Fulton Xrossing

"Fulton Xrossing"●
I recently moved my studio to a new place.  And it IS wonderful.

This building formally operated as a poultry processing plant for about 50 or 60 years. Before that, there was a small winery on the property, surrounded by vineyards and orchards. Today it is a thriving artist's colony . . .  (wine, chicken and art, not a bad history . . . all in all )

After the slaughterhouse moved out, the building sat vacant for 4 or 5 years, until it was purchased by the new owner, Rami Batarseh late last year. His vision was to convert the old facility into a place for artists. Rami and his crew have done a lot of work on this old building, converting the whole place into artist studios and a gallery.  YEY!

The new name given to our artist colony is FULTON XROSSING because it sits next to the railroad tracks, where our new SMART Train will soon pass.

The studios are clean, well lit work spaces for artists and fine crafts people of diverse disciplines who go there everyday and work their magic

We have painters, sculptors, a piano technician, a glass blower, one who makes furniture out of found objects, a videographer, a cabinet maker, a handpan enthusiast, and several other artists . . . I have yet to meet.

I moved in last month.  Can you believe my luck?  I have a wonderful studio, with lots of light, and plenty of space. I love going to work - EVERYday!  and having all these creative people around me is a huge bonus.

Here are some images of moi in my new space.

 

Anyway, back to the reason for this post . . . a few weeks ago, Rami, commissioned me to "make a sign out of found objects". . . the only other instruction I received were approximate size dimensions.

As is my usual style, I struggled, I debated, I tried different things . . .  In the end the image below shows the finished sign.  It was hung in the main gallery entrance this past week.

The sign is made out of barrel staves (thank you to my friend Michael at La Crema Winery),
Roof tacks were found at my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore,
The rusty iron "X" is from my own bag of tricks.
Note the chain that supports this very heavy sign, it is made up of a collection of key rings.

Rami loved finished sign. I, too, am very happy with it.

What do you think?