P-51D Scale Propeller

Hand carved from pine.

Will be made to look like steel when completed.

The steel hooks shown are there only to make handling the props easier while working them.

The nose cone is hollow and made from fiberglass... and lots of sanding. The nose cone will be cut specially for each prop to protrude through.

This is an inside-end view of one of the props. Notice the curvature or airfoil shape which runs throughout the length of the prop.

It's interesting to note that Wilbur and Orville Wright are the two guys who discovered that a wind propeller is nothing more than a 'spinning wing'.

I couldn't locate any handy info on building a wooden propeller, but since this is for a six foot static model, it will not significantly impact the flight characteristics in any way. (Unless it falls off the shelf.)

Elvis Presley faux Stained Glass Montage

36" x 24"

Displaying a range of Elvis' interests, i.e.., Pink Cadillac, Graceland, Convair 880 'Lisa Marie' jet,

Will be framed with a custom White Oak frame grown in Elvis' hometown of Memphis, TN.

This is a poor example of the stained glass treatment, as it is photographed without a backlight... which... let's face it... is what stained glass is all about!

Realistic flesh tones are difficult to obtain as well.

Here's the final piece though...

See it here: ELVIS "The King"

1903 Wright Flyer Briefing Stick

This is a scratch-built 'stick' model... and will not fly. (Well, unless you consider something my dad used to say,
"Son, ANYTHING will fly if you fling it hard enough."

Actually, the whole thing started when my boss asked me what the 'stick airplane' is called that is used to train pilots? I had no idea... I just always called it a 'stick with an airplane model on it'. Since then I've discovered that it, in fact has a real name:  It's called a "Briefing Stick", and they are pretty expensive if you ask me!

So, I thought I'd make my own. And then I started thinking... why not make something that would be a little unique? Did Orville and Wilbur use a "BRIEFING STICK" when they taught themselves to fly?

And if they did... would it look something like this?

1960's Batmobile

Airbrushed acrylic on hardboard.

This is my second favorite vehicle in the world... well, actually the '60's Batmobile was a modification of the 1954 Lincoln Futura concept car...  (which is my favorite. Designed by stylists Bill Schmidt and John Najjar). The concept car was built at a cost of $250,000, equivalent to over $2-million today, which explains its uniqueness in the design world.

George Barris later produced the Batmobile modifications in 1965, paying one dollar to Ford for the (Lincoln) automobile!

I've been playing around with different 3-d paints to see if I can produce a board-art painting that has some depth to it as well.

I know much of my art is considered by the geniuses of the Memphis fart skrool, to be too... what was the word...????

CRAFTY ? (I think was the dart thrown at me...)  because I spend so much time actually THINKING about how to proceed on a project instead of just throwing 'stuff' up in the air and seeing what comes out. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to work in operations that I've never done before, into each piece I create. So it ends up being a learning process for me- most of the time.

I nearly always keep a Sketchbook with me, and keep them full of ideas as they pop into my head. So sometimes stuff will sit in the pages of those sketch books for years before I reach back and pull one out. Sometimes only to see that the idea doesn't work so well- once tried.

The board below shows several variations of effects that I've tested before moving over to the final painting (right).

And while we're on the subject of art... just let me say that this is my all time favorite painter. Everyone has to have a 'favorite' this or a 'favorite' that. But this is one painter that will not be celebrated at the Memphis Skrool o'Fart.

French artist:

William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Self-Portrait (1879)

If there's any young artists out there taking notes... here's the book you want to get! Most of this stuff, you wont hear in art schools today.

WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU

His Life and Works

Damien Bartoli and Frederick C. Ross

Here's a fantastic landscape artist:

Forest Stream - 1895

Oil on canvas

Peder Mork Monsted
Danish Realist Artist

See more of his work here:

ARC Art Renewal Center

1960's Batmobile

Clay & plastic

An older project that has unfortunately been sitting for awhile.

A "cartoonish" look at the 1960's Batmobile. Some of this project involves processes that I have not tried before and requires several attempts to get a satisfactory product.

Jenny's Jellybean Factory

Glass & Wood

This is another 'just started' project... It will eventually end up as a three-dimensional piece, but begins in the sketching stage, as there will be several intricate parts which must fit well together or the machine will not function correctly.

This will require drilling holes into glass.

Sketch 1 is the concept sketch.

Sketch 2 is a quick 3-D computer sketch.

Martial Arts Belt Display Rack

(Sandblasted) Glass & Wood

This is the prototype, so it is first being built in southern pine so I can work out all the bugs- cheaply.

The word, "Respect" is sandblasted on the front glass in Korean- (being the nationality of the art of, Taekwondo)

AIM-9L/M "Sidwinder" Missle

Clay, cardboard, wood & plastic

Lifesize

Just something to hang on the wall.

Giant No. 2 Pencil

Wood & plastic

4' long

Spoked Wheel

Wood, foam & copper wire

5" diameter

Whoever invented the spoked wheel... MUST have also developed the first Migraine Headache!

I am trying to design a small 5" diameter wheel that I can turn on the lathe, cast in plastic and string the spokes together like a sewing machine and then recast the wheel with foam 'tires'.

This project may be sitting on the shelf awhile... ?

Chip Carved Dulcimer Hanger

Shown below are two other designs that I have already worked on.

Walnut & Maple

Old Main Building

Freed-Hardeman University Administration building

Here's another one started some time ago.

Construction began on November 30, 1907.

I decided to start a rendering of the building but wanted to do it in a different way than I have done most of my other architectural renderings.

I began this one on the computer, using it to create my initial line drawing (elevation) which will be used to generate a perspective that I will build the painting from.

I am drawing this from photographs ONLY. NO dimensions! And that makes it really hard to get the proportions right- mostly though counting bricks.

The Unnecessary Machine

This is a revamp of a project that I built while an undergraduate.. (at the Memphis Skrool o'FArt).

It will eventually be a rotating, knocking, lifting, rocking, waving, jumping, noise-making apparatus that does absolutely nothing of importance.

Again... from the sketchbook:

 The kids in the top of the image kind-of (incorrectly) represent 'heavenly beings' who are responsible for weather, climate, 'good things' and 'bad things'. Just my take on fanciful illustration. Something fun to look at.

• Distracted Moon kid

• Plotting devil, saint and Sun kid

• Distracted, nose picking kid

• Paintbrush kid

• Flying kid

• Friend kids

• Bad-hair-day kid

My Commentary on Science & Art

This pot shard, found in the area now known as west Tennessee, was made by an ancient pre-Minonan culture around the time of 3000 B.C. It is easily identified by the rectangular forms carved into its external frieze area. The shard appears to have been kiln fired, probably in a formal camp site firing apparatus which was known to exist just to the right of the garbage disposals in the kitchen area and it was undoubtedly used as a commercial butter churn. The potter who formed this clay piece, was also left-handed and wore beige sandals and drank copious amounts of beer.

(It's amazing what you can determine from a pot shard!)

Proposed Tweetsie Bicycle Trail & Walking Path

Johnson City, TN

The Cycle of Life

A proposed sculpture by Anthony Perkins