Non-Prophet

Lauren Potereiko At Heebee Jeebees Gallery

The fabulous and talented Lauren Potereiko will be having a solo show opening this Friday, April 3rd at the Heebee Jeebee's Gallery down town. Don't miss it! 

Ephemeral Flicker- recollection and momentariness. 

As an artist, I attempt to capture the ephemeral flicker of life. I am compelled by the consequences of time on memory. These impressions are carried with us and passed on, shaping the future. I express these ideas in the forms of nature and the figurative. 

A brand new canvas is filled with possibilities, but this is not what I'm seeking. Antique linen is imbued with something of the past already. The objects I choose as my “canvases” are themselves beautiful and made with care. Most were made by hand, many by someone who is no longer living. I am conscious of this context. In a pursuit to create a harmony of the whole, it is the surfaces and objects on which I paint that inform me about the subject matter I employ. Exploring these possibilities, I am able to dream the past. Each piece is an artifact; an imagined recollection. 

Life is a series of moments existing as instances - the truest form of the ephemeral flicker. Attachment and grief over loss are the most poignant of human conditions. The minutia of life falls away as we experience this transition. We are left with the stillness where life is absent. To me this manifests as a stain on or an echo of the collective human consciousness. The aesthetic of this suffering fascinates me; first, as a person who is also subject to this human condition, and second, as an artist who wants to capture the raw emotion of the moment. 

I continue to push the boundaries of what can be done with materials. I am concerned with the archival properties of my techniques. This is always taken into consideration when developing a process. 

Lauren Potereiko holds a BFA in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute.

Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Project (pt. 3)

Things are continuing along nicely! The lower section is now assembled. Next I'm going to install the upper vent doors and install all of the plastic on the top section.

Here are a few pictures of where things stand today:

In this one we're leveling the ground and assembling the base, which is constructed from 15 sections of 2x6.

Next we assembled most of the lower section. This all went together surprisingly easily.

So I'm thinking next Saturday, 3/28 will be a good time to have a Saturday afternoon get-together so that I can finish this thing. We can grill Spam-carved effigies of Buckminster Fuller and sing the traditional dome melodies of the days of old. Who's in? RSVP via email.

Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Project (pt. 2)

Hey geodesic dome greenhouse enthusiasts. This project is progressing very well. I hit a bump in the road but I managed to put it behind me. Allow me to explain:

*** Word of warning in life; do not trust the internet. Not even for things that should be simple. ***

Here is a very clear example as to why:

My trusted internet source on dome building gave me the following mis-information:

The hexagon angle cut is 60 degrees and 12 degrees. You will be cutting these angles off each side of the strut and both ends.

What my trusted dome expert failed to mention is that when he says "..60 degrees and 12 degrees. You will be cutting these angles off each side of the strut and both ends." what he actually means is "..60 degrees and 6 degrees."

CUTS OF 12 DEGREES IS WRONG. Thanks dome expert guy. Technically, something like 59 degrees and 6.7 degrees is very close to what you'd optimally want. The connection angles are 12 degrees after you cut both sides of an end of the strut, but the cut is not 12 degrees. I learned this horrible fact when looking into how to make an assembly jig. We solid modeled the pieces at work and there I found that my 660 cuts were all wrong! Ahhhhh. Calamity! I ended up fixing things by just adjusting my dome plans to be for an 8.5' radius rather than a 9' radius and re-cutting all of the pieces accordingly. Wasted time, but in the end it worked out.

So with all the wood cut and recut, my wife and I set out to stain and seal everything with poly urethane. It took a while but things are looking pretty nice. With the struts all ready to go I assembled some hexagons and we then put together the upper section of the dome. I'm going to have to invite a bunch of friends over to help put this thing together. It is going to be massive. Anyway, here are some shots of where things stand right now.

Lots of wood ripped out of 2X4's, ready to go.

Here are some cut struts that have been stained and await urethane.

This is a test hexagon I built to check on how things were fitting. Notice the little stands I make that help construction of the hexagons in roughly the correct shape.

Not perfect, but hey, life is that way sometimes. Even so, I think I have the nicest connectors on the planet. Notice that the holes are drilled for both 6 and 5 strut connections.

This is where things stand right now. We put the top of the dome together this evening. Next I am going to build up the bottom section, attach it to the base and then I think I'm probably going to have to throw a party in order to get enough folks to come over and help hold this thing up while the upper and lower sections are attached. The dome already feels wickedly strong.

More coming soon.

Start Of The Great Disruption?

Thomas Friedman has an op-ed piece posted that paints the supposition that this recession isn't a temporary thing, but more of the coming of an eventuality.

NYTimes.com:

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

We can’t do this anymore.

Geodesic Dome Greenhouse Project (pt. 1)

Not that I don't have enough to keep me busy, but I'm well into my new project and it is turning out very well so far. Here is the plan:

Build a large geodesic dome greenhouse in my back yard, and use it to grow a significant portion of the produce that we currently purchase.

You see, while I do so love my beloved Colorado Springs, this is a horrible place to grow a vegetable garden. On this leafless, barren, hell-scape of a desert, the growing season is short. The nights are cold. The decrepit plans that do manage to grow usually end up having their nasty little selves pulverized by giant hail stones. I've tried for a few years, I've had some success, but it just isn't working well enough for me. Humidity appears to have a purpose after all. With the help of the internets I came up with a design. My design is for a 3V, 5/8th dome with a 9' radius. I know, that is huge, but once I decided to go 3V I figured it is essentially the same amount of work no matter how big I make it. That, and I have a lot of mouths to feed.

My plan calls for the dome to be constructed our of cheap 2x4 stud lumber. These are to be used after being ripped into what is roughly 2x2's. Amazingly, this brings the lumber cost down to only about $70.00 for the entire dome.

The next hurdle was to find suitable strut connectors. After considering several options, and getting a bit afraid of what the cost was going to be (connectors costing more than the lumber??) the answer essentially fell in my lap. The sheet metal shop at work punched custom designed strut connectors for me, and gave the a nice painted black powder coat finish ta-boot. I lead a charmed life.

The next challenge was to figure out how to precisely make hundreds and hundreds of cuts that contain compound angles. After researching purchasing a miter saw, borrowing a friends, checking out the upscale version we have at work I decided that wasn't the way to go. I needed to cut bevels of 6 degrees on a cut at a 60 degree angle. I couldn't find a miter saw that would go much past 45 degrees, and then unless the blade swung both ways the second cut would require the piece of wood to swing around behind the fence. Not acceptable. In the end my solution was quite simple. I built a platform and a jig, and I'm making the cuts with my somewhat fancy hald-held jig saw. I've gotten good enough that I can nail the cuts and they look and measure very well.

So as of today I've managed to rip all of the lumber, cut it to size and cut bevels on the first 60 pieces. So far so good. This is fun. The dome is planned to be so large that it is a bit intimidating. I'll post some updates as things progress! Wish me luck.

What Is The Highest Frequency You Can Hear?

Try this test. Ignoring the audible pops at the start and end of the test tone, what is the highest frequency that you can hear?

I can hear 16kHz if it is good and cranked up.