Art-o-Mat

Herbert Hoover - Artist - is single-handedly trying to revive the economy (and make up for his famous namesake's inability to do the same in a previous downturn) by means of his contribution to the Art-o-Mat project.

Lisa and I recently attended an opening event for Portland's first Art-o-Mat now residing in the Alberta district. Knowing that Herbert was present in spirit, if not in person, we biked over to check out the fancy new member of the Art-o-Mat community.

Our new Art-o-Mat is a bright red hot-rod of a machine with obvious care put into every detail from the nice paint details to the very act of transporting it safely to it's new home at the Radio Room.

There were a few other people there to check out the new art dispenser and one fine patron at the bar even offered to purchase my token from the bar tender. So off I went - token in hand - to find the object in question.

Sure enough, right there in the first slot, was Herbert's pewter pretzel. After feeding the token into the magnificent machine, the little white standardized box with Herbert's custom labeling emerged (from the slot no doubt used in the past for something with a picture of a camel) into the delivery tray below.

The pewter pretzel

Knowing that Herbert's previous saltine offering find's life in poses and places throughout the world through his Cracker Tracker website, I figured that this pretzel had something special to offer. So sure enough, as I was off to my shop in "the hole" (home of the P.90 camera) I encountered a common impediment - a freight train heading east along Sullivan's Gulch. Rather than simply wait for the train to pass as is my usual habit, it occurred to me that the pretzel sitting on the seat next to me might offer a solution. So I put on the parking brake and got out to test my hunch. As you can clearly see from the video below, the pretzel came through in splendid form. Watch and listen closely and you too will find that the pretzel posses the amazing ability to increase the speed of the passing train.

[zanmantou type="video" file="\"http://mottweilerstudio.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/pretzel.power_.flv.mp4\"" title="Power Pretzel"]

Reminded that Herbert's artistic skills also include pinhole photography and pleased with the time-saving benefits of this pewter object, I put the pretzel away and made my way up to the shop to work on the latest production of P.90 cameras.

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Busy.
Not quite too busy but enough to keep me off the blog for a bit.
With the recent arrival of summer weather in Portland the schedule is top-heavy with the Bungaloft project. A freestanding Structural Insulated Panel addition followed by removal of all but the bathroom walls in our original 1928 bungalow and the connection of the two with an angular breezeway will be the realization of the Bungaloft concept (at least as we envision it). It's a small but interesting architectural project that should make it to the pages of the blog at some point.

In the meantime work on the 5 inch pan camera bluetooth controller project continues.

The 28th Avenue Woodworking Studios (as I have now unofficially christened this building I work in) has some very interesting inhabitants including Jason Andrew Designs. Jason has been working on a beautiful series of furniture pieces since he arrived. Following numerous conversations about our respective work, we embarked upon a bit of collaboration on Jason's most recent design - a twisting, black-stained, Ash coffee table. Jason asked me to make a set of aluminum feet for the tapered legs of the table. We're looking at a few other designs for aluminum feet and pulls.

I'm be looking forward to the usual barrage of summer activity including one of my favorites - the Adult Soapbox Derby.

Starting line at the Adult Soapbox Derby in Portland, Oregon

The competitive spirit thrives and the water flies.

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