Stationery Party & Open Studio

Thank You, Veterans

This is Savannah, Vol. 2 - Available December 4!

This is Savannah, Vol. 2 Jones Street is in the making. The hardbound 9" x 12" book features cardstock accordion pages and a fold-out map. The pages exhibit eighteen Jones Street blocks intricately ink-drawn by hand. In addition to the streetscape drawings, one architectural detail from each drawing is featured larger on the page. This is Savannah, Vol. 2 will be available DECEMBER 4, in Savannah at the Telfair Trunk Show and at shopSCAD. Also available online in my shop.

Great Holiday gift! Please contact me to reserve one now or if you are interested in carrying the book in your shop.

The University (of Virginia)

It is not visible in the dark, but behind the pediment is the Rotunda.from the portico of the Rotunda, across the Lawn flanked by the Ranges. Looking back across the lawn toward the Rotunda. The contrast of light and darkness manifest Jefferson's classical spaces in their essential relationships of solid and void, proportion.
Student rooms occupy the Ranges that extend from the Rotunda to enclose the Lawn. A rocking chair and a stack of firewood seemed to be standard issue at each door.Here, at the School of Architecture - Campbell Hall, I felt like I time-travelled back ten years to Cowgill Hall where I worked in studio for five years at Virginia Tech. Both Campbell and Cowgill are tucked away behind the venerable halls which define the dominant architecture of the campus (or, "the Grounds") - Jeffersonian neo-Classical at U.Va and Gothic rendered in limestone at VT. Both are modern, with egg carton concrete, a full glass wall on the second (administrative) floor and glass bays on the upper (studio) floors. The "feel" inside was similar, with almost every wall surface covered with student work, students and faculty engaged and excited about architecture. There were models and travel sketchbooks, both rendered by hand - I appreciated seeing these, in particular. The new wing at the School of Architecture by W.G. Clark, who gave a tour and explained that: Design decisions were made to accomodate student pin-ups with large doors, easy to open with a shoulder while one's hands are full with drawings and models, concrete walls on the south to block the light from the President's back yard at night and glass walls on the north to admit light into the pin-up spaces during the day and spill the interior light onto the plaza at night so the buildings speaks its use to passersby. Clark said the President, passing by one evening, appreciated seeing the building in use, students working. A patchwork of transparent and translucent glass in the stairwell casts moving bodies through the space as unwitting actors on a stage, at night.

Telfair Art Fair 2010

Madison Square was finished just in time to be accepted for exhibit in the grand atrium of the Jepson Center for the Arts, in the Open Art Category of the Telfair Art Fair.

The Library of Congress, in Stone (and Bronze)

The Library of Congress became one of my favorite sources online for historic images. I felt like I knew the LOC. Then I met the real live Library of Congress, situated on Capitol Hill just east of the Capitol dome.I was lucky to have an insider guide to explain the circumstances of its creation in the late 1800s. He said, If you are impressed (as I was) with the exterior you'll be amazed inside! I was.He explained that the project came in under budget, the extra funds used to adorn the building. Craning my neck to take in the mosaics and frescoes within the vaulted halls, stained glass skylight, stone carvings, I thought, Here is our American equal to the incredibly ornate carved stone Hindu temples of India: As those temples stand for the religious and cultural narratives of Hindu mythology, the Library of Congress expounds the moral and intellectual ideals of our American society.

Human scale is manifest not only in the materials and their proportions but throughout the building as human forms carved in stone and bronze: babies with props represent various noble professions, sculpted heads mounted at the keystone of window arches represent various ethnic societies of the world, the busts of great thinkers and an abundance of mythological figures are nestled into the architecture. Each tells the narrative of our American moral and intellectual ideals.

A Map of Savannah, Georgia: 1916 / 2010

I've been in Savannah, deep. In my mind. Perpetuating my quest to draw maps patterned after the lithographic techniques of 1800s maps, I present a map of the city core, north of Forsyth Park. The hand-drawn lines are rusticated. I hope they look like pressed ink. The building footprints and street patterns represent the City's structure in 1916.The map features eighteen blocks of Jones Street around the perimeter. The "bonus" sketches within the borders of the lithographic maps are one of my favorite features, like in this map of Lisbon. (I have a long way to go, Lisbon...) The final print size is 16" x 18". A few more glimpses -

This map will be part of the BOOK exhibiting all of the Jones Street block drawings, This is Savannah, Vol. 2.

The Print is also Available in my Shop.