just a thought about Popeye by Jeff Koons

from todays new york times ... here, let me read the caption for you ...

  this stainless steel "popeye" by jeff koons is expected to draw 

$25 million when sothebys auctions it next month.

 

hmmmm .. after a really busy week at the shop, i found this article hit me kind of the wrong way.  i have an idea for whoever is the runner up bidder at the sothebys auction.  why dont you take the $24,950,000. you didnt spend on this rather questionable piece of art and pick 20 artists whose work you really like (do you really like popeye $25 million worth?) and give em each a million bucks to make you some stuff.  give em a year or two to do it.  then, when all that stuff is all done, you can decide which of those five artists did the best job, and divvy up the other $4,950,000. among the five of them.  i bet youll be a lot happier in the long run.  maybe you wont be able to flip the stuff in 10 years for $50,000,000., but you will have quite an experience; you will have validated some serious artists, and, in the end, will have acquired a small museums worth of stuff with a good story attached to it.  hey.  take a shot.  maybe one of the 20 you pick will be the next hot ticket.  wouldnt that somehow be more interesting?

end of rant ...

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a round walnut table with an inlay

some things you just cant catch in a photo .. this table is one of them .. click.  too light ... click. too dark.  its a tough one.  it has a dark brown/black finish with an inlay and a nice medium shine ... typically, i leave the finish room florescents on when i take my record photos for my blog .. they just killed the image above.  i could not get it right.  but below, i was just doing the final check before the table left today, and with the overhead lights off, and a raking incandescent light, and wow, the inlay just pops.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

the darkness at the top of these images is more the color of the table, 

but the raking light makes the inlay glow.

im hoping the clients have a nice downlight chandelier over the table.  if they do, it will be awesome ..
well find out tomorrow when its delivered.

heres the light set up .. 

 

and here is the inlay, early in the process, before it was routed into the table top.

in this photo, the top and the inlay are heading into the veneer bag.

all done and ready for staining

and below is the original table that opened up and had two leaves.

here is a link to the blog post on the original table we made back in january of 2012

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