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Friday, October 12, 2012

The Other Side of L.W.ROTH

MY DESIGN STUDIO REVISITED

This study of color values in two dimensional shape was done for fun. It hangs next to
my desk in my design studio, which is a lot cleaner than the painting studio.
This construction study for a pedestal table hangs above the color value painting.
I was curious as to haw far you could push turning laminates. This design pushed them farther
than they could go. Metal would have to be used. I had acrylic dowels in mind for holding the arches together.
this never got off the drawing table.
This split cube made  with Corian in mind, a new material on the market at the time, never got off the drawing
table either. Corian has a strokable surface--sort of satin like. I liked the tactile play  had going on here and thought
it would make a great magazine rack/table next to a reading chair. The pieces were interlocking.
These stacked sandblasted windows did get off the table, made and installed in place.  Daylight was
needed in the kitchen, yet privacy for the neighbor's house was just forty feet away on other side of this outside wall.
Obscure glass with a clear line design based upon the decorative tile the homeowner chose was the answer.
The look was fantastic. Brightened the galley kitchen right up. Those ceramic tile were relief tiles.
I got up on a Sunday morning thinking of this shape and curious as to how it could be made. I wanted something sculptural like this to go between two chairs at a client's house.  I wanted to make it out of metal. I went into my kitchen and stripped a few paper toweling rolls down to the cardboard tube. Then using my electric knife, I spent some time cutting them up till I got the just the angle that would accommodate the armature that I had in mind to make it stand steady and support The American College Dictionary unabridged without falling over. This is the prototype in my office made out of laminate. It's light weight looking, but a bear to move.  Solid design.
This is where it happens--drafting,  reference books, product selection, pen cleaning. The photograph hanging over the drafting board is of our first job with a cathedral ceiling detail. That turned out to be baby's play as designs became more complicate.  I used to have the full set of markers there,  but with this room closed over the last months, I moved them down to the studio--though they are not as flexible as water soluble markers from the super market.  I stand when I draft, as I stand when I paint. You've just got to be on your feet when it come to making art.
This is the one place in the room that needs attention. This computer is 12 plus years old--or whenever XP came out? It is slow. I had it turned off till yesterday when I cranked it up to get some documents I never transfered. I love my seventeen inch, flatscreen monitor  on the countertop above--and my pull out keyboard for more relaxed neck muscles, I hate slow and all the spaghetti in the knee hole in an otherwise wireless household. It's time to upgrade IF I'm going to spend some more time here.  Don't you think Michael?
As design business picks up and threatens my painting plans, I took a look around my design facilities this morning. During the three years I was mostly off, I hadn't paid very much attention to the place. I looked it over with my morning coffee on my way down to the paint studio. It needs some reorganization.

By now you know I love design as much as I love painting. One discipline is so meticulous, the other is so open and free of restrictions. Perfect balance for me  in the arts, (not to oerlook my piano). And I'm going to have to make sure of that. My projects were very well received this last week. I have an appointment for next week. And Honey has quite a few more. Honey is a driving force in this room. I'm laid back; he's not. I hid the chains he  uses to secure me to that drafting table-- just kidding, I'm the one who got him into this business. Wasn't that a brilliant idea! That's why he's the other piece of art in the room. Hung across from my desk, I am able to curse my partner, the-gotta-have-it-yesterday-guy, when things aren't measuring out smoothly.  I should have painted him on cork board instead and bought some darts. But on many more design occasions,  I smile at him on vacation, for I am the one who took his photograph. From design work, vacations come as do painting supplies.

My business partner , my travel buddy, on Vacation 

23 comments:

  1. So nice to be the first to post a comment today Linda!
    I very much love "The Other Side Of "L.W.Roth!"
    Also very much enjoy the portrait of your business partner and travel buddy!
    Fabulous colors. Very nice!
    Michael

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    1. Nice to have you Michael. Ellis hate the portrait. I love it. Vacation after vacation I take similar photos where he is standing patiently waiting for me to take the picture so he can go to breakfast. I can be such a bother.

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  2. Hello Linda! I really love your multiple sides!
    ALL!!!

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    1. Thanks Rita. They have caused me some problems though. I'e never really wanted to choose one or the other. I was sad and annoyed when the economy put me out of work. I do hope this little rise we're seeing isn't a fluke. Ellis doesn't know how to paint, nor does he want to. I like seeing him busy. If I have to take some time away from painting to design some space he can build, I'm all for it--even though I will complain at the interruption.

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  3. Love to see your studio, the designs and where you work! I love cantilevered pedestals and have made some impossible ones by weighting the bases.

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    1. It was nice standing in the studio this morning recalling different projects that were challenging and totally absorbing. Weighting the base on that table was a trick. I had to convince the fabricator could be done. That's why I made it first out of cardboard. I used to do that quite a bit with custom shapes.

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  4. I like the other side of you! I do believe that table would be the talk of the conversation of all my guests! Everyone would need to have one too!

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    1. It was a fun table to make and test. I kept putting heavier and heavier objects on that end to see just how much it could take before falling forward. It did well with the dictionary--then I added a pea and down it went. LOL. Made from metal the width can be narrower. Laminate can only be rolled so much.

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  5. Thanks for sharing that side of you, some great stuff. You say that your design side take more time now, what in the works?

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    1. No, no. not all my time. It can't. I enjoy the painting challenges I create for myself too much. Structural design deals with three dimensions; painting deals with two. I like both. After the space has been designed, the plans have been approved and the products have been selected and ordered, Ellis takes center stage and builds it. I'm around during the building stage, but not in the spotlight. The spotlight moves from me to him.

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  6. very "neat" colour value study linda

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    1. I had a good time with that if I remember correctly. I was interested in carving deep space from shallow space via values.

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  7. HEEEIIGGHH! Your playing my Tune! Just love it, Linda. I know this side of you but your genius is just as fresh every time I see it!! I can't stop grinning.

    If I was you, I'd go with the flow ... Artist and designer ... a toss of the coin ... what ever way it landed I be that for the day ... if I were you...but I'm not.

    It's pointless talking about the pictures here ... each needs a post of its own (for example, coffee tables with moments of inertia could keep us busy talking for hours)

    Love it all to pieces! Thanks for sharing! :0 ))))

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    1. My pleasure. I told you we had a lot in common with regards to artistic orientation. I have no other choice, but to go with the flow. What I thought was interesting about the artwork I had hanging in my office was how that side of my mind just came alive when we were just starting out in the business. This is a person who flunked high school geometry, yet took to it intuitively when it was needed in her life. Amazing. Glad you enjoyed my other side, which may be THE side, with painting being a sideline? I do feel more secure with a T square, scale and a ruler than I do with a brush. I can't lie.

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  8. This Michael loves the insight into your life and work as well as the fun stuff that epitomises your art but on the computer front you really need a Mac. It's amazing how long they survive the technological acceleration that seems to be part of our lives.

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    1. I do have to make a computer move Mick. My sons are and have been the know-it-alls in that department. I just want less mess under my feet when I swivel around to hunt down this or that product on the computer. When I've built in other people's computers; I hid the mess behind a removable panel. It worked well. With wireless, those times have passed.

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    1. Thanks Robert. What I like is the sudden rise in interest in home renovations after months of bleak. I'm hoping it's a sign of better times around the world.

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  10. Beautiful designs, Linda, I love that table! And your computer desk looks just like mine! ;)

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    1. In this age of wireless, shouldn't knee spaces be wireless? I think so. Thanks Judy. Space and furniture Design is intriguing.

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  11. Hi Linda. Excellent. I love it and fully agree.The technique, observation,and de previous study I think is essential.You are a creative.
    Hugs ¡

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    1. Thanks Blanco. To get where you're going, you have to observe, study, try, fail, try again. It's rare light bulbs go off in your head and bazinga! Everything falls into place.

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  12. Ah, multiple personalities - that explains it! ;) You are creative on both sides. I learned late in life about industrial design and probably would have chosen it as a career had I known about it sooner. Cool designs and ideas here. Both sides good.

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