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, May 17, 2011

A little help from some friends




The other day, I had a great experience.
I ran into a groovy gal I had met previously, and her friend, also groovy folk.

I had a bug up my butt to make this screen I had recently dreamed up, and was so excited about it, that after a whole day of landscaping, I had plenty o steam to go hunt down some bicycle wheels down the street, which is where I met Eleazar and her friend Mike.

I invited them come check out Tyrius, we all hit it off, and before we knew it, we were all working on the project together! Which was a good thing, because their company helped keep my momentum moving in the right direction.

This is a new model of getting things done, that I learned from my friend Perrin, who recently enlisted my own help to get a few projects of his own knocked out, in the face of the arrival of his daughter, Wren. It was a really positive experience for us both, and appearently, it carried over..

It was GREAT! We got alot done!

THE TASK AT HAND: Suspend 6 bicycle wheels in the air (from my studio porch), at very specific and equal distances from one another, taking into account the pull of gravity vertically across the form..



THE WILLING COMMANDOS:



Name: Mike
Code Name: "Rob"
Situation: Fresh out of the Armed Forces, in search of organic farming experience, adventure, a taste of a new, different way life, and what ever the road my offer forth to him. (?)

Name: Eliazar
Code Name: Elia

Special Powers: skills of stealth..



Well, these agents proved themselves well worthy of the task.
So stoic were they, in their devotion to their mission, and their unwavering composure...


The next day, having recovered alittle, I decided to clip the spokes out. I have Mike to thank for this pragmatic approach (as I had been caught in the notion that I would need to get a spoke tool to tediously remove each spoke. Ow. Is this the kind of thinking they teach you in the Army? 
Mike cut the gordian knot.


What this did was open up the space (obviously).
What might not be so obvious, is that doing so also opened up a sort of dialogue with the negative space between the wheels. This is in fact the entire point of the piece, to engage this space, through the apperatus of an inverted tire, share a 'corner' of four adjascent wheels.

To me, this effect is endlessly satisfying to behold..


I also like the way that this allows the piece to behave as a 'screen', which I believe it begins to do very well, as such.




What is a screen but a membrane, that allows a viewer and the back ground to interact in a special way.
I don't think that I am describing this very well, but I do believe that there are some interesting things happening here, which probably merrit some more reflection and exploration.

Thanks to Mike and Elia, for catalyzing this being's back alley birth into the world.


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