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

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Artists Statement and Bio for 2011 NC Artist's Exhibition



I wanted to share the Biography and Statement that I prepared for the 2011 North Carolina Artists Exhibition, as I feel that to a certain extent, it marks a place in time for Reptire Designs and I . Hopefully, it will serve as something of a place holder for this Chronicle of Reptire's developement.

TIRE TAMER - TRAVIS COHN
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY AND STATEMENT
FOR THE RALEIGH FINE ARTS SOCIETY’S 2011 NC ARTISTS EXHIBITION

            Travis Cohn was born and raised in Durham, NC. While his Portrait Artist Mother bequeathed to him his first love of drawing forms in Nature, this practice had always had a secret (shadow) twin tendency towards creating art from found objects. Recently, in 2002, he day-lit this passion, and married his love of the line with his love for the found; bound, as it were, within the ring of The Tire. And there he has remained ever since, devoted to exploring what possibility can found within this symbolic vessel, the bastard child of the Transportation Industry.

            In 2004, after several years of purposeful play, determined to find an eloquent way to let used tire rubber express it own beautility to the world, Cohn conceived of the treadknot. An enigmatic form of folded flubber (primordial, single-celled basketry, if you will) 7 years later, it still stands as a vexing sherpa, shuttling varied luggage of interpretations. In it, the artist finds a symbol of man, in an endless struggle with the self, and subsequently, a symbol of regeneration. From a larger perspective, in its familiarity with the Internationally recognized symbol of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, the treadknot form could also be boldly posited as an article of iconography within the contemporary Art-From-Reclaimed-Materials Movement. To learn more of about the treadknot; it’s creation; and the treadknotics of its interpretations, you can visit a page devoted to it on the Reptire website at www.reptiredesigns.com.
 
            For The Future, Cohn is planning to take these tires on the road. He envisions a series of place-based art installations, which will explore the Geography, Geology Ecology, and Human History of North Carolina, and its Environs (of the 0-8 legged variety). Where to start? Where else, but at the top of the hill?!..

            In The Meantime, Travis Cohn feels highly honored and excited to be included in this special showing of North Carolina Artists.
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