The Shaper Fables

Pointing to the Divine Mysteries

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Tonight it is good to be a parent,
Helping to guide a life,
The Sacred responsibility of a father.

Shared moments of trust,
Unfettered paths of communication;
Cheshire smiles and the melting embrace of a son.

Amen.

2009 Fantasy football helmet

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Feeling Groovy

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Things have settled some and I am feeling…well, groovy!

School's Out for Summer!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 23 May 2009 21:52:00 +0000

For those of you who know me and read my blog, you will know why the title of this entry as well as the song now playing in your head is special to me. I am FREE for many, many weeks! So much to do and so little time to do it in.

First off, I want to say thank you to Aaron, R's Soccer coach. He did a great job with the kids this season. ALL the kids did great and learned a great deal. It was exciting to watch the games every week. It was R's last game today for the Y season, and just let me say that he made it a good one. He was on fire today and scored 5 GOALS. If this is coming off as proud, I can't help it. I am a proud daddy, but it wasn't just because he scored 5 goals. He played so well; finishing his shots, getting around defenders, passing to his teammates and being aggressive to the ball. You should have seen the joy on his face all game. I love watching his teams play. I love to watch the kids improve and be successful. I love the way that his coaches know the value of playing kids equally and in all positions. Congratulations Green GATORS!

[a picture of R scoring goal #4]

Life changes so fast around here. It seems that just yesterday we were telling W that his B-day was 4 wks. away and all of a sudden it was here and gone. We had a great day with W. We saw, Night at the Museum II, at the movies, had cake and ice cream, wore silly hats and generally had a great time as a family.

Alana and I have been running 3 times a week. We cover between 2 and 3.2 mi. each time…maybe one of these days my expanding gut will get the message that it is supposed to be shrinking. We both ran our FIRST 5K two weekends ago, WooHoo! We both RAN the whole thing under the time we wanted and neither of us expired after the race. Our friend, Shelley, ran with us and did great also.

I look forward to getting some work done in and around the house this summer. I have a few ideas of what I would like to get done.

We look forward to celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary in FL. in June

I am working on a Gallery book for CIVA that will be revealed at the CIVA biennial convention, which I will be traveling to in June as well.

I should do some more art as well.

We are also in the middle of Coach-Pitch baseball for R. Busy, Busy!

Wird to yuh Mutha!

Alive

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:03:00 +0000

I am alive.
been experimenting with polyester resin.
want to build a fountain this summer.
Spot is house-trained.
Not shedding near as bad as he was.
He is lying in my lap as I type.
CofO men's basketball team won the NAIA Div II National Quarterfinal today. Semis on Monday. Girls won too!
This is a sucky post/

P.S. I have the cutest niece of all time!

28 random nonsenses about me

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:08:00 +0000

Got sick of being perpetually tagged in this one by people on Facebook, so I finally did it. Enjoy!

28 random nonsenses about me

1] My wife is smokin' hot!

2] I am situationally addicted to orange Tic-Tacs®.

3] I know the keyboard shortcut for the registered trademark symbol.

4] I also know the keyboard shortcut for the © and ™ symbols.

5] I have a dog named, Spot.

6] Over the last two days I have lost over 50,000 chips on FB Texas Hold'em.

7] I am currently accepting any offers for chips for FB Texas Hold'em.

8] At 3:30 a.m. this morning the transformer in our heat pump burned out.

9] At 7:30 a.m. this morning I noticed that the outside temperature was 14º F.

10] I also know the keyboard shortcut for the º symbol.

11] I collect PEZ® dispensers

12] My graduating Design Majors often buy me PEZ® dispensers for me to remember them by.

13] I write their name and graduation date on the inside and place it on the wall ledge around my office.

14] I own a KRAP-load of PEZ® dispensers.

15] I am also situationally addicted to PEZ®.

16] I quickly devour lime Tic-Tacs® as well.

17] My favorite book is Grendel by John Gardner

18] My favorite band is Smashing Pumpkins.

19] U2 is a close second.

20] I am an artist. [seriously]

21] I work in assemblage.

"Raptor" or, "The Great God, Tash"
electrical tape, wire, clay, wood, stone glass, plastic, pumpkin stem
2008

more at bitsofredemption.etsy.com

22] I am an Associate Professor of Art.

23] I work in an ideal job.

24] I get 4 months off per year.

25] I love Jesus, but don't feel like I have remind everybody of it all the time.

26] I am not holier than anyone.

27] I don't believe my own press or others' perceptions of myself.

28] I believe that all my fancy keyboard symbols will show up as gibberish in this format.

See Spot…

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:12:00 +0000

Hello,

I am Spot… at least that is what my new human pets call me. They came to me on Saturday, December 19, 2008. [I am pretty good with human dates] They seem like a nice bunch. The little ones don't bother me too much, though they are energetic and in my face more than I would like. The Alpha Male seems kind enough. He takes me outside and says stuff like, "good potty." Sometimes in the house he says, "bad potty!" I haven't quite figured out the relationship between those statements, though I am trying to please my new pet. The sole female of the pack doesn't seem to know what to make of me yet. I think she thinks I am cute, but she doesn't seem interested in me sniffing or licking her. I guess no one ever taught her good dog manners. Anyway, I thought I should show you a picture of me maxin' and relaxin' at my new digs. Please pray that my new masters love me and keep me, and that I figure out this "potty" thing.

Dog Bless,

Spot

Prodigy!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Okay, my wife has a far more civilized and reserved post about Richie's first ever piano recital. You can find it [including pictures and video] here. But, I will have to say that he was AMAZING! We are so proud of him! He was acting all nervous and shy and stuff for days beforehand, but when got up there, he nailed it and you could see that he enjoyed it so much. Dr. H is such a great teacher. We couldn't ask for a better instructor for Richie. We really appreciate his approach to pedagogy and he is so great with our boy.

Long Lost Family Portrait

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:53:00 +0000

Unearthed this one in the attic. I believe it is a 17th century Dutch painting of one of my French ancestors, Mssr. Richart D'Cumín. My wife believes it is a Rembrandt, but I think it is by one of his students, Robert van Ross. The "wet-in-wet" technique is uncharacteristic of Rembrandt, and I believe that if one closely examines behind the feather, one can see a happy little squirrel.

Two pieces from the Union Exhibition and more

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:11:00 +0000

Here are two pieces from the Union University exhibition Bits of Redemption. The artist statement from the show is included in a recent post as a re a couple more pieces from the show. The first piece in this post is titled, prehistoric camera. Thanks goes out to Jayme Burchett for that title. I thought that when she revealed her impression about the piece, it was perfect, because you can hold it in your hands just like a camera and pretend you are Fred Flintstone or one of the Geico cavemen taking some sort of prehistoric photo. The second piece is, recomposition with mower blade. This is my largest asemblage piece to date. It is the one that had a catastrophic failure as I was placing it in the box to ship. [no worries, I fixed it… TWICE… before the exhibition.] It is good and sturdy now. Alana and I returned home yesterday from a trip to Union where I gave a lecture, attended a reception and reclaimed my artwork. To top off a hectic week which began with the breaking of my arm, today I presented a paper at a Christian Aesthetics colloquium titled, Christian Aesthetics: Why Good Christian Art is Good no Matter what it Looks Like. It sure would have been convenient to break my arm this Sunday [tomorrow] instead of last Sunday.

prehistoric camera

recomposition with mower blade

Cheers!

The Joys of Pick-Up Soccer

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Disclaimer: I am typing with one hand. Please forgive any typos or misspelled words.

So… I am trying to lose weight and exercise as all 34-year-olds should, so I have started playing soccer with a motley band of college students on Sunday evenings. Last week, I was tearing it up and schooling these younguns. [I scored four goals] This week, I was out there for about 5 minutes, going hard for a ball, when [I think] that I was tripped up from behind. That caused me to lose my balance while running nearly full tilt.

[I feel here that I should mention that we were playing on asphalt tennis courts and not on turf]

Somewhere during those last fateful moments [on the way down] I realized that no good was going to come of this. I tried mightily to careen into the fence to soften my fall, but alas, gravity had other plans for me. I simultaneously crashed my left arm and head into the conjunction of fence and court.

My head hit the fence post, splitting it open on the left side, and my left arm took most of the brunt of the fall and ended up pinned between the asphalt court and the fence. I was concerned about my head, because I knew that I had hit it pretty hard, but it never really hurt. It didn't take long to know that it was bleeding profusely. My first concern after figuring my head injury was superficial was to extract my arm from its weird location. I knew that I had hurt it, but I checked its range of motion and it seemed fine. The more time that passed, however, the worse it began to feel, especially if I moved it. The college paramedics arrived and checked me out and drove me to the ER. At that time I still thought that the head laceration was the most serious thing wrong. I knew I was going to need stitches. [Actually, they are staples, so I look like the Frankenstein monster]

Anyway, after x-rays, which was the most excruciatingly painful part of all, it was revealed that I had a radial head fracture. According to the AAOS [American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons], Radial head fractures are common injuries, occurring in about 20 percent of all acute elbow injuries.

Here is a picture:

So, yay for me.

Piece Christ

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 05:06:00 +0000

Howdy Folks,

I thought I would share a recent work with you, Piece Christ. This is the first piece I have done utilizing one of the crucifixes given to me by Sandra Bowden. It is currently on display at Union University as part of my exhibition there, Bits of Redemption. The exhibition contains 17 pieces of my found object assemblage work. I will be heading back there to give a lecture and reception and to bring back the work later this month. Some of you have probably heard that a few pieces [ok, 17 out of the 18 that I sent] were damaged in shipping. I joked that we could just call the exhibition, Bits, but I decided to take the 360 mile trip to Jackson, TN to repair the pieces. I am so glad I went as all the pieces save one were perfectly repairable. Anyway, It was a good trip, and all went well with the repairs. I also met several wonderful people and talk about the work on an informal basis with students and faculty.

Below the work, I have included the artist's statement that accompanies the exhibition. All comments are welcome.

Not everything is fragile, but everything is broken. Time, age, use, obsolescence… All things become lost, trashed or forgotten. The works in Bits of Redemption are composed of the discarded and forgotten pieces of our culture and the fractured, decayed elements of nature. Sticks, stones and bones unite with oxidized metals, bits of worn plastic and broken pottery. The process is redemptive. Pieces long forgotten and thought worthless are given value in their potential to unite with other redeemed bits to form a new aesthetic. Beauty is shaped from the raw substances and the forgotten evidences of our existence. This process of redemption becomes a physical metaphor for a spiritual truth. Christ takes our ugliness and brokenness and sees the beauty and potential in us. He redeems us back into a wholeness and unity with God. I am made keenly aware of this as I work, and a s a result every piece, for me, becomes a meditation on Divine essence.

And, They're Off!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:26:00 +0000

Well, today I just shipped my artwork [18 pieces] to Union University in Jackson, TN for an exhibition at their gallery. The exhibition is called, Bits of Redemption. I am very excited about it, but the last month has been stressful as I have been preparing for it. It includes brand-new work, as well as a few of my favorites. I had a "catastrophic failure" with one of my pieces, so I had to postpone shipping the work until I could get it reassembled. That was even more stressful when it disintegrated as I was lifting it to place it into the box. As my colleague said today, better to come apart here where I could fix it than at the gallery where they would fret, because it was broken. Don't worry. I got it put back together just fine and stronger than ever. I love epoxy and sheet metal!

Here is one of the new pieces I made for the exhibition. I will post more as I get them prepared.

Enjoy!

Movie Night

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:49:00 +0000

My wife has lots of friends [and a significant following at her blog]. Consequently, she is periodically out with her girlfriends. On these evenings, like tonight, sometimes my sons and I will have what we call "boys movie night…"

… Monster's Inc. is NOT a good movie to watch with your children right before bedtime.

revised fantasy football helmet

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 02:40:00 +0000

recomposition, wedge with stick

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:42:00 +0000

Here is a new piece on ETSY:

An aggressive piece that communicates an aura of strength, yet, looking closely, one can see the frailty of its component parts. Strength is a fáçáde, for all things strong have weaknesses.

This re|construction measures 14" x 8" and is mounted on a saggar-fired base with two hangers.

You can see the listing here.

It's my birthday, Woo-Hoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:31:00 +0000

nuff said.

ETSY site

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:17:00 +0000

Hello all [both] of my loyal readers. I just wanted you all [both] to know that I now am selling my artwork on ETSY. You can go to my shop here.

Thanks for noticing.

Fantasy Football Helmet

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:13:00 +0000

I've been "Memed"

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:19:00 +0000

I am so [not] excited. I have been tagged for my very first meme. [It only took a year]

My Dr. friend tagged me for this. There can be only one-word answers.

You are welcome for the insight this meme gives you into my psyche.

1. Where is your cell phone?tray

2. Your significant other?sexy

3. Your hair? spiky

4. Your mother? energy

5. Your father? generous

6. Your favorite thing? time

7. Your dream last night? strange

8. Your favorite drink? situational

9. Your dream/goal? achieved

10. The room you are in? living

11. Your hobby? living

12. Your fear? buzzing

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? earth

14. Where were you last night? bedroom

15. What you are not? female

16. Muffins? blueberry

17. The last thing you did? count

18. What are you wearing? epidermis

19. Something you are not wearing? spatula

20. Your mood? contemplative

21. Your summer? productive

22. Person you tag? Olga

There… now you know.

…can't wait to see what Olga puts.

Thoughts on a Helpmeet

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:21:00 +0000

[originally posted as a comment to this post]

Alana,

You are sexier, cooler, more confident, and amazing than you were in college.

[And you are even a better writer]

I chuckled at the skinny [but extremely attractive] soccer player I once was in college. [What an amazing surfer hair cut I had back then. I sorta want it back.] I too look back and think what would have been useful to know then, but I wouldn't change my journey with you for anything. We have grown together. We have expanded and multiplied our love and brought others into it. We have built a home and a life. We have hugged, cursed, traveled, fretted, rejoiced and clung. We have persevered. We have progressed and we have grown…

together.

I fell in love with the girl you were then.

I fall in love daily with the amazing woman you are now.

…did I mention sexier?

Parental Units

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Parents are here! Have had a couple of great days. My wife is so awesome and capable at making them feel at home and I look forward to their entire stay. Dad and I are starting on a downstairs bath tomorrow. I am sure we won't destroy… much.

The Monarch of Rock and Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:05:00 +0000

As many of you know, I have been working on a butterfly for "Butterflies at Branson," a fund raiser for CAM [Christian Action Ministries] a faith based food pantry for families in need. They are trying to get a permanent facility so that they can provide assistance to even more than the over 4000 families they currently help per year. 65 fiberglass butterflies were brought to CAM and they were decorated by artists from around the region and the country. I did mine on Elvis, being an entertainment town. During the kickoff event, mine was unveiled by an Elvis impersonator at one of the local theaters. It was a total blast. Thank you to all of you who have sent me clippings from the paper. All the butterflies will be auctioned in October. You can go to the CAM website to find out more info.

Here are some pictures of me working on the butterfly, the unveiling and my working "sketch." And, Oh Yeah, if you didn't get it, the name of the butterfly is, The Monarch of Rock and Roll.

Peace Out!

O.K. One More

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:00:00 +0000

Art Carousel Keeps on a'Spinnin'

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Just in case you had not got enough.