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, October 25, 2011

Steps Towards Creation



This past weekend, the band of awesome and honorable musicians that I play with from time to time, aka ZamBambooGee, had a practice for our upcoming show at RSI.  We worked on a lot of rockin Beatles kinda stuff, and it was alot of fun.

Later that evening, I stopped back by, and Bruce kindly let me park my tired self on his couch for the night, as I had work to do in the neighborhood the next day. The next day, ideas were Poppin!...

You see, Bruce, in addition to being a fantastic Bassist, Guitarist, Harmonic Player, and Human, is also a FANTISTIC Visual Artist.

Although he has been creating trippy psychedelic drawings for decades, in the past several years, this man has bumped his art and craft up to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. It is always really exciting to witness an artist push through like this, into new territory. What does he make? Well, in a word: Mandalas.

Over many years, Bruce has developed a complex technical process on the computer, by which he is able to begin with one of his hand-drawn motifs, and multiply and manipulate this image sometimes beyond recognition. What he ends up with is a terraced architecture of forms, building upon one another, rapturously, in an orgasm of light and color.

So enthralled by the groovatude of Bruce's work am I, that I have made a proposal of sorts to Bruce.
What I am proposing, is to encapsulate some of his mandala imagery, with in the 'rind' of a tire.

We both believe that there is some potent poetry, in this mating of mandalas, with tires, and we are both excited, to see what emerges from this collaboration.

So, last night, I got some specs to Bruce.

And today, I took a little trip to see my friend, Mr. Cranford, just down the street, at Cranford's Framing and Photo Supply.



Mr. Cranford has enjoyed quite a career here in Siler City, over the last 56 years! Thats since 1955, Son! As just a young boy of 12, Cranford was building and working in his own dark room, which he built from scraps from his father's construction business. Between then and now, he and his wife, an accomplished, and widely respected Artist in the area, have worked day's and nights, photographing wedding events as far away as Washington DC, or Siler City from 600 ft in the air! (Part of Mr. Cranford's business was in aerial photography, and some of this work is currently on display in City Hall).

Mr. Cranford was excited by the idea of the mandalas framed within a bicycle tire, when I showed it to him. He 'got' it immediatly, and keenly observed that this might actually be a product to sell, that we were  holding here. Mr. Cranford is one sharp tack. Mr. Cranford happily supplied me with two nice pieces of matt board, as well as some scraps he collected from his shop, which offered to me to experiment with.
It is great to have this ally in the Arts.

Mr. Cranford proudly displays a painting he just framed for a client in Greensboro,
On the right is the large piece of silvered matt board, that he has supplied me with. 

We are each players, in a new episode of artwork, that is coming, to be born, here in Chatham County.






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