Please take a stroll around the scene. Where are you? When are you? What is taking place, if anything?

How long do you think it would take you to get from that broken wagon wheel to the far Mesa, in the era of the carving?

What time of the day is it? Why do you think you can see what's taking place?

What mood do you find yourself in, when you see that Coyote?

Ok. Zoom back out. Shake it off. Ha.

Your Brain put you in there and answered the questions above, one way or another. Your brain (and one other thing). Because, reality is that's a flat piece of scratched aluminum, with some odds and ends assembled into a unit. What gave it "life"? What gave it a "dance"? Made it more than a collection of materials?

What clues did your brain pick up, other than the scratches themselves? What suggested a time and place to your brain? Colors? Probably. Shapes and patterns? Surely. Materials? Let's see ... Turquoise as part of a woven pattern - Native America's Southwest? Definitely. Various sandy colors in ancient materials - the desert in times past? Yes. Then the scratches - that big round shiny patch high on the Bolster - has to be a full moon? Light reflecting off of a sandy landscape ... enough light to travel and make up .....time .... hey! ... after changing that busted wagon wheel??? Those scratches don't suggest manmade buildings - but .... monument valley? Good Chance.

When you step over the sill into that world, it opens with you are right between the sun bleached cattle skull and that busted wheel. You don't bother to check your phone for bars of service .... but you probably snap a few selfies!!! The guys will never believe this!!!!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2017 06:45PM by barnespneumatic.

(I posted incomplete because I lost that post the first time I wrote it!). Btw, the carving isn't complete yet either. But you could get the drift.

To Conclude:

The other "thing" that organized all the clues for your eyes and brain, was myself. And oh, the distance from the broken wagon wheel to the far Mesa is a long day's journey by wagon .... but only 710 thousandths of an inch in this world. Less than 3/4". What did your brain tell you when asked?

Ok. This is what I do with my work. It's my fifth decade now! Wow. Funny though: I happened to drag what's left of me into my fifth decade in the shop, at a time when the world is not really very happy (again). But I try to provide a place to go, something to think about, and friends if you care to join in. In this chapter of my career; when I put up something like this, it's expected. Kinda good and bad. Nice people expect quality. Not much of a reaction though .... ah, he made another knife. People who have spoken up with a "wow", for twenty years, are a bit more reluctant to do it one more time. Maybe if I were 25 years old .... oh, and a recovering drug addict or something... I'd get a Nat Geo Special. But it's just ole Gary.

Funny. So much so I often choke back joy. There's a site I visit to look at handmade knives from around the world. It's interactive. And, if I see a knife which required real talent and skill to make .... decades of discipline to learn skills .... it will have about 6 likes. If, on the other hand; it looks like a junkyard project .,, beat with a tire iron .... it will have 1,100 likes. I want to scream. That's what is desired - post Apocalyptic stuff. Don't give us that precision crap. We have to go dig into the hillside for shelter before nightfall!!! And, if I just made up a wheelbarrow full of butt ugly stuff .... that's it??? Compete with ten thousand twelve to twenty year olds who can't do better, but have plenty of stove bolts, pallets, and old lawn mower blades???

So I say, NO!!! I'll stand here with fine work. And, I'll beg people to speak to me instead of having nine hundred screaming fans flailing each other with trash can lid shields and lug wrenches. It's darned depressing if you are conscious ... ya know?

The work I'm making has NEVER been better. And it's 1/2 to 1/3 of the price it was from 1980-95. I'm just stunned that that little "Sherpa" knife didn't sell in five minutes. Man! That's some skillful work in a compact package. You aren't looking at that right. I'm amazed.

But that's kinda the reward you get anymore (as an older artist), for not just dying in a timely and dramatic fashion. (That's unless you have some quite unique situation to exploite for a longer period). If you don't just get off the stage, then ...... you get trampled by the swarm moving to the next new rage.

Yes .... ramblings. It's what happens when the world doesn't make any sense anymore.

So; please enjoy the site. Please enjoy my work. Please support my work. And if you like something, I'm old ... I've probably forgotten that you once said so. You can tell me again.

Thanks for reading guys
Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2017 07:09PM by barnespneumatic.