Reptire Arrives At Durham's Legendary 9th Street (in STYLE!); Hosted by Vaguely Reminiscent!

If you know Durham like I know Durham, then you know that that old city's Western outskirt is laden by a mythical lane, still named (the name remains the same): 9th St.

And if you knew Durham WHEN I knew Durham, THEN you would know that even when downtown was ne'r a vast hollowed shell of a city, it still retained, upon the lapel of its drab grey suit, this pimpernil, or a string of jewels, a broach worn around her hip?

Here, along this modest section of sidewalk, a meager sprout of a man could find a small cornucopia of the smells, objects, and ideas, that might make him dream of The Wide World Out There!

The first thing that smacked you in your undeveloped, teenaged noggin (as you clambered up the hill, say from Broad St.), was the inherently promising smell of fresh baked bread (wafting from the 9th St Bakery). The smell was like a friendly dog, that came to greet you at the gate, and before you knew it you were both wagging tail and tongue, as one. Mounted that stone curb precipice, you dove, no, strode, no dove, into that string of pearls, and goodies. Cheap eclectic records, Cashew Chicken from Vietnam, R. Crumb comics, French sandwhiches, silk scarves, malt sundays, tattoos. All this, along one short street!

And buried among/ along this string of varied jewels, was always (as far as I can remember), this one, mysterious, deceivingly very tiny, purple little Jewel, named enigmatically.... Vaguelly Reminiscent....

hmmm....

Well, those adventurous, curious (or perceptive) enough to crack that creaky door were rewarded to find within that small ruby room, an entire 'underwater' cavern daintily encrusted with rare and strange gems.

On those stacked and varied shelves, one can find the most wild diaspora of curious objects.
Bangles, Zombie Mints ("mmm...brain flavor"), rubber frogs and anteaters, cat butt refrigerator magnets (maybe as an appetite suppressant?), really nice scarves and other clothes for women.  All under one roof!

And now, to add to this mellee, an auto mirror tucked within a nest of chicken feathers, and woven bicycle tire! behold-the 'tredknest'.

Yes!

How did this come to be?
Well, at the outset, it should be shared that I grew up with the Owner, Carol Anderson's niece, Katy, and am now good friends with her nephew, Squiggs, though I never knew Carol herself.

Recently, as the Festival for the Eno, I was blessed with a visit to my "Reptire Hut" from Carol herself, and an introduction from my mom, Edie, who has a pretty keen eye connecting people, particularly her son.

So I realize that it probably looks a bombastic, dynastic plot! And perhaps it is to some extent...

However, this I also have come to know about Carol: that she is a shrewd business woman (no doubt, you don't keep an eclectic-as-all-get-out boutique open THIS long (30 yrs? I am guessing) with out being one!).

So, I console myself to believe that Carol would not host my work in her tight-high-realistate-retail space, if she did not on some level think that this work might belong in her shop...

Thus, I can only deduce (with considerable pride) that my tire art has received the official.......
Carol Anderson Stamp Of Funk!

Jaleluja!

(I have arrived!)

Vaguely Reminiscent is located at 

728 9th St, in Durham, NC, USA

You can reach them by telephone at 

(919)-286-3911

You can also check out what other new,

 interesting things are arriving there,

on their facebook page.

Delivery to Li-Lan, of Atomic Tiresphere

Recently, I made a trip back to dear old Durham, to make a special delivery, of a pretty special sculpture, to a very special person.

The sculpture, was an Atomic Tireshphere, and the person was my good friend Li-Lan, whom I know first as musical and life partner to my old friend Alex Weiss, and percussionist in the Afro-Latin Chamber Ensemble, A Different Drum.

However, aside from being married to a special guy, and playing in his special band, I am also getting to know Li-Lan as a very special person in her own right. Li-Lan is a Healer; she has the power to heal people using the ancient arts of Acupuncture, Chinese herbalism, Reiki, and Mayan Abdominal Message. She is also one of the most gentle souls that I know, and I always enjoy her company.

This past summer, Li-Lan paid me and my Reptire 'hut' a visit at the gladey, shadey Festival for the Eno. And there she connected with one of my finer specimines of tirespheres, and decided to make a down payment on it. As she and Alex were planning to do some traveling soon, I agreed to hold it for until she got back.

And quite some traveling they did indeed! They made an epic trek high into the Himalayan mountains!

And when they returned to Durham, they invited their friends to come see an entrancing slide show of their adventure, at Li-Lan's accupuncture clinic.

This seemed like an opportune time to deliver Li-Lan her new sculpture.

I feel extremely happy to have connected this extraordinary person with this sculpture.

Li-Lan is a great gardner also, so I suspect that it will find a good home in a semi-sacred space, and Alex and Li-Lan's very special home!

You may learn about Li-Lan's awesome healing practice, by clicking..

here.

Or by visiting:

www.armoniahealth.com

Return of Reclamation Exhibition To Siler City

Recently, Melanie Mathews, Director of Hermitage Museum & Gardens, delivered the remaining artwork from the Reclamation exhibit to my studio in Siler City.

Many Thanks to the Mathews Family for extending their trip in NC to make their delivery possible!

Reptire Meets A Rubber Tree

This Holiday Season, I got to go visit my mom's family in Wisconsin. It was a great time, that included snowy field battles with a Lab, a creaky backwoods planetarium, roving tribes of wild turkeys, stool painting, and lots and lots of good food.

Towards the end of our stay, we paid a visit to the Madison Botanical Gardens. There, in their tropical hot-house / atrium, we found a really interesting show, that explores the human uses of plants. There I met my first ever rubber tree.

This one hailed from Panama, which to my knowledge, escaped the mass production of rubber plantations that have rocked other countries. Why this is, I am not sure.

Interestingly, it did appear to be in the same family as the 'rubber plants' that people have in their homes (and that I keep in my studio- as they filter the air very well). They also look to be in the legume family, which I hadn't realized.

There I also learned that Worcister Sauce comes from the tamarind fruit, and also met the tree that lipstick hails from.

Ah yes, and the Fat Pork Tree (it didn't explain what comes from this plant...)

And it turns out shoe polish is derived from the beautiful hibiscus flower. What a tragic fate for such a beauty.

Reptire Hiaitus!

So here is the word.

I am taking a little 'vacation' from the artist vocation.

I still love RepTire Art dearly, and I still love connecting with my customers, and want to see many of my dream designs come to fruition, and I plan to revist all of these this Spring and Summer at the Festival for the Eno.

But in the meantime, for Winter through Spring time, I am stepping back from it, and focusing on some different (and more direct!) ways to earn a living.

What does that look like?

Well, at this moment it looks like my own personal back-to-the-land movement!
That is, Back To The Land-Scaping!

And boy have I been enjoying it! (inspite of the big ol 'Back' in "Back to the Land"

It is like tattooing the earth’s sexy body, I love it.

You can learn about some of the projects I have been working on lately at my cousin blog

earth/surface/facet/interface.

I will also be teaching an after school Wire Sculpture class as a Artist In Residence at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, in February, and quite possibly some scrap art Summer Camps there, this summer.
You can read about some of the Arts Education work that I do at ENGAGERER.blogspot.com.

These are both lines of work that I have been cultivating, engaging in, and enjoying over that past 10-15 years. Its seems it is time to pay these 2 old friends a visit.

Iron Crafter 3! Hy!

To conclude my work shlepping the mountains of Scrap, 

I received one final mission- a very special Treat and Honor. 

That was to judge the Third... EVER! 

IRON CRAFTER COMPETITION

Why was this such an honor?

Well, not to mention the obvious prestige of such a post, it was also full circle, as I was a contender in the FIRST EVER Iron Crafter Competion- and I won first prize. OK not really, 

but I won the clearly most awesome trophy EVER!

I was also in some really good company, such as sculptor Bryant Holsenbeck, and two other individuals whom I greatly enjoyed working with.

There was quite a hum of creativity in that room!

Mix Master Dave on the SET!

The green glow and hum of industrious creativity, YES!!!

In the THICK of it!

Back Alley Habber-Dashery

PLUNGING into uncharted ground for art! 

And when all was said and done, and the dust cleared, there stood some really pretty impressive art work!

I wish that I had more pictures of it, as it deserves some recognition. Unfortunately, being judge and photographer was more difficult to balance than I expected.

Imperialist SQUID!

Junk-in-the-trunk hunk, and his Master.

The Prize, The Glory, Our Grand Prize Winner!

Fjording Mt. Scrap- Helping the Scrap Exchange make their final shlep

For the last three weeks I have been assisting my dear family, and beloved Durham Institution, The Scrap Exchange, to clear out what remains of their storage space upstairs in the old Liberty warehouse.

As you may know, the roof of this historic structure (at one time one of the largest tobacco trading stockyards in the southeast (world?) caved in this Spring, and TSE had to make an emergency move out, on the double.

 This was not really too much of a suprise. In the many years that we stored supplies for outreach events in the warehouse space, above the retail space, staff could hear the water pouring through the roof when it rained; in fact you could actually see the sky even then (according to my co-worker, Daniel Bagnal, who spent the most time up there of us all). In fact, it sounded like Niagra Falls when it rained. In rumor, people who couldn't afford to travel up to Niagra Falls to get their wedding pictures taken were going upstairs in the Liberty Warehouse instead.

Why didn't everspreading Greenfire, who bought the building, fix these leaks before it came to this?
Well now, that is a very good question.

The Gaping hole above the entrance ramp.
Ironically, the sign above the ramp reads (something like):
"SPEED KILLS, DO NOT DRIVE UP RAMP TOO FAST!
Oh well...

But the skinny of it is, we are out, have found a great new space with a great new landlord, and thus are transferring the last of our supplies out Liberty.

This has been an interesting operation....
A small handful of us were selected as Scrap Special Forces. Mission: rescue our remaining stockpile of  usable materials from the molding, collapsing Liberty warehouse.

What this looked like: Somewhere between a bomb site, a rummage sale, and an archeology dig.

The pictures you see here are quite decieving, as they were taken at an advanced stage of the clean up process.

I had some great coworkers.