Mister Becker's neighborhood...
Won't you be my neighbor?
It has been an unusually cold and snowy and cold
winter so far (cold is mentioned twice because it has
been just that cold), but it hasn't slowed down
neighborhood activities.
Just a half block from the shop, the new Red Wing
Central Park Bandshell is slowly growing from the
ground. This project is the result of a generous
donation from a local family foundation and is going
to have a major impact on the cultural community. The
first use of the bandshell is scheduled for July 4,
2009 and it will have regularly scheduled community
and cultural activities going forward. It is an
exciting design and promises to have excellent
acoustics.
On the wall outside the shop, I am field testing some
new large format materials to see how cold tolerant
they are. The image is a self-portrait photo taken by
my son. The colors were de-saturated and the image
highlights were blown out to create this very
interesting "Chuck Close" effect. I slit the image
every 4" to create movement in the wind and the final
image size is 6 feet wide by 10 feet tall.
Chuck Close is a terrific artist. He is a
photo-realist and paints portraits on a massive
scale. And in this case, size does matter.
Meanwhile, The Giant Dan is always smiling in the
neighborhood of make-believe.