Blue Sloth

Cutting

South Main Project: Update 27

I have merged the three basic facets of building the angel into a more seamless routine. Instead of running out of pieces and having the creative process grind to a halt while I shift gears mentally and prepare myself for a week's worth of intense physical labor, I do little bits at a time. Before I would spend days cutting out hundreds of pieces of steel, then several more painstakingly bending them by hand into gently curving triangles before lining them all up in preparation for fabrication.

I now do mini-batches While I do run out of material more quickly, I don't lose the creative thrust that has been propelling me to that point. I pause only long enough to cut out another day's work and then press forward, making sure to resume placing pieces again before retiring for the night so that it is all still fresh in my mind the next morning.

Scale

South Main Project: Update 27

Kelly poses with the angel to provide a sense of scale. Kelly is 52 inches tall. As you can see, I am making tremendous progress on the work.

Sunday

Speed Racer was a disappointment to me. It would have been a nice 20 minute short film. The action scenes were too chaotic to comprehend what was happening, and while I commend the Wachowski brothers for their concept of vivid colors and surreal imagery, they suffer from the same over-indulgence that plagued George Lucas in his prequel: throwing everything and the kitchen sink into every frame. There is no sparse framing, with something to draw the eye from one point to another. No focal point. Just chaotic color and movement. There is a point where less is more. You should build an action scene the same way you build dialogue between characters.

Alas Speed Racer grows quickly tiresome. As it was, I simply thought of what I would have done to pare down each race to show how the track really worked, how I would have developed each race and each scene.

Isabel loved it however. She went on and on about it during the movie.

Kelly won her baseball game on Saturday, drove in a run and scored two. Alex won his soccer game. We got out on the lake for a glorious day of mud castle building and basking in the sun. We had a great dinner on the boat and a long night's sleep listening to rain pound the roof.

Happy Mothers Day to all you wonderful moms out there.

Left Leg

South Main Project: Update 26

I have had a great week of work in the studio. The left leg is nearing completion.

I'm off to baseball practice, then I'm taking everyone to see Speed Racer. I expect the kids will love it. I'm looking forward to the Clone Wars trailer debut in front of the movie, and will enjoy watching the kids enjoy themselves during the feature.

Coaching Kelly

Baseball was fun last night. The Cardinals won the game in the bottom of the fifth and Kelly drove in her second run of the night with a single to seal things. She was 2-3 and had one ground ball hit to her at second base. She has earned the role of starting second baseman and she is very proud to jog out to her position at the start of each inning. We have practice Friday night, and a game Saturday, Monday and Wednesday.

When in Doubt, Refill them Both

When I went to exchange cylinders on Friday, they were out of 80's and gave me a 60 acetylene instead. Well I burned through that dude pretty quickly and today I went back to exchange my 60 for an 80. I got home, got the regulator screwed tight and promptly ran out of oxygen within ten minutes of cutting triangles.

The pressure gauge is jammed on the oxygen regulator and I just have to wing it when it comes to the level remaining. It's cheap compared to acetylene, plus I have a much larger oxygen tank, so I don't mind refilling it a bit more often than I might if I bled it dry each time. I usually take them both in and exchange them at once, however having had the smaller acetylene tank, I figured I had plenty of oxygen to go.

Another hour round trip in the car tomorrow morning. Bah.

I'm off to coach Kelly's baseball game in an hour. Going to pitch three buckets of balls to her in the front yard first to get her warmed up. Hopefully she'll be driving the ball well in the game tonight.

Wish her luck!

Tuesday

All day in the studio. Absolutely on fire.

Important safety tip: when one hand is holding the welding torch, and one hand is holding the steel in place, and you have the copper filler rod that you just used to braise the seam wedged between your forefinger and your thumb, it's a bad idea to use your lips to try to readjust the position of the filler rod.