Wood I Lie To You?

As some of you may have realized by now, I tend to get excited about some pretty random…stuff. Most of us eighties kids know the Simply Red cover of the Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’ song, “If You Don’t Know Me by Now”. Wait, Harold Melvin who?

Anyway, if you know one key thing about it me it should be this: I love wood. I love the way it smells when freshly cut, the patterns found in the grain and the process of carving and shaping it. I loved watching my dad in his woodshop making beautiful things like this train:

Hardware Love

Yesterday afternoon I took a trip with my friend Koren to my new favorite spot in Portland, Oregon: The Rebuilding Center. This place really made me wish I had gone to school for architecture or knew a carpenter or had a lot of money to purchase a run down house to restore. There were a lot of emotions going through my head while I browsed the disassembled wall cabinets, sinks and lighting fixtures.

I started off simple and purchased this 11 x 40 inch panel for $3. One look at it and I imagined how it must have been intended to help beautify someone’s gourmet kitchen but was discarded, unstained and left to collect dirt.

Here’s my fancy before and after image. This is the only kind of makeover you'll find on this blog! Check back in a few weeks after I’ve spruced it up. I think I might put that red marbled paper from last week to good use.

Ancient Wood

One of my fondest memories as a kid was going to the Redwood State Park in California and seeing that massive tree stump with endless rings. You know the one from Hitchcock’s Vertigo?

The notion that I could count its years on this earth within those continuous circles was amazing to me. Now I can’t claim to be a tree hugger (although I’m sure I’ve hugged plenty as I ascended them during my youth) but the idea of using refurbished wood for my paintings from now on puts my conscience more at ease.

Backdrop Beauty

Here is a detail of a nearly one hundred year old piece of barn wood given to me by a rather odd ex-boss.

Despite his eccentricities we managed to bond over construction and hardware. The bond was enough to remind him to snag a board for me when he was gathering pieces from an old structure out in the Oregon boonies.

I love it so much that I haven’t the heart to cut it up and make it into a frame which was my original intent. For now I use it as a cool backdrop when photographing my miniatures and other smallish things.

Frames

Some of my favorite collectables are wooden picture frames from the early 1900s to about 1930, especially the ones from the Arts and Crafts Movement. I’ve included details of my three favorites.

Fixtures

While at the Rebuilding Center I was hoping to find some old wooden light fixture covers like ones already in my collection:





These amazing retro light switch covers were given to me by my grandma. I remember them being on the wall in two of her houses, both the first and the third house she lived in. It’s too bad I have no double or triple light switches in my measly studio.

Lights off.