Research for an upcoming collaborative exhibition I am in with my friend and fellow designer/ maker Matt Hutton in Nov. We are working on a series of work called "Beyond Vernacular". The work is inspired by Midwest icons of daily ritual and bucolic lifestyle and the re contextualizing of these influences into design and art objects.

Historic Round Barn

This is a historic image of a round barn in Tipton County Indiana that was the sight of a nearly  epic high school fight that gathered the interest of at least half of the Junior class and nearly all of the Senior Class from Tipton High School '95. Just saying. Nearly epic, because it didn't happen. Pre-Columbine violence. Great old barn on dump road. It is not survived by any living relatives.

Barnwood Tables

Barns have a warm place in our psyche. It is not without acknowledging this that I have been designing these tables in hopes of producing a small series of furniture forms that build on the warmth and history of these materials as the primary driver. Clean contemporary forms are the second concern of these pieces, but equally important. The wood is salvaged, has defects bug and nail holes, and is perfect for that reason.

Cowboy Stuff

That is a competitive gaming horseshoe hanging upside down over that door, not a lucky horseshoe in the traditional sense. Who am I to judge???

BLOG..........

I'm using some down time this summer to finally start a blog. Good for me right- Who cares you say? Well I too have always thought of blogs as annoying places where many share to much information about stuff no one cares about. As more of my friends create these spaces they now seem more like a place to retreat into the personal things that make your friends your friends than a place to broadcast : Why you didn't eat dinner today? or How you are super pissed at a guy that cut you off in traffic? or How many more hours are left before you get to leave the office or How many whatevers you need in Farmville.


I plan on using this as a space to collect random thoughts and ideas that I have about design, inspirations that I find interesting in defining my own design aesthetic, the identity that goes along with being an object maker, observations on life, fictional and non-fictional accounts of my own life, and updates on the opressive heat and humidity of the Midwest. Just kidding on that last one, but it is brutal hot here this week and being driven to work inside most of the week has got me motivated to get this thing up and running. 


As for the title Dumbest Smart Guy You Know, it just always feels right when I sit down to write about myself or my experiences getting to this point.  A friend once told me that I was the dumbest smart guy he knows and it stuck in my mind as a real truth. This blog will likely only confirm this observation.


CDR

I'm alive and this is my life - Baby Cakes

Dear Diary