Golden Leopard

Golden Leopard is a segmented mobile. Each of the rings (except for the smallest one) is made from 32 leopardwood segments - 161 segments in all. The outer ring measures 19-5/8" and the center ring 1-1/4". The photo below shows a test glue-up.



How did I come up with the name?

"A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair, which from the second month on becomes productive."

This problem appeared in the third section of Liber abaci and led to the discovery for which Fibonacci is best remembered - the Fibonacci Sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. The Fibonacci Sequence bears a close relationship to the Golden Mean (or Divine Proportion) - the relation, in perfect proportion, of the whole to its parts. [for more detail, see Divine Proportion by Priya Hemenway]

Larry

AAW Symposium in Albuquerque NM - June 2009

Titled Moonlight at Delicate Arch, this stabile was part of the Instant Gallery. The upper portions rotate freely above the base and the moon hanging below the arch also moves. Named for the magnificent Delicate Arch rock bridge in Utah, this piece (wenge and birdseye maple) was sold to a Memphis attorney prior to the symposium.

Erosion was created specifically for the AAW Education Opportunity Grant (EOG) auction. The cherry hollow form with my performation technique and pyrographied interior sold for $250.00, 100% of which was donated to the EOG fund.

"Nature chose for a tool, not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder; not the stormy torrent or eroding rain; but the tender snow-flowers, noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries." (John Muir)

Journey was juried into the AAW special international Spirit of the Southwest exhibit. After being displayed during the symposium, it will now travel to AAW headquarters in Minnesota where the exhibit will be on display from September through December. The exhibit will then return to Albuquerque in the spring of 2010 for another showing.

Believed to have originated in South America, the wedding vase tradition has been part of Pueblo life for centuries. The graceful spouts represent two separate lives and the bridge at the top unites these separate lives together as one. The groom’s parents provide the wedding vase two weeks before marriage during festivities when gifts and advice are also given to the bride and groom. On their wedding day, after the wedding vase is filled with holy water, the bride drinks from one side and the groom from the opposite side. The vase is then protected and cherished throughout their married life. I chose to embellish this wedding vase with spirals to represent the broadening of consciousness, the destination of a long journey. Spirals are also found in Southwestern legends like that of Ho-Bo-Bo, the spirit of the whirlwind. The black-on-black coloring honors the work of Maria Martinez, the potter of San Ildefonso.

To purchase Journey, please contact Tib Shaw, Gallery Coordinator, at AAW or call (651) 484-9094. (Price: $2,400; all pieces must remain with the exhibit until all showings have concluded)

To see my album of photos from this weekend event, please click here.

Journey

The letter was in the mailbox today ~ Journey has been accepted into the juried Spirit of the Southwest exhibit that debuts at the 2009 AAW Symposium in Albuquerque!

YES!!

Racing in the Rain

Here's how I spent the morning of my birthday this year ~ participating in the canoe and kayak race on the Mississippi River . . . in the rain!

That's us in the center - dressed in blue.

Photos taken by Roger Cotton.

SO True

From the current issue of our MSWG newsletter
(submitted by fellow club member Emmett M.)



Lord grant me the serenity to accept the tools I already have,

the courage to resist the temptation of new tools I don't really need,

and the wisdom to ignore this nonsense when I find something really cool.

Amen !