Not so Heavy Metal

Okay -

So I have been doing some bike restoration and other work over at my dad's garage. His place is super well equipped for anything that one might decide to do to a piece of metal. I've decided to try my hand at some metal sculpting - or rather metal pounding, distressing, cutting, heating, bending  painting and chemically etching. So far my subject mater has been pretty aquatic - but that doesn't mean everything I do will be fishy. I figure once I have 12 - 15 pieces done I might start shopping around for a gallery show - we'll see. In the meantime here are a couple things I've made.

 This one is 55 inches tall and each fish is a bout 30 inches long. It was my dad's idea to drill out and mount it in an old slab of concrete.

 

 This is a pic of the wood carvings that inspired the above piece.

 This Stingray has a 45" wingspan and 46" from tail tip to horn.

This guy is 36 inches long.

Clicking on the image will give you bigger view. Unfortunately pics don't do these justice - you can't see how the clear-coat gives them a nice depth - but this'll give you an idea of what I've been up to.

A Pleasant Conundrum

Last week Sara and I did a little bartering. Our friends Anne Goudvis and Stephanie Harvey (if you are part of the literacy and comprehension education world you know what rock stars these two are) wanted a little help with some presentations they were working on – PowerPoint and video editing stuff. So, it seems the Goudvis clan owns an amazing house up in the mountains outside of Aspen – built by the foresighted patriarch – Ted Goudvis years ago. Steph and Anne asked if we would be willing to come on out and help them in exchange for the use of said house and transportation.

Well I may have been born in the morning but I wasn’t born THIS morning. We jumped on the opportunity. I rented myself a bike and did some hill climbing – Sara got ten thousand or so new words added to a YA novel she is working on and we met a family of minks near the confluence of the two rivers which meet behind the Goudvis homestead.  Here’s just a few pics from out excursion.

A photo during a hike Sara and I took along Conundrum Creek.

Wildflowers on Independence Pass

Shot outside the door of the Goudvis’ house.

Hunter S Thompson’s table at the Woody Creek Tavern.

Me outside the Woody Creek

One of the baby minks (a kit) that we spied. At least I am pretty sure it’s a mink – let me know if you know different.