Flats

The most basic component in the construction of scenery in film and theater is called a "flat". They are light and modular pieces. The building blocks that, put together, create everything from seedy motel hallways to the walls of gothic cathedrals. I built my first flat when I was about sixteen and over the decades I have built many thousands (Tens of thousands) more. I've built theater flats, movie flats, television flats, steel framed flats for a repertory opera company in the mountains of New Mexico, flats for music videos, flats for museum exhibitions and flats for trade shows. All these required different construction materials and techniques but they all required the same repetitive mindset. I would lower my head at my bench, look at my list of sizes, attempt to remove all thoughts that were telling me I could be doing something more interesting, and then I would build flats.

I haven't built a flat for a few years now and that feels really good. Whenever I get stressed or I'm presented with a difficult problem I say to myself, "You could be building flats," and then I feel instant gratitude.

Invisible Labor

This oak stair tread is simple and unpretentious. It is unassuming in its clean slab form and its function is merely to support weight and provide stability. It gives no indication of the labor required for its formation. The time spent at the lumberyard going through the racks to find suitable pieces. The drops of blood lost when my hand was caught between the rough sawn boards. The transportation time of the material back to my shop. The hours on the planer and jointer getting everything to same thickness and the edges square. Each tread is two pieces of oak joined together requiring thought to coloring and grain (so they don’t warp over time). Then there is the gluing, sizing, sanding, and the cutting of tenons. My job is really to make all that work invisible. To create something that appears as if it has always existed.

Neighborhood Commerce

My friend with a dull chisel owns a coffee shop (Gene Coffee).

I love his coffee and I have the means to sharpen a chisel.

This makes commerce simple. I sharpen his chisel and he gives me coffee. The barter system and removing money from the equation creates a human transaction. It’s an agreement of value from a place of sentiment. An acknowledgement of another’s skills and the worth. It might not pay the rent on the shop but I try to use some form of trade whenever I can. I like shrinking global economics to a manageable neighborhood size.

Utilitarian Vs. Aesthetic

My friends at Barbarella Hair Salon approached me recently about building some new storage for their back room. They wanted something inexpensive but aesthetically attractive. The result was a utilitarian piece with clean sliding panel doors and a simple black arborite counter for mixing colors. I had some pieces of vertical grain fir plywood I’d been holding onto that I used for the panels. I stained these a dark walnut and used lighter clear-coated maple edging to create a contrast I thought was interesting.

I like the challenge of a budget. It forces me to come up with creative design solutions and also helps clean out some of the clutter in the material racks.

The photos below are the cabinets loosely assembled in the shop. I'll post photos of them post installation on the Funhouse Facebook Page later

The Creative Community

There have been concerns about the longevity of our shop space. The lower part of the Mount Pleasant industrial area is in the midst of swift and radical change. Old warehouse blocks are being razed and towering structures of steel and glass are being constructed in a tight circle outside our unassuming bay doors. The building that houses the shop is also home to a recording studio, an upholsterer, several artist studios, and a gallery. It’s a community of artists and small businesses that works under the same roof as part of Mount Pleasant’s fast diminishing creative force. High rents and condo developments are making this central area widely unavailable to artisans.

I’m not opposed to gentrification. It’s unavoidable and unstoppable. I am also very aware of just how fortunate I am to have shop space in the center of this city. I’m thankful for every day I get to work in that space. The good news is that it looks like we get to renew our lease for another three years! I’ll try not squander that time and continue to use and contribute to the creative community it is a part of.

Waldorf Diaries--Resting

The lobby is quiet.

The last major event of 2011 with its figure skaters, its orchestra, and its indoor forest was completed successfully. The hallways that were crowded with mask wearing revelers less than twelve hours ago are now empty and silent. The innumerable Christmas parties that preceded it are fast becoming distant memories from last year. At this precise moment I think I’m the only person in this entire hotel or at least the only one who is conscious.

Even the building seems to be sleeping. Its foundation and its floors have been given a respite from amphetamine driven bass beats—a break from the weight of thousands of feet—from spilled champagne—from bodies crushed together in an annual frenzy to commemorate the passing of twelve more months and celebrate the changing of a single digit. It deserves a little down time…