and now for something completely different

 

 every now and so often, i get the urge to break out of the natural wood/stained wood palette and stretch a little.  i have done it several times, like in the picture of the desk below that i made back in the late 80s ... lately too, ive been doing some pottery with bright colors and patterns, and when i had to make a piece for a guild of vermont furnituremakers show at the vermont statehouse, i thought,
why not ??  click the photos to enlarge them ...

 i started with some sketches, and a 30"slab of white oak that has 

been hanging around for a while now.  i have a 6 chunk left that would
make a nice small dining table

first sketch with a natural top and red edges

 

sam and i had recently been to the clark art museum to see david smiths circles, so there was that ...

and once i had the sketch/drawing, and the slab

 

the base just sort of designed itself

 being still a little unsure, i painted the bottom of the top first, as a test of the concept

i  made a pattern on the cnc, which i used as a guide while i hand painted the circle motif.  i raised it off the suurface with some carpet glides so i didnt have to worry about bleed and got a round, yet handpainted looking circle.  the dark surround was a full strength coat of dark brown/black aniline dye that i painted, brushed out, and left to dry.  it was important to me to get some strong color, yet still see the grain of the wood through it when i was done.

 

all in, all done, and in montpelier now .. the show opens saturday, and i will have more on that soon.

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fun with edvard

 well, kit had a visit from edvard last night while she was making a salad.  love the teeth ...

 click the photos to enlarge them

 

ill be looking for one like this again now every time i cut a pepper.

a little more history on the original paintings below, from wikipedia

"The original German title given to the work by Munch is Der Schrei der Natur ("The Scream of Nature"). The Norwegian word skrik usually is translated as scream, but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting also has been called The Cry.
In his diary in an entry headed, Nice 22 January 1892, Munch described his inspiration for the image:

One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.^[8]

This memory was later rendered by Munch as a poem, which he hand-painted onto the frame of the 1895 pastel version of the work:

I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.^{[9]  "}

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