors to meet these requests.  This isn't a new idea however,  In early times the little door inside a front door was used as a security measure,

This is the outside of the above door.  It is shown here without color but it was finished the same inside and out.  I wanted to show you this photo, regardless of it's lack of color so that you would understand the design.  The small panel doors that open inside are behind the two saguaro rib sections.  Enough space was left between the ribs ti allow a good flow of air when the small inside doors were open.  I apologise for the gray scale photo but it was all I could find of the outside surface of the door.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

                                     

House of Ill-repute

This is another painting my wife did, showing a realistic scene on top and a fantasy world below the surface.  She called this "House of Ill-repute" and got the inspiration from a former red light district in Tucson.  I'm not sure what the underground snail scene connotes.  Note their transparency.  They certainly add color to bottom of this painting.

*More detail on our art can be found at our website <www.apatchablue.com>

Bird proofing the garden

This project was at our  Williams Drive home and you can see I have some help on the ladder work.  I didn't trust myself anymore to work that far off the ground.  I had already fallen a couple times building the stone wall around the pool.  No broken bones yet but why risk it?  This garden was tucked in on the north-west side of the house and extended to a wall on the edge of a deep wash.  I used square steel tubing and flat preformed sheet metal strips for the structure.  Aviary wire was attached over this frame and fastened with wire.  That is what these two helpers are shown doing in the photograph.  A raised planting bed can be seen on the left side of the space and ground level planting areas are located to the right of the sidewalk running through the project.  I used drip irrigation on a timer and four soft fruit trees were planted in the corners.



















This space worked well and the birds, rabbets and other forms of wild life were forced to seek another source for their dinner.  We enjoyed having fresh fruit and vegetables.  The kitchen door was through the gate at the far end of the garden and around the corner to the right a few feet.  I have always had a garden where ever we live.  I guess the saying is accurate in my case, "You can take a boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy."

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

 Also, my autobiography, volume 2, which will be coming out next year has more detail on this period in my life.  The link to my books on the publisher's web site is:  http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country

Flower Gate

After finishing the rock wall shown in the previous post it was time to fabricate a gate and hang it. JoAnn helped with the design and below you see the results.  When we sold the house we made it clear to the buyer that we didn't plan to leave this gate or the rainbow gate located across the paved entry plaza. Our daughter wanted them and offered to buy and have installed a pair of standard wrought iron gates. She is using them at her home now and when we visit we can enjoy them anew.




































*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
 Also, my autobiography, volume 2, which will be coming out next year has more detail on this period in my life.  The link to my books on the publisher's web site is:  http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country

Building a rock wall

One of the last landscape jobs I did at the Williams Dr. home was to build a stone wall at the entry drive.  This extended to the corner of the garage with a gate for access to this side yard.  The builder had enclosed most of it with a cement block wall as seen here running to the right out of the picture.
The gate for this wall was a special design that JoAnn developed and I built.  It will be the topic of another post.

The stone for this wall was local, much of which came from the swimming pool excavation.  I had several loads of this dirt and rock dumped in this yard, just to the right of this view,  I then set up a screen and sieved the rock from the dirt which I used to level out the yard.  The rock varied from pea gravel size to good sized stones like shown being used in this photo.  The sieving process is shown in the photo below.

The ground throughout this area was filled with stone, so I didn't lack for building material and I liked the look of the stone walls in contrast with the block walls.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
 Also, my autobiography, volume 2, which will be coming out next year has more detail on this period in my life.  The link to my books on the publisher's web site is:  http://www.wheatmark.com/catalog/entry/Which-Road-Should-I-Follow-Volume-I-Growing-up-in-the-Country

Master Bed room

If you like color this bedroom and the door particularly should catch your attention.  This room is in our home we design and built along First Street in Oro Valley,  This community is just north of Tucson and actually, we have returned and live here again.  We sold this bigger home as a down-sizing move and have consequently down-sized our next home and returned to Oro Valley to our current home which is just right for two senior citizens.  That sounds like a lot of moving but we are used to it with our passion to build, landscape and decorate new homes we have moved every five years on average.  Even though our current home was built in a housing development we had choice of most aspects of the home starting with the design model, interior options and ending with the landscaping.

This home has 6000 sq. ft. which includes a guest house, small gallery, an art studio and a shop.  The party that purchased it from us added and modified to meet their needs so it possibly is a larger home than when we left it.  This bedroom had a fire place in the corner where the picture is being taken from.  The house is built in a U shape.  This bedroom was on none side of the U with a bathroom and walk-in closet.  We enjoyed this home which was designed and built to be our final ultimate home.  The building costs kept escalating as them housing market raced towards the bubble.  We found we couldn't afford to keep it up and managed to sell it for our asking price not too many months before the bubble burst and houses were being practically given away.  We lucked out and that was when our down sizing began.

Just a final word about the door.  JoAnn designed all of the doors in this home except several purchased with mostly glass interior.  I did the woodwork and assembly plus some of the painting. The the door was built from scratch with a fur frame and a solid interior panel.  The design pieces were fastened to the center panel.  the design was was repeated on both sides with one side being the mirror image of the opposite side.  That made it possible to conceal dowels that penetrated the center panel and went into the design pieces only part way.  When glued this made a secure and concealed way to fasten the design in place.  Many of these processes have been used on other doors we have built for our homes or doors we have built and sold.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Stone Aged Art 2

Back a few posts I showed you a section of stone wall I had constructed and after admiring it for some time a face formed by the arrangement of the stones seemed to pop out at me.  From that point on every time I looked at that section of wall, the face was all I could see.  I'm not sure if you have to be creative  or weird to see this in many of your surroundings.  Maybe it is a little of both.

Anyway, I would like to show you another face in that same wall.  First look at the wall section shown in the photo below.  This pillar contains the face of a funny little man that is getting squeezed from both sides which is forcing much of his personality into his forehead,  Have you spotted him yet?

This next photo has zoomed in on the poor little guy.  His nose and chin are squeezed between the rocks.  It looks like this is giving him a terrific headache.   Now do you see him?  If not don't worry about it.  This isn't an accepted test of your creativity or weirdness so maybe you are normal.  I can see at least one other face in this pile of stones but we will call it quits at this point unless you want to spend hours of your own time gazing at the rocks.  (clue-guy with long nose at bottom of wall)

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

San Xavier del Bac

I live and work with a painter and sculptor, my wife JoAnn.  This leads to some interesting conversation when we find time to sit and enjoy a cup of tea or a soda.   JoAnn has been a painter for many years.  After we were married she found it convenient to continue her education.   Besides acquiring advanced degrees in art, she developed skills in sculpture and the process of casting her work in resin and/or bronze.  I have posted some of these castings in the past, but for this post I have selected one of her paintings in a series entitled "Arizona As I See It".  The 4 1/2 ft. square oil painting shown below is a version of San Xavier Mission which is located just a few miles from Tucson.  Take a look and then I will comment on techniques and related features.

I have visited the mission a number of times.  It is a favorite stop on our tour for visiting friends and family.  The rendering of the building is quite accurate, down to the one unfinished tower.  The Arizona sunset and native concession of fried bread, etc. is familiar.  What you will not see when you visit are the caverns and stone formations in the foreground.  This is the hallmark of this series; an accurate presentation above ground and the fictional world under foot.  Most of these fictional landscapes also have hints of creatures hidden in the shadows.  The surprising thing about this particular under ground landscape is that it could actually reflect the terrain under the surface in this area.  Limestone layers buried in this valley has reportedly been eroded away by underground water to form caverns that run  south for miles.  Several well known local cave systems formed in this way over time, are another stop on our visitors touring schedule.

This pattern of realism on top and fantasy under ground is the distinguishing factor of this series that JoAnn has created of local scenes,  Others will be presented in my posts from time to time as we progress.

*More detail on our art can be found at our website <www.apatchablue.com>

Doors to the Den

You have seen a variety of doors we made for our homes and for others that liked our work.  There will be more shown in the posts that follow,but I'll mix in a variety of subjects so that the "Door Show" doesn't get tiresome.  For this post I will show you a double door set we made for some of our Oro Valley friends.

These doors are a rustic design using a variety of local desert woods.  The boards running diagonally in the bottom portion of both doors are large saguaro ribs, sliced to fit flat on the central backing board. The patterns of wood are similar on both doors and repeated on both front and back of each door.

The next two layers of wood design shown above the large saguaro ribs are cross sectional slices of  small saguaro ribs, a slices across a saguaro arm showing the ribs in tack, and various size slices of the cholla cactus inner skeleton.  Tiles of cactus wood are placed around the slice of saguaro arm to complement its unique design.

Lastly, in the uppermost spaces, strips and segments of desert wood are used to create further varied textures.  The two primary woods used in these doors are Saguaro and Cholla. shown below are photos of these plants.

                                       Saguaro



















                                       Cholla

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Pusch Ridge Front Door

I believe in the European concept that the front door to your home expresses who you are.   With that in mind, all of the homes we built had particular design focused on the front door to reflect our
search for creativity.  This door on the Pusch Ridge home is my favorite.  Sun rays pattern through the central portion of the door are created by small strips of wood.  They radiate out from the top left corner of the door where a quarter circle can be seen.  This is a cast resin piece, heavily laden with brass key filings from a local lock and key shop.  Directly below this resin casting is an irregular shaped leaded glass window and followed by a sheet copper shape that ends at the wood sticks forming the light rays.  At the bottom the light rays terminate in a symbolic rocky landscape created by shaped and molded wood pieces.  Don't ask what this design means because I dont know.  It may mean different thing to different people.  I just enjoy the design and feel of the various materials used.

The door is large and heavy; 8 feet high and 4 feet wide.  It has roller catches to hold it closed and a dead bolt lock for security.  The large wooden handle is repeated on both sides.  A light purple  wash stain is used covered with a clear mat finish.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Our back yard

The Pusch Ridge home was built on a sloping hillside with plenty of wildlife included at no extra charge.  To keep them out of the back yard I fenced it with a small mesh aviary wire.  We had been plagued with javelins, rabbits and even tortuous but this seemed to stop the intruders,  Access to the back yard was through this double gate I constructed.  It had a small gate on the left to allow people access.  When a vehicle or piece of machinery needed to travel through the right gate was opened also.  Square steel tubing was used for the basic frame and the surface was covered with screen. Decoration was added by hanging saguaro sticks on the right gate that banged about in the wind and added to the discouragement of wildlife.

One evening when JoAnn and I returned from an obligation we heard a whimpering sound in the vicinity of the back gate.  Upon investigation we found a lone baby javelin huddled in the corner by the gate.  It had become separated from the herd that had a habit of tromping across the property.  We didn't want to move it for fear the mom might be out there in the dark, ready to charge us and defend her baby so we left the problem to be resolved by natural consequences.  In the morning the baby was gone so we assumed it was reunited with the family.

Prior to fencing off the back yard we discovered a desert tortoise floating in our water pond.  I guess they aren't much of a swimmer.  We were relieved that didn't happen again after the fence went up.  All of these animals had their trails across the countryside established and then we moved in  and disrupted their life.  The least we could do was keep them away from danger with a fence.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Red Bottom Vessel e/P 19

My most recent e/P vessel is shown above.  Built around a larg mouth gallon jar, it stands 12 inches high and has a16 inch diameter.  The wood is oak, grouted with dark filled resin.  Red eculiptus segments are used on the bace.  The turned lid has one eculiptus recessed into the top of the handle. To view the base, a second low angle photo is shown below.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Display Your Art Work

If you have followed my posts, you know I love woodwork and have made  numerous pieces over the many years I have been following this hobby.  Many have sold but there are some special pieces we have held for our own collection.  JoAnn has some sculptural pieces in that collection also.  We have used them to decorate our homes, giving that special personal touch.  Now we have a problem.

When we sold the dream house we built of 6,000 square feet, we moved into a 3,000 square foot home in our planned down-sizing.  The next move to our current home was down-sized to 1,500 square feet.  We find our current abode easy to take care of  and just the right size for us as we age. The problem is we don't have adequate space for all of our art pieces.  We have given some away and sold others but we still don't have room for the special pieces we want to keep and I have a habit of continuing to create new art.  So what do you do?  We certainly aren't going to move to a larger house as we love our little bungalow.  some of the larger pieces are in storage in our garage until we find an outlet to market them.  I decided we heeded a display case for all the smaller pieces so drew up the plans.

My shop has been down-sized too so it didn't seem feasible to try construct a fairly large display cabinet plus a second smaller cabinet in my limited facility.  We had seen the cabinet work of a friends son and were impressed so contacted him with our plan.  He drew up a list of supplies, added in his labor cost and presented us with a contract.  We signed off and after a number of weeks he got back to us with the disappointing message that he couldn't do it.  He had tried but it wasn't working out right for him.  We had paid him a portion of the contract an he had purchased the materials.  At that point I leaped into the situation in an effort to salvage the project.  I offered to take the usable supplies in place of what we had paid and he presented the bills he had so we arrived at a settlement. Now I was faced with the task of constructing the cabinets in my down-sized shop.  It's amazing what you can do when you have no other choice.  When the cabinets were finished I felt good about the outcome.  Take a look at the installation shown below.

The two cabinets contained a variety of size and shaped compartments, each top lit with recessed low voltage lighting.  A transformer was Incorporated in the design with access from the back.  The entire back of each cabinet was enclosed.  After painted to match the wall they looked as though they belonged.  This certainly solved our display need and increased my confidence of what could be done in a down-sized shop.  I like this view with cabinet lights only.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Rusty Pipe Yard Light

Our home we built at Pusch Ridge, close to Tucson, had quite a climb up from the guest parking with many steps to negotiate.  To help evening visitors we installed light fixtures that would make the trip up the many steps easier and safer.  In keeping with our pattern of adding our own personal touches I acquired some heavy 12 inch steel pipe and fabricated a number of the fixtures as seen in the photo above.  I used a gas cutting torch to make the vertical slits around the circumference of the pipe to let the light shine out.  The top was closed with a steel plate, pierced with more torch cuts.  This plate could be lifted off the brackets to gain access to change light bulbs.  A disk of 1/8 inch clear plastic was placed on the brackets under the steel plate to keep most of the rain out.  A buried electrical line with weather proof junction boxes emerging inside the pipe finished the job when connected to a switched outlet.  As far as a finish for the fixtures, the action of natures elements took care of that.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Raspberry Pot e/P 18

This little vessel is a recent creation using walnut as the base and small limb sections set in a raspberry tinted resin.  I'm not sure what wood the limbs are but would guess they are pruning from a citrus tree like orange, grapefruit or lemon.  This piece in one of the e/P series.  In earlier posts I explained this series I am doing in detail.  The e/P designation spells out the entire concept.  The e stands for the empty containers I build the vessel around or over.  The P indicates the potential promise of the piece to become an artful object.

In Raspberry Pot I used a shallow plastic cup to build around.  It is entirely open at the top and I am still debating if it needs a top,  I could cast one in tinted resin to match the color in the piece and give visual strength to the Raspberry title.  What do you think?

                                     Top View

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

A Gate for all Seasons

This photo shows more do-it-yourself improvements around our Pusch Ridge home.  This low walled in space housed electrical equipment for air conditioning Which is critical in this hot Arizona climate. To cut down on the motor noise, hide equipment from view and keep unauthorized persons out of the area as a safety measure, I designed and built a gate using sheet aluminum and copper over a square steel tube frame.  I extended the height of the wall with saguaro ribs and matched it with similar material on the gate top.  A lockable latch, high enough to be out of reach of little fingers finished the job.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Light Sconce Fixtures

This sconce incorporates features from several other design I have used.  All elements are fastened to a metal frame that has a metal half-circle strap on either end.  The saguaro rib pieces are riveted to this strap and each rib piece is shaped to fit in holes drilled i/n the center block.  This center block is pierced with design holes and small colorful tile are fastened to the surface also.  This fixture directs light up and down, bathing the wall with light.  A soft glow is filtered through  the spaces between the saguaro ribs.   This is a colorful piece both during daylight and when lit at night.   More subtle designs are shown below.

This last sconce uses ocotillo stick instead of saguaro rib.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Tortoise Door

One of the more interesting doors we built was the Tortoise Door as seen here beside the art storage cabinet with saguaro rib doors.  This was JoAnn's studio at the First Ave. house.  Details of the assembly of this door are shown below. The process we used in construction of these doors started with a design JoAnn developed at reduced scale which included the colors used.  This scale drawing was then converted to a full size pattern using the square transfer method.  I wont describe this method here but stick to the main topic.  I usually did this transfer and then had the patterns I needed to cut pieces of wood in the shop.  After pieces had been cut and sanded JoAnn would mix the paint color and apply it to the wood pieces.  I usually stained the main surfaces of the door and applied a clear finish over all surfaces when the pieces had been assembled on the door.  The pattern was repeated on both sides of the door with one side being the reverse of the pattern so pieces were exactly opposite and could be pinned together with dowels running through holes in the central panel of the door.  My, that may sound complicated but after working with it on one door the process became routine.
                                                                             

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
                  

JoAnn's Painting at Huston, Texas

JoAnn and I had an exciting two-day visit to Huston, Texas.  A major art festival was held there showing painters work in a variety of media.  The show was housed in a wide variety of public buildings all over town.  Each location featured artist's work using specific medias such as watercolor or tempera and all from the same organization like a gild or association.  Participants had their work selected by the local organization to get into the show.  JoAnn's watercolor, "Aunties Hibiscus" was accepted (shown above).  We walked our legs off all over Huston viewing the many exhibitions of good art work.  There were workshops and demonstrations scheduled for festival participants also.  Some of the activity was outside and the weather cooperated but as we were flying out for home the storm clouds started to roll in and we heard on the news when we arrived home that Huston was flooding.  If this had happened two days earlier it would have reined the festival.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Pusch Ridge Interior Doors-1

This is an example of the custom artistic doors we built and installed in our homes.  The Pusch Ridge home was a colorful space as you can see.  Saltillo tile on the floor, bright throw rugs and purple stained doors were found throughout the home.  The accent we added to the doors was subtle and placed in the center division between vertical boards.  Several other examples are shown below.

         Snake Door to Garage

       Master Bedroon Door

           Guest Bath Door

             Pantry Door

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

Cholla Light Sconce

The development of light sconces was both a home improvement and a commercial venture.  Tfey were among the many special features we developed for our homes that were built over the years and we also marketed them at a local gallery that featured our work.  The one shown here was a rectangular box made if oak wood.  It had slats in front that emitted a soft light to cover the immediate area.  The top and base are made of solid pieces of Sycamore wood.  The panels on either side are resin with cholls segments cast inside.

The photo above shows a variation of the same sconce design made of local walnut wood.  The detail shown in this photo gives a closeup of the side panel.  Resin strips on  either side of the box have sections of cholla cactus encapsulated in them and colored resin had been cast in the cavity of each segment.  The shape of the segments, the color in each segment and the richness of the hard wood makes a pleasant combination.  These two sconce should be used indoors or in a protected area to maintain the quality of the piece.  Strong sunlight and moisture would gradually degrade the wood finish and look of these sconce.

For outdoor use we developed a sconce meant to weather and look old.  Saguaro ribs  fastened on a metal frame gave this type of sconce a rugged look.  We made quite a few of this design for our homes and sold a number through a gallery or on personal orders to friends.

*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>

First Avinue Front Door

Our home we built on First Avenue in Oro Valley was to be our dream house and it was in many ways that I will describe in future posts.  This post features the massive front door I built for this home.  It follows the early European thinking that the front door to your home should be an indication of the residence sophistication.  I wasn't that concerned about displaying our sophistication but rather the opportunity to add unique decoration to our special home.

The door is roughly four feet wide and eight feet tall.  It is carried on four heavy duty ball bearing hinges and is held closed with two spring loaded catches.  It also is fitted with a dead bolt lock for security.  We found it necessary to use the dead bolt lock if there was a wind against the door.  The surface area of the door would generate enough forge from a brisk wind to push the door open.  The catches were set so that a person could pull the door open without a struggle.  The setting of the home on a ridge between two washes experienced plenty of brisk breezes and there for the dead bolt was locked most of the time.

The pull was fashioned of flat steel and a 1 1/2 pipe.  The flat steel was used to strengthen joints and repeated the pulls design. These features were repeated on both sides of the door and held together with 1/4 inch bolts.  All metal pieces were blued with a torch.  The decorative pieces were fastened to a 5/8 inch  center layer of plywood.  Notice that a pattern of Saguaro sections were used to ,lead the eye of the viewer around the surface.  Plain strips of fur were used to cover the plywood core around the saguaro design.  A viewing window was Incorporated in the upper portion of the door.  It was constructed with colored glass segments that were transparent enough to allow vision of the person o/n the other side of the door. A lavender stain that Joann mixed was used over the entire door and a clear sealer covered it as a final finish.

  *More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
The full story of these and other adventures are covered in detail in my soon to be published autobiography, "Which Road Should I Follow?  Volumes One and Two".

                                                           

Pop Out at Pusch Ridge

This was the first pop out we did on our homes and this was our second home,  the one we designed and had built at Pusch Ridge in Oro Valley.  We used the same builder we had chosen for our first home and were pleased with his work.  L. J. McCreary was a young guy that specialized in custom built, Santa Fe homes.  He was receptive to our participation in adding special touches to the home once he was confident we weren't going to destroy the homes design and his reputation.  He explained how we could develop a pop out such as the one shown above and how it needed to be scheduled with the overall construction.  The process was covered in detail in the posts about pop outs at the First Avenue home.  We did a frog and a turtle on that house so wont repeat the details. This pop out was placed on a exterior wall that faced the drive way and in view coming up steps to the front door.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
The full story of these and other adventures are covered in detail in my soon to be published autobiography, "Which Road Should I Follow?  Volumes One and Two".

Alta Vista Front Door

When we moved to Arizona we looked for a place to rent in the county of my employment.  The choices were disappointing and as an emergency place to stay and continue our search after my job had started, we rented a single wide trailer.  The next phase in home development was to order a manufacture built home delivered to Oracle.  This solution met with numerous problems and after several years we were on the look for property in the Tucson area.  This leads to our custom built home in the Alta Vista development.  My wife, JoAnn and I contributed some special touched such as the  front door pictured above.  I used a fir frame with plywood panels on which Saguaro ribs were fastened.  I chose to use a double door design with the right side locked in place except when wide items were moved in or out.  People traffic used the left door which opened much like a single front door.  I will be describing other aspects of this home in the future posts.  The photo below was taken of the approach to the front entry from the driveway.

The front entrance is up these steps. through the gate and to the left.

*More detail on my art can be found at my website <www.apatchablue.com>
The full story of these and other adventures are covered in detail in my soon to be published autobiography, "Which Road Should I Follow?  Volumes One and Two".

Apple Moon

On October 8, 2014 a major portion of the world was positioned to see a total lunar eclipse of the blood moon.  This was the second time this phenomena occurred this year.  I have witnessed many lunar eclipses but not of the blood moon.  The moon appears orange or red, the result of sunlight scattering off our atmosphere, hence the name Blood Moon.  This is what the recent event looked like in progress.  The photo is by AP, a part of coverage by the BBC.

I have been fascinated by this phenomena and in my earlier art work, a piece was constructed from a glued block of apple wood pieces that created the impression of an eclipse.  Part of the piece is encapsulated in resin, thus producing the fade of brilliance over part of the surface, characteristic as an eclipse progresses.  A cast bronze base is used to hold the piece above the surface of the table or other object used to support the Apple Moon.  A side view is shown below.





































*More detail can be found on my art at my website <www.apatchablue.com>