A far-reaching, loaded design with enough going on to merit repeated scrutiny. Exploring the use of laminated bent trusses and their changing relationship to natural light on acrylic rod.

Western Cedar, African wenge, acrylic rod.

Brawley, California

Approximately one year after installation, mounting to stump block pillars with surface-mounted jambs. An example where the flanking columns definitely do not upstage the gate

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A patient absorption beyond distraction. A rather spectacular design that required compartmentalizing the various sections to avoid a mental overload.

Brawley, CA

The upper 1/2″ rods patterned to organ pipes. Each rod lights and diffuses one at a time with the changing angle of the sun. The process to go from the far left to the far right rod takes about 30 minutes, with all the various rods within the our abstract gate design illuminating in stages.

Brawley, CA

The organ pipe rods and laminated trusses.

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Showing the laminated layers of the primary arched trusses, penetrated by a rod that is purposefully contorted with a heat gun prior to assembly.

Brawley, CA

African Wenge grids and spines and the stark contrast of the acrylic rods.

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The diffusion of the top rods.

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The wenge secondary arches drawing off the primary arched truss with the increasingly open radius of ripples in a pond.

The lower section of the Abstract Gate, Design #200 with its illusion of continuity through the primary arched trusses.

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Matching Driveway Gate #200.

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Basically, the same abstract gate design for both the Driveway Gates and Pedestrian Gate.

In-Progress

A continuous vertebrae of wenge joined to both arches. Sculpted might better describe this, locking into place the location of the arches in relation to the spline and gate frame while providing, of course, the needed rigidity of a continuous support in one of the hardest, most durable species of wood on earth.

Suddenly we have definition. Something conceptual defined by the premise of a continuous spine bringing order and truth to an otherwise swooping swooshing splay of shameless showmanship.

(*Attn. Linquists: Six of the last seven words in the above sentence begin with S)

Truing the radius with a wooden spokeshave that’s been in Charles’ arsenal since junior high school.

Yes, the process of creating each distinctive radius can be done with patterns and flush-bearing bits . . . or it can be done by hand. And why not? If he (or she) enjoys the process and has some facility for the technique itself, a hands-on approach might be likened to a cross-country road trip, opting for the graveled county roads in lieu of the interstate . . . or worse, a plane. The interstate, and plane, will get you there quicker and avoid the mishap of being caught in the middle of nowhere as dusk arrives and no lodging in sight. But then, if you’re accustomed to traveling county roads you’ll likely be one who might engage a farmer that leads to an invitation for dinner that leads to a memorable conversation on the porch that leads to a bed that leads to a breakfast that leads to an annual Xmas card for the rest of your life.

At the De Young Museum in San Francisco with its signature ‘crack’ meandering throughout the foyer and walkway, where each stone tile is laid out like a puzzle to extend this ‘crack’ in a linear, unbroken route.

You’re thinking Stop. Wrong. Back up. You were going so well and went too far and caint you jes leave it well enough alone?

No. Unfortunately, no. A general genetic make-up prevents such an approach to anything. Circling the wagons when yer ahead can be a good thing, if one knows when they are ahead. But it can also have you prematurely satisfied with Ohio and leaving the discovery of Illinois and Nebraska and California to someone else. Like the Donner Party, who must have wished they had circled their own wagons back in Ohio.

So, a dictum in this metaphysical turn teaches us to adopt a Westward Ho existence in all matters while balancing the perview of a potential injun attack.

Abstract gate design #200 is not an opportunity to exercise your chromosomal caution.

Turning to Section E, representing the last remaining section to complete and after a few quick false starts, settling on the wenge arch saddled up against the primary framing truss (arrow).

A start. And as always, a start fuels the next step toward a completed section.

An approach no different from how we navigate life. Make decisions, move forward or left or right or even backward, but as physics teaches us, movement begets movement and getting from A to Z is not accomplished with a single leap, but a series of steps that lead to more steps and all of which is better than sitting and thinking, and thinking, and planning, and more thinking.

The Dive-Into-It approach that will leave you exposed to any number of criticisms from a medley of backseat drivers over the course of a life, but that will also repeatedly remind you how there is no definitive scorecard beyond the lasting quality of your instincts.

The Section E rods for the 20 seconds or so against the direct angle of the light. Too diffused to even photograph.

There is often more than a single project under way at any given time. An opportunity to leap from one to another and how that in itself can trigger that mental brouhaha of the forward movement mentioned above.