Welcome

Ahoy Matey, and Welcome to REPTIRE, an intermittent ‘ship’s blog’, chronicling the slow rise in the South Easterly skies of Reptire Designs; a studio that designs and crafts always artful, and sometimes useful THINGAMABOBS from old Indian Cucachou, aka ReTired Rubber.

Down Below, Ye shall find a permanent 'flagship post' marking the Maiden Voyage of Reptire Designs.

And below that, in the ‘hull’, can be found more recent posts chronicling the daring new adventures of Reptire Designs, dashed with small bits of whimsy, spotted pickerel, local color, and lizard lore..

In fact, on the right, in pale purple, ye shall find the Captain's Log’s Table of Previous Posts, which ye can peruse by year, month, and title to ye hearts content.

If ye haven't gotchyer sea legs yet, My Pretty, Ye can take a gander at our website at www.reptiredesigns.com, to get a proper Landlubber's Introduction.

Thanks for stopping in, I do hope you enjoy your visit aboard this ship! HARHARHARHAR.......

Sincerely, Travius Von Cohnifus

Captain, Founder, Indentured Servant, Rubber Alligator Wrestlor Extraordinaire a' this here ship.

enter the treadknot

Welcome
On September 26th, 2006, I launched my tire art/design business, Reptire Designs, with a solo exhibition of my artwork in The Green Gallery at The Scrap Exchange Center for Creative Reuse, in Durham, NC. For many reasons, it was a night that I will always remember, and I am grateful to Laxmi (my girlfriend at the time) and Edie (my mother, still) for dutifully documenting while I shmoozed, so that I may now shmare a taste of the evening with anyone who was not able to attend...



On a cool but lively autumn night-before-Center Fest, a stream of friends and curious strangers trickled (like pebbles through a rain stick) through the forest of odds and ends (that roost at night in The Scrap Exchange), out into the warm light of the back savanna, a scene utterly glopped with bizarre rubbery hybrids. Tentative and curious, the visitors craned their necks, nibbled, pecked, stood back, moved in closer. From the walls, glassy mirror eyes gazed back through black unblinking eyelids, while beneath the visitor's feet, in a steamy drainage cistern, a mortal drama unfolded. Primordial forms, with no eyes at all, sat puckered on stoops. A cascade of glittering steal droplets formed a curtain, to which clung a colony of tiny tire knotlettes.

Vito D., a long-time collabator down from the Asheville area, caressed the warming air with his Strange Little Folk music. I bobbed and I flit, and at an increasing clip-someone must have opened the faucet a bit....for soon I was swooning, I just about lost it! As the evening progressed, to my delight and amazement, 'family' from Durham, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro, Hillsboro, Siler City, Asheville, and Fresno all made it! From the Cohn Clan to the Steudel Clan to the CFS Clan; from the WWC Clan to the Duke Ac Pub Clan to the SAF Clan; from the Bike Shop Clan to the Ninth St. Clan to the Scrap Clan... and every one in between, guys, they were all appearing before my stunned, blinking eyes. While I spun and I splayed, Vito now played-CHURNED- up a torrent of gritty ditties; while a staff volunteer (Brandon's a photographer, I swear) whipped up pitchers of Mango Lassies. And The 'Scrap Exchange girls' worked the door, the counter, and the floor, going "cha-CHING!", cha-CHING!","cha-CHING!".!.



By the end of the night, hundreds of friends, acquaintances and had-been-strangers had poured in, poured over the work, and partaken in, what was for me and my art, a monumental communal feast. And on top of it all, I got to place many of my preemies in hands that I love and trust, and in several instances, hands that fit them like gloves. What a privilage to be able to connect with people this way. Heading into the turbid seas of small business, I can confidently say that if I drown tomorrow, I am at least blessed today with the memory of (as Vito later put it) one authentically good Durham night.



Thanks to all of you who were there; in body and/or spirit.





Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange

Reclaimed-wood Builder and Reptire Collector Howard Staab enjoying magwi knot at the Scrap Exchange
I can't think of anything more rewarding for an artist than to see someone interacting with their artwork. Photo by Laxmi Haynes

Sammy and Dannette contemplate

Sammy and Dannette contemplate
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Cascade Colony of Knotlets

Cascade Colony of Knotlets
They would go with your jacket, would they not Claire?

Laxmi Resplendent

Laxmi Resplendent

Mavis In The Mist

Mavis In The Mist
Photograph by Laxmi Haynes

Tire Amazement

Tire Amazement
Photograph by Edie Cohn

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Reptire Designs at the Festival for the Eno 2012, Saturday, July 7th




Saturday was a good day for me. I knew what to expect a little more, and so was able to reflax a bit more, make some good connections, and even have a little bit of fun (I'm talkin' Rowdy Square Dance people..).


My old CFS nongrade school teacher the Good Signor Micheal Bonsignor paid a visit, which was a pleasure.

 

Bryan, a stained glass artist, and his wife…..took an interest in Reptire Designs, and decided to purchase for the daughter/neice/friend, Caitlin?.. a tredknot chaCHING!


I got a visit from The Awesome, Superwoman stop-fracking-before-it-permanently-fucks-up-our-water supply-activist, Dorothy Raleigh. Jah Bless Dorothy!
It was great to see Dorothy aglow in the reptire tent.


Dorothy Raleigh Inda House!
Aglow beneath the Reptire Canopy
I also met an interesting family who had recently moved down form the New York area.
The daughter Elinor, bought for her Washington DC apartment perhaps THE Bell Of The Ball, a beautiful bromiliade planted within a tirarium of whitewall mountain bike tire.
Rugged beauty, coupled with tropical, flora- "Romancing The Tire" indeed.



Elenor’s friend down from NY, Aaron was an interesting fellow. He is a lawyer, who specializes in solid wasted disposal! Coming from this perspective, Aaron took a keen interest in Reptire Designs, and finally settled upon one of the more rich specemines from the 2012 chaCHING collection- a gnarly greenish Kenda tire knotlette, the kind that crouches in Louisiana  swamps, and plots about industrial sabotage in French/Japanese.


Both of these forgivable (and admirable) New Yorkers must be commended for the discerning eyes.

OK, this lady didn’t buy this dragon’s eye. But I thought is would look great riding on her hip (And it does).

Next we had this lovely lass, who after some good pondering, decided to return, and snap up this lovely little Tirarium., planted with a baby-snake-plant. It glows just like she does, so I know she will give it a good home!

A MUSICAL HIGHLIGHT
for me was to witness (and participate in) the spectacal of the first ever Rowdy Square Dance at the Festival for the Eno. RSD is a project of Nee Ningy Band’s talented washtub bassist Rob Van Veldt, which usually takes place in the tight (and hence rowdy) quarters of Pinhook bar (link). Here Rob, and the Five Point Rounders (a tribute I am sure to downtown Durhams nearby historic five points intersection), cook up a seeting stew of sweaty, rowdy square dancing, that is gloriously half mosh pit, half square dance.
Or, maybe you could just suffice to say that a Rowdy Square Dance is a spectacularly civilized moshpit, if that makes any kind of sense….well it does, it makes a whole lot sense, and I’ll be the first to tell you that it is a damned rowdy good time.

This year, Visionary Assistant Director of the Festival, Rebecca Connelly decided to bring the Rowdy Square Dance to the Festival for the Eno, which was a brilliant move, if I ever saw one. Anna Lena Phillips, a long time standard at the RSDs led us all through the motions, and damned if it wasn’t a dusty good time. We probably raised a colomn of dust high enough to eclipse the fire works a few nights before. And you can bet that yours truly made sure it was good and rowdy.







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