My work

For a couple of months now I had been making myself believe that the reason why I like to make the same objects again and again was because I liked production work. I came to the realization that this has never been the case. I have been dealing with obsessive compulsive disorder since I was eight years old. Part of the problem for people who suffer from OCD is repetition. Repetition, depending on the type of OCD can be beneficial and negative as well. Mine has plenty of both. Though my moment of clarity, illumination, or enlightenment as some call it has come a bit late in my studies as a masters of fine arts major, I know that it is better that I truly accept my work in the direction that my OCD leads me to. Perhaps, this is the best explanation I can give to my fellow artists, readers and friends out there as of why I am always doing the same thing over and over and over. I enjoy repetition, I endure it, I live by it and I cannot live without it. I tried to mask the reason of why I did the same object in multiples, multiple times. I often came up with how in the 1950’s America was revolutionized by the birth of consumerism, mass production, the war being over, and women being stay home moms. I was really trying to associate my work with a time period/ a phase or a place in history that dealt with the issue of multiples and production and innovation. After thinking through and thorough, I realized that I could not come up with a good enough excuse that would really fit into why I do the things I do. Therefore, I give up. I give up! And, I will continue to do my work repetitively because doing so fulfills a part of my being that I simply cannot change. I’ve taken all kinds of medicines, tried all kinds of remedies and nothing seems to lessen the obsession but the repetitive motion of my actions. My work reflects the effect of these repetitive actions. I recreate objects that trigger my emotions such as household appliances, mechanical gadgets and simple pleasures. Household appliances have fascinated me since I was a little girl. While growing up in Sonora Mexico, I would see my grandmother make covers for the many household appliances like our blender, the mixer and even the toaster. I always loved the smooth texture of such objects and the coolness of the chromed metal on my face and fingers and not to mention the vast array of colors and chrome that decorated each of these items. My mom had a juicer, a “brawn” juicer. It was a big, white and it had a smooth black plastic push stick. I was amazed at how you could insert carrots, apples, cucumbers into the slot and juice would come out of the drain hole. I have also, since I can remember, been attracted to all kinds of mechanical and electrical gadgets such as radios, fans, TV’s and anything with wires attached to it. I blew up the fuse box once when I was in junior high trying to fix a radio with scotch tape instead of electrical tape. The simple pleasures in life for me are things that I consider to be fancy, a tea set, an antique brush, comb and mirror set, and any object that has been handed down from one generation to another that has sentimental value rather than monetary value.
Call me crazy, call me what you like. You decide for yourself. Thanks for reading. I will keep you posted.

Well it was about time to post some updates. First things first. The postion of shop specialist that was left vacant when Tony Perez left has been filled by Damon McIntyre. Woooot welcome Damon! Since Damon arrived, he immediately made some major changes to our machine shop area and if you have not had a chance to come by, what are you waiting for?. Besides making some needed renovations around the shop, Damon is also helping out in all of the woods classes bseginning, intermediate and advanced.

New view of the machines area











The lathes are now located on the north wall of the shop










The bench area

So far in the semester, we have been having a great time. Tom is back, and feeling better than ever and I thank everyone for their positive wishes towards Tom. Also, we would really like to get some involvement from everyone in woodworking (preferably from the ASU woods area) to follow our GOT WOOD page on face book. Thank you for following our blog and we will post more fun stuff later on.

More pictures taken earlier in the semester!

Keith "trouble maker" Dickerson
ME:So, are you done with your music box?
Keith: SHUT UP!

John Lee "Olivewood man"
GUYS: hey where did you get that

piece of olive wood?
ME: Oh I got it from John.
GUYS:where did John find it?
ME: I don't know in his backyard?

Class Clown #2

"Can I borrow some of your duct tape?".

LOL. He finally bought me a new one.

Ohhhh Thank you Andrew.

Evan can you do an air turning like you do

the air guitar??

Finally it is the end of the semester and the shop is clean as a whistle. Well is just clean. Again thanks for Mark Fromeyer for being such a great help while Tom was out injured. I cannot thank the following people for making our semester run that much smoothly. Adriene Jenik our SOA director for rushing to help us out the day Tom got injured. She offered any help necessary and was kind enought to allow us to continue with classes. Thank you Adrienee. Mark Fromeyer for stepping in to help us in such a short notice. For a while there, I was a little scared about who would take care of Tom's classes. Mark you are a great guy thank you soooo much. The world is a better place because of you. Well maybe not the whole world but, the woodshop definitely is. Brett Eichmann, we would not have made all the progress here in the shop if it was not for you. You did it young man. Helping out all the classes, helping out the students, cleanin up the mezzanine area, doing all the work you did in sucha short period of time. I am sure all of your efforts will not go unrecognized and if they don't it's because people do not deserve to have you as a colleague, students, shop monitor, assistant, mechanic, all of the stuff you did for us this semester is amazing. Thank you Brett. To Ellie for also jumping in and helping with Tom's early morning classes. Girl you are a tough cookie but thank you for helping out in the time of need. To all the ladies in the art office for letting us into Tom's office. We really appreciated everything you ladies did for us. Finally, to all of the students for hanging in there while Tom was not here and having to put up with me and the rest of the crew. Thank you guys we would have not made it without you either. Having done all my thank yous, I just want to share some images of clean up day, some pictures of the 1 to 1 studio architecture guys, some stuff from my woods I class as well. (they did an amazing job too). Stuff we have been doing here in the shop, and put some pictures of our super cool students. I hope everyone has a great summer and gets a lot of art done. I know i'll be here working on stuff for my review. I will miss all my boys from the Turning class, geez they are the greatest guys in the world. I wish good luck to the ones that are graduating and congrats to all of them on a job well done here in class. You guys do ROCK :-)

Clean up Day:

ONE TO ONE Presentation

TURNINGS

Here ase some turning that I have photographed from the Architecture students in Tom's class.

Jim Sulak

It is Jims 2nd semester in the woods classes and he is already turning and incorporating other methods of embellishment in his pieces like piercing on the edges of his bowls. Hopefully he will stay inspired to keep turning

Ben Walker

This is Bens first semester in the turning clas

s and he has made some wonderful little turnings. Ben is an architectre major and and is Andrew Walker's brother. I should mention that I did not realize they were twins until Brett told me they were brothers.

Evan Ward

Evan is in his last semester of his

Architercture degree. appar ently he has really bad ADD. But, that does not seem to affect his turnings. Well done Evan.

Taylor Townsend

Taylor is another one of the Architecture students from Tom's class. He is in his 2nd year of the program and will be traveling to Buenos Aires for the fall semester. Might I add that he is really patient with his turnings. Good luck Taylor.

Andrew Walker

Andrew walker is also an Architecture major. Is an avid grant writer and tiwn brother to Ben Walker. However, I did not realize this until the 2nd month they had been here. Good luck with the grant andrew. And yes, you will be missed too.

John Lee

John is also another architecture student in his second semester of the turning classes. John is an avid turner now and is doing some real awesome work with wood. He has been bringing some olive wood and has kindly shared his wood with all of us. He is also going to Buenos Aires with as part of the architecture program along with Taylor.

Spring 2010

Greetings!
It is almost the end of the semester and things have been a little crazy around the woodshop. Nothing the woods Peeps cannot handle. I personally, have had a wonderful semester, crammed and pretty packed with things to do but, have enjoyed it to the max. Some news from earlier on the semester, our professor Tom Eckert had injured himself here at the woodshop. (No clamped wood on the floor rule totally emphasized) Tom is recuperating and is here at school for four hours a week. Since Tom’s accident, Mark Fromeyer the shop technician from Architecture has stepped in to help us out. Mark has been great at helping all of us here at the woodshop. We could not be making it without you Mark. Thank you Mark for all of your invaluable help you have saved us this semester. For more great news, three of the students (Kelsey Viola Wiskischen, John Lee and Taylor Townsend) from Tom’s classes joined on a mission to create an interactive space for students at the X-Square in front of Neeb hall next to the art building and behind the architecture design building south. Needless to say their group project (PERFORM) was selected to create a structure that will stay up for nine months until next years competition. The project will be completed in the summer and much work awaits these guys. Again congratulations to them on a job well done. And for even greater news, our very own Eleanor Richards won the Nathan Cummings travel award this year. Ellie will be traveling to Germany to explore the issues of child play with woodworking tools. But, her luck did not end there, Ellie also won an award at the Jumpstart competition. We are all very happy for you Ellie (We have got to celebrate).
And, last but not least, the arts studios will be having a spring potluck Saturday April 24th behind the 3D room next to the architecture studios. We hope to have a good group of people from fibers, woods, metals and architecture to come and have a good time. Finally, I am posting pictures of some of my student’s recent work from the woods I class and some from the turning class (which I am gladly assisting this spring semester). All in all, we have (I have) had a wonderful semester, I have met new people and made friends with lots of them as well. I wish everyone a great summer and I will post pictures of my work soon as I have many projects planned for this summer as I prepare for my review for the fall.

Abigail, Spring 2010, Woods I

Sheetal Shaw, Sprint 2010, Woods I

Kenneth Lewis, Spring 2010, Woods I

Erick Hillbrun, Spring 2010, Woods I

August Clug, Spring 2010, Woods I

April Adelfinger, Spring 2010, Woods I

Jillian Schinnell, Spring 2010, Woods I

Ashley Sinclair, Spring 2010, Woods I

Tyler Clarke, Spring 2010, Woods I

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Greetings everyone. I hope everyone has had a chance to relax and enjoy the holiday break. I have been sick for the past week. (nasty cough) I am just glad that it happened during the break and not during class time. Anyways!. So, this coming semester history repeats itself, I will be teaching two classes. 3-D and Woods I. I have a new schedule for 3-D so I think it will be very exciting. I am exited about teaching 3-D and really really hope that this class turns out better than the last. Is just like I heard someone say. The first pancake always goes to the dog. So I guess that was my firs 3-D pancake. But, fear not for I am a strong believer and I do believe that this will be a great semester. I will post pictures of the last 2 projects we had in our woods class. I send shout outs to some of my students who did a great job in the last two projects, Keith, Alison, Scott, Vanessa and Daria. Most amazing work for a beginning student. So here's the stuff enjoy. And, I will write more over the next week or two.