Art, Music and the Sounds of Construction

It's been a while since I've posted. Building a house will do that to a guy.

We began construction of our new home in November. Today, just over three and a half months later, we are at the stage where we can almost move in. It's been a marathon with zero hours left in the day for artmaking.

However, over the holidays I was able to take some time off to design an image for the East Tennessee State University Department of Music's Spring Concert Brochure.

Here's how it turned out...

Front Cover

Inside -- Page 9

Inside back cover

The full program will soon be posted online at the ETSU website: http://www.etsu.edu/cas/music/

That's all for now. Short, but sweet.

~Geoff

Big Balls

For a long time I've had the idea to do something sculptural with one of the giant steel buoys that I've seen around from time to time, washed up on the beach. I put the word out to some friends, and it wasn't long before Mike Leblanc (welder, fabricator, all around great guy) had located two of them for use.

I entered a plan for one of them in the National Sculpture Competition at Kingsbrae Gardens, and was picked as an entry. All of a sudden, I had to get this thing done! So, despite the crappy May weather, under tent and tarp, it began to take shape.

These old buoys have a cool history. They were origionally created in WWII to moor convoy ships to, before they carried supplies to Britain. They also held up the submarine nets that protected our harbours. More recently, they were used by the aquaculture industry to anchor cage sites.

I wanted to pay homage to the past, while giving a buoy a new life. So I painted the buoy to look as though it had a big tear in it, and painted my 2 year old daughter inside looking out, holding flowers.

Everyone seems to like it!

The Kingsbrae staff helped wrestle it up to the garden to put in its place for the competition. They placed it in the pond at the bottom of the garden, a spot that I think suits the sculpture well.



 I look forward to the response from the public.

~Geoff

Trip To Assen

Yesterday we all took a trip by rail to the Nothern town of Assen.

Assen is the hometown of Andrea's father Hank, who passed away last year. We had always meant to get there with Hank so he could show us around, and going there without him had us all very emotional... we really miss the big-guy.

Assen, in the Province of Drenthe, wasn't the reserved town I thought it would be. It is the home to the greatest motorcycle race track in the world, and has a modern, fast-paced energy to it. The downtown was incredibly vibrant, with a great mix of old and modern shops and businesses, and a huge Saturday Market.

Jan walked us to the home that Hank grew up in, about a 15 minute stroll from the city centre. The tall, tidy home looks almost the same as when Hank was a boy, and the surroundings have only changed a little. The same family has lived in it since 1969, and when the gentleman of the home saw us taking pictures outside, he invited us in! He gave us a tour of the entire home; a real treat for Andrea who had never been in before. It was a special treat to see the yard Hank played in as a little boy, and the neighbourhood he rode around on his bike in.

We couldn't stay too long, so after a quick walk around town we headed back to catch the train.
Jannique continues to travel like an adult, and her personality wins everyone over that she meets. She attempts to engage everyone near her in conversation, and we find ourselves having to talk with all kinds of people, if we want to or not!

After a day with two bus rides, and six hours on four different trains, we were glad to get back to Lelystad for some rest.

Jannique slept with her Nanna, her own little tired request... Sweet girl!

Flevoland and Beyond

I took a break from the great single-track of Lelystad, and took a ride in the Dutch countryside today. My destination was Doorn, a beautiful old Dutch city that dates back to Roman times, but as luck would have it, I didn't quite make it.

After a couple of false-starts getting out of Lelystad, I headed out towards Swifterbant. From there, it was down to Dronten, and then Biddinghuizen. Riding in this part of Holland is amazing because everything is new. This is the most recently reclaimed area of Holland, having been drained fully by about 1969. Every ditch, berm, road, tree, building; everything... has been put here by man in the last 40 years. And yet it looks mature, like it has been here for hundreds of years. No detail seemed to escape the Dutch in engineering this area, and no expense was spared. Even the headlands of the farmers fields are paved.

I was really impressed with the wind farms that are spread out as far as the eye could see. I was led to believe that they would be an eyesore; quite the opposite. These beautiful, giant slowly spinning structures look wonderful, and add a sense of grace to the landscape. I was very taken with them, and amazed at thier size. I'm sure they must be 200 ft tall!

From Biddinghuizen, I made for Harderbos, the crossing point out of the province of Flevoland to an older part of the country called Gelderland. In Harderbos, I got turned around a bit on the bike route, and went the long way around town, crossing the bridge into Harderwijk after an added 10 km journey. This became the story of the day for me. Riding in the countryside is easy on a bike here, but getting through the towns in a direct way is difficult. There are so many options for bike-specific routes, urban areas are confusing, and add extra time and distance.

Heading from Harderwijk to Putten, I asked a farmer for a direct route through the town. Instead he wrote down a bypass that was a quicker option. Following this, I made a full circle of about 15km around the town, right back to where I started. Bummer!

I was at about 80 km for distance at this point, so I decided to cancel destination Doorn, and headed back towards Lelystad. I finished the ride in the early afternoon, having gone 120km...

Nice!