Category Archives: The alchemy of demolition

The Principle x

I thought it might be interesting to have the texts and some images from the exhibit posted here for people who couldn’t make it to the show.   The Alchemical Theatre (20″ x 16″) Pieces of a demolished theatre, poplar, … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition ix

I loaded the boxes into the car and drove toward the freeway, buoyed by the lovely smell of freshly cut poplar. I don’t think I have ever bent as many finishing nails as I did nailing these things together. The … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition viii

I spent the day in my hot garage shop putting the boxes together using that nice poplar I picked up the other day. I finished this afternoon, so that installation is looking good to go. Thank God for power tools! … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition vii

I spent a couple of hours cutting the poplar to size and building three of the ten boxes I need for the installation. I am NOT a good carpenter, so it takes me a long time to get these things … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition vi

I picked up the wood for the boxes at Home Depot – spent several hundred dollars – choosing some nice poplar for the task, with some 1/2″ quarter round molding to keep the pieces in place in the boxes. I … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition v

The gold is almost all down, following my magnificent assistant’s valiant efforts this afternoon. We’ll need to do some touch up work Monday, because the three dimensional nature of the pieces of the building make gilding them very difficult, so … Continue reading

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The Alchemy of Demolition iv

I fixed the cutout sections, using plenty of epoxy resin to make sure they won’t fall apart again, then sprayed them with a coat of that red primer, which will both seal the surface and give the gold paint something … Continue reading

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Alchemy of Demolition iii

I did a test run on one of the pieces of the building, applying some of the gilding methods I had learned from the crows piece. I wondered how the gold would work over bright gold spray paint, so compared … Continue reading

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The Principle ii

The process of getting the installation ready is beginning to heat up as the date comes closer. It’s beginning to feel as if we will never see the end of the gilding. Cameron and I continued to lay gold down … Continue reading

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The alchemy of demolition

I was asked to produce a piece of work by the University theatre department, whose Little Theater is being demolished in a week to make room for a new cafeteria building. I decided to take pieces of the building and … Continue reading

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