The Independent Artist Podcast

Old World Craft, New World Design/ Luke Proctor

January 31, 2022 Douglas Sigwarth/ Will Armstrong/ Luke Proctor Season 2 Episode 2
The Independent Artist Podcast
Old World Craft, New World Design/ Luke Proctor
Show Notes Transcript

Join co-hosts Douglas Sigwarth https://www.sigwarthglass.com/ and Will Armstrong http://www.willarmstrongart.com/, professional working artists who talk with guests about ART & SELLING.  Today we discuss feeling a little FOMO, choosing a studio space, how to react when bad stuff happens, and art show news.

Welcome our guest to the pod, Luke Proctor https://lproctorironworks.com/ from Mount Horeb, WI. Luke is a blacksmith who uses old-world craft to express his modern design. Hear his story about craft, career, and family.

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foreign [Music]
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welcome to the independent artist podcast sponsored by the National Association of Independent Artists also
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sponsored by zapplication I'm will Armstrong and I'm a mixed media artist I'm Douglas sigworth glassblower join
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our conversations with professional working artists hey everybody welcome back to the Pod
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thanks for joining us here today I'm here with Will Armstrong how's it going man here who who now who will Armstrong
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that guy ah welcome back Douglas nice to see you you too what have you been up to today you know what I went on a little
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bit of a studio hunt in downtown Santa Fe cool I actually had not heard back
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from this one that I looked at a couple of weeks ago and I was having lunch with my lovely wife and texted this lady out
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of the blue just like hey do you have anything I know she's she owns this whole Second Street area of studios and
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so I texted her she was like oh my God I'm right around the corner from where you're having lunch I do have a place
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that just opened up went by looked at that and then finally heard back from the
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other people just now as we got on to the the recording here so I've been approved for the other one so oh
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options you want to pull the studio out of your house and have it somewhere off-site I do I've always wanted to I've
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worked from a home studio for uh gosh since probably 2002. you know it's weird
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I've always been one of these guys I kind of have always hated having the studio in the house and um I just I want
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to work out of the house I want to go to work I like going to work well your
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Minnesota place you're able to like it's not far but it's far enough that it's
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like you're in a different world it's like this is work and this is home yeah you know I'm I'm back in the back lot
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I'm back in the barn in Minnesota and I don't have a sell signal out there and I just I'm so freaking productive when I
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can just get a completely away so um yeah I think I'm gonna pull the trigger on one of these nice we've never wanted
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to go that route in fact we've had our studio on our property for years and we had an opportunity where we could be
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part of this other thing and we considered it and we're like oh you don't want to drive somewhere to it you
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know there's times in the middle of the night you got to go check on your ovens and your furnaces and it just having it
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right out on the driveway is a nice thing for us but I know that that makes a lot of sense what you're saying for you you know I don't know many other
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artists honestly that are like me that want to go to work it's kind of the dream to have it in your home and or at
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least have like a separate building like I know like Matthew hatala I've seen his kind of dream Studio that they rebuilt
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Like a Phoenix after they had that big fire yeah he rebuilt and it's like a place for he and his son to get out
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there and work and it's it's close to the home it's like you like that Luke Proctor who we talked to this week yeah
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he's got his spot just right there at home I don't know what's wrong with me I I don't know I I grew up with a father
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who very much defined kind of Bankers hours and and that's how I like keeping
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my my own work well cool well I hope this all works out for you that sounds like a great opportunity will there be
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like a showroom type thing where people can stop by and see work and that sort of thing you know one of them has a huge
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showroom and a big studio in the back but it's a little more than I want to spend plus they don't include utilities
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the other one is a smaller area I can clean it up and show my work for their
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first Friday events that they have down there at on Second Street but I'd have to pay utilities at the set price I'm
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just paying for my Wi-Fi you got to look at all those those kind of options awesome that's exciting I've been
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listening to your episode with Luke really great talk by the way um I really enjoyed hearing it yeah but um there was
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something you kind of glossed over you brought up you were feeling a little fomo and I'm like what does that exactly
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mean I had to look that one up and I think I'm feeling a little of it too dude it's horrible right now look at
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this uh social media and I've I've turned my back on Florida I kind of need those I've been like spinning my wheels
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in in the studio and I see all my friends out there in the sunshine and down in South Florida yeah
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really missing that I'm missing the humidity I tell you we talked about this on the Pod Renee and I always started
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our season the first weekend of the year and we just like ran hard we would already have four shows under our belt
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by now and there's shows that are happening there's friends out there doing this even though we're not ready
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to be out there we've got two great commissions we're working on that we're extremely excited about we're super
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productive in the studio we've got all this really good stuff going on but yet I'm like feeling like I'm missing out on
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something big time uh our friend Barbara Holloway who is an incredible fiber artist uh wearables she's down there and
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she posted about Saint Armand's Circle it's a Howard Allen Event show and I'm like man I just I love that neighborhood
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I love that area and uh I just didn't missing it you know what it was for me is seeing the Temple Bethel ladies
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setting up that's what got me this week I love that show and I I mean we're gonna sit here and just talk about all
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the great things we're missing out on but it's true it was kind of bumming me out and then when you said that in the
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episode with Luke I'm like wait a minute I had to do a little bit of check-in with myself
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and honestly I've been doing a lot more looking at social media because of the
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podcast you know we're trying to kind of stay up on what people are doing out there my circle of friends is widened
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and I gotta pull back a bit because this keeping my nose and my phone is the thing I tell my kids not to do and here
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it's kind of bumming me out yeah it's bumming me out big time I uh I'm the same way with those Temple Beth out
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ladies there's a great little open-air Smoked Fish Shack down the road that
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I've been to with Aaron heckenberg before I just sat there at the bar and I had a really nice piece of fresh smoked
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fish and I mean uh just I'm missing the whole thing the experience of of being
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out and on the road so hats off to you folks that are down there um wherever you are in Florida and if Arizona is
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coming up and California you've got La Quinta coming up in March but man I'm really I'm really struggling you know
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what I'm not missing I am not missing that weekend where they had to close down on Sunday and everyone had to run
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for cover it looked like the whole state shut down the whole freaking State all the shows cancel cancel on that Sunday
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and tornadoes were touching down that was treacherous I was wondering did they have to close down the shows if they
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were getting rain from the inside of the booth well that started right now
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I saw down there in South Florida that uh we had a good friend Carol Swayze looks like the show directors forgot to
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turn off the sprinkler system well that was a bad scene that was not good that
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was not good at all yeah that happened to you a show that I did in Ohio one time and
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um you know it's just like they they apologized and said oh yeah we'll get that taken care of and it was like you
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know the sprinklers popped up at the back of the booths and soaked everybody's back stock and everybody was going ah screaming and banging on the
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library door where it was happening but uh we got it taken care of we got an apology and boy did that go a long way
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you know I had a situation once at the Uptown Art Fair when a bus rounded the corner took our entire Booth with it
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what it did it seriously your whole glass well we were setting up it was Sunday morning it hit the it hit one of
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the Rails the railings there that then grabbed onto a tent leg which then pulled the tent and it stopped because
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all the artists were banging on the thing because it was dragging us and it dragged into our neighbor and into the neighbor it could have been a bad scene
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but they stopped so it basically just turned our tent into a pretzel and just
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dinked up our display a little bit but no work was broken so yeah happened to Michael McKee at Cherry Creek one year
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he had his awning up and and somebody was whipping down the street and took the whole thing out but um you know what it's it [ __ ] happens right and the point
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I wanted to make with that was the director came over she put her hands on her hip she got very angry about it she
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showed indignation she wanted heads to roll and I was like oh she actually cares that this happened and you know
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what I mean it felt good right so it does feel good A little bit of empathy goes a long way and it sure does when
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you don't get that you start to spike into the [ __ ] you read that needle moves it does um
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I you get angry for people when things like that happen and and we got a lot of love and respect for our good friend
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Carol so sorry that happened down there in Florida really is that sucky you know we're talking about shows canceling or
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changing their rules and uh luckily we're not having that huge wave of cancellations like we had last year or
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God forbid the year before we're just having a little bit of changes here and there and one thing that I wanted to
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mention Douglas is the good folks down at Main Street Fort Worth are dealing with a new challenge
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um they've always kind of called that show like the central part of the the show was Sundance Square and I don't
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think they're going to be able to use that this year that's the part of the show where they have the stages and it's the through line through the entire
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Festival up and down Main Street so I know that it's a challenge and but I have a lot of faith and Jay Downey and
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their team that they are going to make it work although it does make us all a little nervous change is scary you know
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I don't want to change the place that I park my vehicle show to show so it is it is a little bit interesting but what I
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loved about it is that Jay and his team yeah kind of faced that let us know what
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was going on be like look it's taken a little bit longer we're gonna get our booth selection out and so that kind of
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thing goes a long way it's like okay I Got Confidence it's being handled they're gonna deal with it and they're
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meeting all of the things that people want people want to have a section of the show without being under the Big Top
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Tens so they're still going to have an area for people who want their tall tents to put up by themselves so I think
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it's going to still be the Fort Worth we know it to be you know what Douglas it's going to be a little bit different um that's fine I have total faith in the
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show and I'm excited to get back down to Texas me too we were talking earlier in the week uh looking on social media
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about like parking I already know where you're going with this you don't I'm not
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going to give you a heart time I'm really not I admire the fact that you're prepared but I did want to talk about like getting the hotel at the Show
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versus getting a hotel on the outskirts of the show where you know you have parking and it's like this kind of Yin
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and Yang that trailer of ours is such a complexity in a city like this it for
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sure is and so I mean is it going to be easier to park out of the city or for
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sure everybody just loves that you can take a break run up to the hotel room switch off that sort of thing so being
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able to have the show right there within the footprint of the show is needed it's it's necessary to pull off long hours
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like that pull off long hours or even I remember inclement weather and I get a
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room right there at that courtyard Blackstone and I'm looking down on Main Street I'm watching the weather come
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through and it's like I love looking down at the weather whipping through the
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street and being like look I'm protected I'm under the big top one year they had a big disaster though and you could look
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down the way and then you get on social and you're like hey if your work is under this on the so-and-so block go
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check it out they just I'm watching the wind rip the tent top of the tent off they're like Channel 5 news or something
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broadcasting to the masses definitely man I mean it's uh we gotta watch out
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for each other right absolutely yeah for sure I saw some people online uh this week talking about jazz fest and booking
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their rooms at jazz fest and it's like the thing that blows me away is that you've got everything this year from
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Trombone Shorty to the who who are playing so you pull into the neighborhood and the whole neighborhood
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it's like block to block people are out on their porches they're walking to the show already is you're going to do your
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setup it becomes while it's an international thing it's just this neighborhood event and it's just a
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lovely lovely time it's just so fun it actually ends at six o'clock you don't
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have electricity unless you you know you've brought your own little battery pack or whatever you don't have it elect electricity you're under their big top
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things over at six o'clock so you can still experience what's going on yeah
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man recommendation at that show is to actually stay if you can afford it just
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Pony up and stay in New Orleans I mean if you want to save some money go out and stay at the airport but I feel like
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you're missing out if you if you're all the way out there it's just such a good time and it makes you feel like you've
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been a part of something bigger than just art shows it just feels I don't know it
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feels super rock and roll you feel kind of like one of the staff a little bit you know and you're going to meet people
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I've met um Jazz Fest I've met uh who's the guy that plays the Hulk um Lou Ferrigno no
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old ass uh I'm not old you're old
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you're stay older than me pal are you talking what are the new super mark
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ruffaloop up with that yeah he's a big star I know he but but I was watching
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Marvel shows now what do you mean that's like the biggest movie overplayed series
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I only watch independent films I am a high brow fine art with a capital f
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thank you very much all right so listen I've been down to Jazz Fest I've met everybody from Mark Ruffalo in the
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Marvel series to Bill Murray and it's an incredible experience so get down in
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there and uh stay where you can have a fantastic time it's just it's a it's a Big Show and it's a big time I used to
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wait on Bill Murray by the way oh [ __ ] where Saint Paul didn't he own one of the teams around here yeah he still does
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Saint Paul Saints okay yeah he was one of my regulars at the Saint Paul Hotel and at the wa Frost and so yeah
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incredible yeah I was in the beer line and I hear this voice you know that that's very distinguishable super
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recognizable and I turn around and I'm like and then I turn back around real quick because he's there's Bill Murray and he's talking to this lady behind me
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in the beer line and I'm like I can't I can't believe it and I pick up my phone and I turn it on selfie so I'm
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looking and I pull my hand out and I'm leaning in to get Bill Murray and just
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as I'm getting ready to to hit the the thing he leans and puts his head right over my shoulder and he goes you owe me
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a dollar and I take the picture and I was like dude I will gladly please let
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me buy you a beer I mean like obviously you can afford your own beer but let me just say I bought he's like nah I'm not
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even drinking a beer yet I'm getting around for the band and he's just he sat there and immediately totally disarming
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and like sees my artist badge and and I was there as the plus one for my wife's work I've never gotten into the show and
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he he's just well tell me about your work and tell me who you fear to say we started talking about Margo price who we
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just seen down at the Americana tent and I mean it's just incredible so uh those
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of you who have gotten in it's it's uh I don't know whether it's a lottery ticket or not but it certainly feels as rare
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and I wish you nothing but success and good times you're story reminds me I mean we could probably go on and on with
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these celebrity sightings or whatever but there was another time when I was working at the hotel and we were doing a
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private party with Tom Brokaw who didn't they used to nickname him Tom broken jaw
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and he walks up to me hands in his pocket and I look at him and I of course know he was but I wasn't you know I
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wasn't like impressed or anything it's like okay he's a human just like anybody else so he's on the air whatever he looks me in the face and he goes I know
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sometimes I can't believe it myself I'm like oh my God
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amazing yeah you know I like I big leaked Steve Miller when we were at jazz
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fest one year he came looking at the artwork and I'm like he's just like the most unrecognizable celebrity like I
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still have no idea what Steve Miller looks like I can I can sing even though you saw it yeah
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casual dude who's like wearing like an expensive shirt and expensive jeans but
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it's it's still like just a regular dude yeah I saw him on the Instagram feed for jazz fest later on I'm like oh sorry
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there Steve Miller I I think I blew you off to go here um Lionel Richie or something had you
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had only you known you know I think I would have handled it the same way sorry Steve Miller
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so last week's talk with Ben Frye was super interesting you know talking about
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the survey and about what we talked about in the meeting and I think it's really cool what you brought up about
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the emerging artists program yeah I brought that up on the NAIA Facebook group and if you're not a member of that
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that's for art show artists as well as Fair directors to kind of break things down and speak their minds about
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different topics because there are grown-ups in the room it seems like a lot more civil than a lot of things some
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of these other groups sometimes yeah sometimes but it just seemed like a
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great place to bring up the topic so I took over as the emerging artist director for NAIA I had been the
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secretary and we've kind of determined from the survey that there's a need there's a need because the population of
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the artist is aging and we don't see a lot of younger folks coming up behind us yeah we talked about that on the podcast
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how the eyes don't lie you can look around and see your neighbors and we're all getting older and the ones that we
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used to call Young or you and me yeah we're the kids yeah and we're in our 50s
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now so um we're in our 50. it's still early on right it's still
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just you know right there at the beginning but still are we aging one no I don't I can't math I don't know what
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you're talking about [ __ ] off anyway back back to the topic you know so there
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are a lot of things we're gaining some a little bit of traction talking about doing kind of an emerging artist
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graduation program where we continue to help and mentor and give supplies or
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loan out supplies so uh I have a lot of ideas they're coming together I've
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talked to some of our art show friends and compatriots about the next steps that it's taking but it's cool to see
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some action and an enthusiasm I mean you brought it up and it's really I mean
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it's in its infancy it's like hey what if we tried to to tackle this this
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problem with this kind of thing in mind knowing that it's fresh and changeable
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but then to put that out there as a thread and to see all of the engagement all of the reactions people had to say
18:55
about it it shows that I think you're going to get a lot of people who are interested in helping with this which I
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think is awesome I think so too it's it's always funny when you bring up a topic especially with artists because
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it's like you could ask artists you know like you know um hey how do you make marinara sauce
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you know and you're like well you have to do this and by the fifth comment it's going to turn into a few well a lot of
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times and this this thread never went to Fu so it was nice I don't know I valued
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all of the different perspectives everything from our our good friend Chris dalquist through um everything
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else so we'll see where this goes but we've got a lot of ideas and a lot of momentum a lot of things percolating
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thanks for bringing that up and thanks for heading that up thanks for taking that on I mean that's really cool that's awesome man thanks that brings us to
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your great talk you had with Luke Proctor this week um I had a listen to it this weekend and
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and it's really great I really enjoyed listening to you guys to talk about craft you know I wanted to bring somebody in that that does that heavy
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duty craft it's such an important part of our industry and his voice with what he's doing is so rare
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um and he's such a good dude I mean he's just really easy to just sit down and Yap with yeah so well without further
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Ado let's jump into your talk with Luke Proctor from Mount Horeb Wisconsin
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this episode of The Independent artist podcast is brought to you by zap the digital application service where
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artists and art festivals connect hey well do you remember the old way of doing these applications with red dots
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on the slides and self-addressed stamped envelopes do you uh still have a rotary phone Douglas no I don't remember that
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well I just like that they were with us back then when we made the switch from analog to digital it's a huge switch and
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now zap is the industry standard and they're always creating features that make our lives easier too so I do like
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what zap does and I do like that most of the shows I apply to are ons application
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exactly so I personally appreciate what zap is doing and thanks for not making us reinvent the wheel every single week
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like we used to have to do are you doing Luke I'm good how are you good thanks for sitting down with me you
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were telling me that you were getting ready to go on vacation we are going on vacation yeah uh not
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warming up here no not at all where where's home for you we live in Southwestern Wisconsin so Mount Horeb uh
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is the name of our town yeah well good luck have a great vacation I I feel like that's the end it'll be fun
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vacation we'll see you next time man are you uh are you kind of panic getting ready for for shows yeah and I got I got
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like three big commissions that I've gotta I actually canceled my first show so I'm just gonna go down to Florida and
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do Winter Park I canceled Gasparilla did you so I had like three big commissions through this Gallery in New York so
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that's been working out well that's awesome I saw actually on your schedule then you've got two uh two lies there on
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your schedule is checking your website I you know I don't do a lot of this of this technique
22:01
right yeah I imagine the schedule is not up to date there might be some stuff on there from 2020. what are you doing are
22:06
you getting ready for shows too uh you know not really I decided to go Florida free for this this year that's all right
22:12
yeah I don't know I just I I'm kind of regretting not signing up for it because of course you see your friends and
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they're all down there and you know the the Sun and I mean there's plenty of Sun here but it's still 30 degrees Yeah but
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I don't know I'm having a little case of fomo you know yeah I don't know I mean
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uh Florida Florida's Florida you can you can hear a new story about it every day so yeah man you can you definitely can I
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wanted to talk to you about um obviously I wanted to talk to you about your work and and get down into it
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but there are not that many blacksmiths on the art show circuit doing anything
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like you do it's like you think about blacksmithing you think about craft you you're the man
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yeah there's a lot more smarter people than me I guess you know so instead of
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hauling around all that heavy stuff I mean I don't know if it's about smarter I mean they there definitely are people
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on a circuit doing it but there are not people kind of like
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um that I see it's a lot more blacksmithing I guess is a lot more traditional if you say it right yeah
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yeah what you're doing yeah so that's definitely the things I don't want to do are more leaves and the Scrolls and
23:26
stuff like that right that everybody's seen forever so trying to take it in a New Direction you know do something
23:32
different with it those cabinets that I've been doing that's all new stuff so those have been going well you can work
23:38
a lot on like surface texture so that's been fun but uh yeah I don't know there was a few other people that I just I
23:45
don't see anymore uh at any shows but I know a lot of people want to do only
23:50
like big Gates railings and that sort of stuff right I don't know I really I don't mind doing the shows I like doing
23:56
shows I like seeing people like yourself yeah other friends and stuff and you know getting to see people and I the
24:03
work that I'm making is what I want to be making and I'm not taking orders from somebody else like can you
24:09
do this design it's all my own designs like yourself right you know I mean that
24:14
you come up with yeah we're unhirable I think right it is yeah it's like we've been our own boss for so long or [ __ ]
24:22
you meters are riding in the red as soon as we start working for somebody else I'll say stuff so Theresa my wife she
24:30
works she does like all the the financial side of the the whole business and everything but I'll come in during
24:35
the day and she'll tell me about so-and-so or something or email or something else well tell him to [ __ ] off and she's like you see you can't you
24:42
can't do that in the real world you can't talk to other people like that not like what I don't see why not right like
24:48
they should be able to take it right this is yeah I it's I I have a mile long
24:54
resume of things that I'm like I guess I could get hired but I'd probably be there for two weeks before they were
24:59
like ah you cats to go it's time it's just not worth working out this guy's got no
25:06
filter definitely so um yeah so you're a blacksmith we talked to Dylan strasinski
25:12
the last interview I did so yeah I listened to Dylan yeah cool so we we went Egghead a little bit we got a
25:19
little heady I want to talk to a blacksmith get Craft on the podcast a little bit and get down into it how did
25:26
you get your start in blacksmithing yeah in Blackstone so I took a one-year
25:31
welding program After High School figured out pretty quickly that I did not want to be a welder yeah we made a
25:37
chisel in class and that was super cool we got to like actually Forge a chisel and then heat treat it and grind it and
25:44
everything so I thought that was just super interesting uh and then one of my instructors knew a guy who did some
25:50
blacksmithing so I ended up kind of hanging out at his shop and working for him for no pay at first and then after a
25:59
while he started paying me and then I mean it'd only be like maybe 15 20 hours a week I did that for
26:06
four years and then uh I went and on my own uh Tres and I bought a small house
26:12
we bought what was actually an Old Blacksmith Shop next door so yeah that
26:18
was all ready yeah I bought that first shop that I got uh I bought the shop and the property
26:24
that it was on for twelve thousand dollars wow yeah I mean there's a bunch of garbage it and stuff but it was I had
26:31
to redo it and everything but I mean any sort of like real estate for twelve thousand dollars I mean it wasn't like
26:37
it was in 2007 so it wasn't that long ago no that wasn't that long ago at all so you're you're not that old of a guy
26:43
then you've been uh I some days I feel like I am blacksmithing is not a young
26:49
man's trade no I I have been investing in large equipment to do the hammering
26:55
for me so uh we just got uh some big new power hammers so those are those are
27:02
pretty cool they're like uh industrial size air hammers they're self-contained
27:07
air Hammers and what they do is you hit the foot pedal and it shoots basically air from the back cylinder to the front
27:14
and puts the Piston down and the Piston is just like this big arm and it has a
27:20
die on it and then it you know basically just pounds metal together squish it in between the two dies they can go really
27:26
fast hit really hard yeah dangerous but they're super controllable yeah so let me rewind it a little bit and talk to
27:33
you about that kind of apprenticeship thing uh because I feel like that is it's it's maybe not something that
27:39
happens that often anymore it's a it's a super old school thing it's like you you kind of need somebody to teach to teach
27:46
you the robes to teach you how to do it you found that guy through your class yeah through uh so MATC is Madison Area
27:54
Technical College so that's where I went uh just for a year program in the welding and then one of my instructors
28:00
knew this guy and he lived near Sun Prairie Wisconsin and so I I would just
28:06
you know commute out there but it is it's interesting because that guy he actually did shows too but smaller and I
28:14
I guess sure you know they're not like the shows that I see you at you know right right but he did shows out in
28:21
Santa Fe actually okay but art shows you know he was downloading the applications and all that stuff I feel like like a
28:28
lot of the and in no way belittles the the blacksmithing trade but a lot of it you think about it's like a like Ren
28:34
fares and things like that you see the guys out there just hammering it up in a totally Gorge you know totally and that
28:41
is like where I want to see my work go is uh you know really not in the rent
28:47
kind of not at the Rendezvous stuff but really modern take on blacksmithing
28:52
rather than seeing everything that everybody's seen before and what people think of when they see a blacksmith you
28:58
know uh and what they think they're going to see the work of what they're going to think it's going to look like and everything but it's been a lot of
29:04
fun when I look at your work there's a certain aesthetic to it so you're you're bringing something else into the work
29:11
obviously what are your influences to get you there to the the actual furniture making I mean I think of you
29:19
as is more of a Furniture maker sometimes than I do uh blacksmith when you walk past your booth it's like that
29:25
kind the lines the the high design um where where's your head at in order to get yourself there
29:31
well it's kind of interesting because I don't have an art background whereas most my
29:37
friends at shows they went to like art school right so I did this apprenticeship from there
29:44
I'm doing that I'm figuring out like the tooling and how to manipulate the metal
29:49
and everything like that but then you're right the next thing comes is design and when I first started I did a lot of arts
29:56
and crafts style design so everything had Ginkgo leaves and you know real blunt ends and cereal blocky and square
30:03
and stuff you know which was cool I liked it but uh that changes my design like everybody else's your work evolves
30:10
so it went more of a Sleek line you know where I'm more manipulating the material
30:16
and interested in that and then recently I've gotten really interested in like
30:21
the uh texturing surface surface texturing that sort of thing and uh I've
30:26
been using a lot of industrial tools and making them as well and then using them in like really uncommon ways to make
30:34
what I want to make but yeah it all comes down to it at its furniture but there's some stuff
30:41
that I'm trying to make that's going to look more like sculpture rather than Furniture like a lamp that I recently
30:47
sent out to the gallery in New York which is that was pretty cool it was like a ton of like mortise antenna
30:53
joinery and then on the end of it there was like a lampshade you know for no particular reason was that uh piece that
30:59
you posted on on your Instagram that I did okay yeah yeah I love that that one is that a gallery that is their
31:07
commissioning work from you that's already sold or or for a kind of a show uh so that is for an exhibition that
31:13
actually just opened on like Friday it's a newer Gallery it represents artists
31:19
that are more like up and coming so not really established in that world yeah because that's like a whole different
31:25
world than art shows too that's that's it's wild like he's sold a few pieces for me in the amount of money that they
31:31
can command is crazy but he also tells me you know like the amount of money that he spends on rent for the gallery
31:38
oh yeah like that's insane are those different pieces than you're bringing shows or they are yeah yeah so that's
31:45
like a kind of a different body of work yeah they're bigger so you know like like that lamp that lamp I don't know
31:52
maybe that would sell at an art show I'm not too sure if that's a little two non-traditional or what but sure
32:00
I don't know but there's like I'm doing a piece right now that's going out to Jackson Hole and it's this big cabinet
32:07
that sits on a stand but that one's like seven and a half feet tall and like four feet wide it's got to go in two parts uh
32:15
you know and then doing a bunch of different stuff on the on the doors and everything right how do you get your work to like those larger pieces how are
32:23
you how are you shipping it I ship them Freight so I gotta build the crates which is a huge pain in the butt huge um
32:30
but like a lot of us a lot of our other artist friends I like can't give up
32:35
control to somebody else because I've had tons of people they're like just have somebody else build the crease I'm like I I can't trust them they'll mess
32:41
it up yeah yeah right right unless I do it you're gonna screw it up yeah those big pieces what kind of weight are we
32:47
talking oh so this one is probably gonna clock in
32:52
around 400 pounds okay maybe 450. yeah something like that so like the inside
32:58
cabinet too so like the the part that's not even textured or anything you know just the inside cabinet I mean that's
33:04
like 250 pounds right there because it's like that sheet steel yeah I remember uh
33:09
renovating a house and I put a bar in and I I needed an actual bar to put my feet on and I used to work down at this
33:16
Frame Shop it was an old rail yard and I'm like if I just had a six foot piece
33:21
of that railroad I could just put that as the bar and I was like I'm gonna do that so I called up a buddy of mine and
33:27
we went down we were going to grab a piece we're just going to steal it and um I was gonna put it in I I went to
33:32
pick it up and let you know this is a railroad track I'm not picking it up with my buddy and throwing it it's like
33:38
trying to move the Earth's axis so I mean that's what you're dealing with when you're when you have all the steel
33:44
are you uh I mean how are you how are you moving this stuff around by yourself uh you know you kind of get used to
33:52
using you know the uh the dollies and stuff and using levers and access points
33:58
and stuff like that and it's the it's tough but it can be done and uh taking it to shows like what's your what's your
34:04
vehicle well I got a big what is that it's a like Ford Transit but I only got the 250 I I probably should have got the
34:11
350. yeah um your engine's gonna blow up on you
34:16
it's like the uh you know the long one tall high ceilings but uh I mean I don't
34:23
really stack stuff high right so well you're getting to the point now too where they're getting fairly complicated
34:28
so I can only bring like one of each piece with me so that's the other problem is just having enough work for
34:35
every show yeah that I mean it's I mean that's the problem with with everything I mean are you are you kind of uh
34:42
pairing it down now that you're working with this Gallery are you kind of are you doing fewer shows or houses I am I
34:47
like last year although I think everybody did fewer shows last year but uh like last year I did like six shows I
34:54
had a couple commissions and it worked out great this year maybe like eight shows something like that okay uh but
35:00
it's definitely that's like definitely one thing that I learned from the pandemic was at that point I was just
35:07
doing shows I really didn't have any other income you know and the pandemic hits and it's like well what are you
35:12
gonna do you know you get you got to make money somehow right and luckily we made it through just fine
35:19
and everything but yeah not put in you know the old saying don't put all your eggs in one basket sure you know so it's
35:27
a tough juggling act though it is a tough juggling but we all kind of looked at that um and I think everybody I feel like
35:34
that we've talked to on the other side of and we're not really on the other side I hope we are of covid and shows
35:40
are kind of opening back up but it seems like everybody that Douglas and I have talked to they're paring it down a
35:45
little bit they're doing fewer and fewer I know that I'm I'm trying to do I'm trying to keep it under 10. you know
35:51
that's yeah and that's wild because like before the pandemic like everybody had
35:56
this idea of like we got to do as many shows as we can do yeah you know like you got to do as many as you can do
36:02
because one might get rained out you might just have a crappy show you know something like that but yeah that's
36:08
crazy I know some people that haven't even come back to doing shows yet yeah I'm gonna talk to one next actually
36:13
uh Jeweler who has gone completely online so it'll be interesting to talk to her about you know just just
36:20
completely changing the business and it's like giving us the opportunity to see how it is to to work a little
36:26
smarter and maybe not so hard um less traveling I don't know my wife
36:31
is is looking at you know Susie's looking at not doing maybe two or three this year too really yeah just uh
36:39
totally changed your business model it makes me wonder how the other side you know the show we have to get a director on here how how how's that looking on
36:47
the other side with applications right you know yeah I don't there's still getting quite a few applications aren't
36:53
they um I don't know I mean but I they're also not on online complaining
36:58
as much as we are [Laughter] Stephen King's getting bit by not as
37:05
many applications he's certainly not whining to us about it yeah it's been well that's one thing too
37:12
it's like usually I have to sit down and do I'll do a bunch of applications but like this year I think I'm done yeah
37:18
doing them so maybe one or two more yet so yeah we'll see how it goes yeah we're
37:24
kind of waiting for the eggs to hatch it at this point see if there's uh chickens
37:29
or big fat goose eggs we'll see what what happens yeah there's there's a big one coming
37:34
out like next week isn't there isn't uh Cherry Creek Cherry Creek comes out next week yeah yeah yeah I always give a look
37:40
at the juries when you're there just to see who's during the show and see I I have I haven't looked on purpose before
37:47
but I have looked and then once you know you look like catches your attention you gotta let's read into this and let's see
37:53
what are my chances and it mean you know that means nothing mean anything yeah it's just a way to panic yeah
38:03
now there was one person during a show that I really wanted to have on the podcast and I'm like I gotta wait until
38:09
she jewelries the show so she doesn't think that I'm like trying to be like you did you want to be a bad case
38:16
I don't know hey let's jump back in and talk about aesthetic a little bit more what are your influences who are you
38:22
guys like uh as far as design goes like where do you draw your inspiration from how are you getting that kind of
38:29
aesthetic so now uh the design style that I really like is real clean lines
38:34
so I would say like a uh a very modern style uh like Danish modern like uh you
38:41
know that that sort of style now that furniture though that was made basically
38:46
for the masses though so it was it was designed and made so they could be reproduced easily and and look good
38:52
though too so um there's kind of like two parts to my work there's like the frames of
38:58
everything which I use all this traditional mortise and Tenon joinery so no welding or anything so the holes or
39:03
they're traditionally punched through of course now I've got like a 25 ton hydraulic press that I can do it
39:09
underneath that saves a bit on the arm and you know the legs are nicely tapered out and I do those under the power
39:15
hammer and everything now I'm doing these cabinets so I'm able to work a lot on this like kind of wild surface
39:21
textures that I can do and I'm throwing in like a little bit of color here and there and the color is like a nod to
39:30
farming basically so Agriculture and blacksmithing there's like this huge Connection in America I
39:38
go to so many shows where I I meet so many people that tell me like my grandpa was a blacksmith and I was wondering I
39:44
mean I live I actually don't live in Mount Orab Wisconsin we live in this right on the edge of this like tiny
39:50
unincorporated town about seven miles outside of Mount Horeb called Mount Vernon and I mean there's there's like
39:56
30 houses here and like one church and one bar you know uh but at one point in
40:02
time there was two blacksmith shops in this town so that's like how prevalent it was so the colors that I use that are
40:10
all tractor and Implement colors so that's kind of a nod to that which is
40:15
fun because a lot of people have connections with that and like I I've made a delivery out to Denver this year
40:20
that the guys his family had a International Harvester tractors when he
40:25
was a kid wow he has since definitely not farmed since then but I mean with
40:31
those kind of with that color palette it feels familiar without people necessarily knowing why yep that's true
40:37
that's yeah he had requested that and I was like yeah no problem man I can do that and then so this is another weird
40:43
thing from the pandemic there's like a worldwide shortage of paint so uh especially aerosol cans so like spray
40:50
paint yeah they'll use a lot of spray paint and then I'll use a hand orbital sander and I'll sand it down to kind of
40:56
uh rough it up a bit make it look like it's been a used piece of Machinery or something like that you know
41:02
um but yeah I I tell this guy I'm like no problem I can get that and then I go up to we've got a store actually called
41:08
Farm and Fleet I go up there and the Shelf is just bare there's oh my God black paint and white paint I like
41:14
what's going on yeah so what did you end up doing I remember seeing something like uh there's a an artist that I know
41:21
that uses mostly spray paint he he was posting pictures of shelves just empty like so what did you end up doing
41:28
actually that stuff I did find it online but they wouldn't ship it my wife ended
41:33
up like driving like to like Freeport Illinois which is like not that far it's
41:38
you know maybe like an hour drive oh okay uh but she drove down there to another one of those stores and picked
41:44
up like one can that they had like yeah it's crazy so we got it done though we
41:50
got the guy's piece he got it he loved it it was kind of cool I dropped this piece off to him out in Denver I was
41:56
doing a couple other deliveries and he had this like bucket of old tools from the blacksmith shop on the farm yeah and
42:04
he was showing me going through them and everything and I'm telling them what each tool was and everything I never
42:09
knew any of this you know so so that was kind of cool yeah that's really cool so
42:15
uh tell me a little bit about your shop you you started talking about some of the um the power equipment so we we were
42:20
like we got super lucky uh during the pandemic right so the pandemic comes and
42:27
we're like I don't know what we're going to do you know I was like ready to go drive a truck for FedEx or something
42:32
right you know but we ended up getting the PPP loan uh so we we took that that
42:39
like bought us some time I was building a new shop at that point on our property here and so that it was like everything
42:46
was done except for the Electrical uh insulation pretty much that and then moving the equipment in so that gave us
42:52
enough money to finish that it took like four years but we built a new shop and we paid for everything as we went so no
43:00
debt or anything like that for it but it's just a uh it's a pole barn 30 by 60 10 foot high ceilings but our property
43:08
faces South so the shop the back half of the shop there's like nine four foot by
43:13
five foot windows so it's the whole back wall is like Windows you know really
43:18
beautiful view perfect is this the same piece of property that you you guys first bought way back when no so we the
43:26
funny thing is is that when we only moved about a quarter of a mile when we moved so like literally I had a buddy
43:32
like moving some of my bigger equipment from that old house down here with a skidster just driving down the street
43:38
so uh you know we we bought that house sold it and bought this one in 2016. and
43:44
then this one's got like eight Acres so we had some room and everything and built that new shop and then
43:51
invested in new power hammers and everything so now it's like it's very 21st century blacksmith shop and it is
43:58
like if you could call blacksmithing you know Cutting Edge it would uh it would
44:03
be a Cutting Edge yeah you lost a hammer of yours a little bit ago was that a big surprise or was it so that one I sold
44:11
that one after I bought the other two so okay but uh you know the deal was I I couldn't cut it Loose until I got the
44:18
new ones in yeah and then we got the new ones in and that was like a whole ordeal in itself shipping company was one day
44:25
late which was like uh that didn't work well because the I had a guy lined up to
44:30
move him so the big deal is is that a small power hammer with 3 400 pounds the
44:36
big one with 6 000. so you know it takes quite a bit to move them yeah so I had
44:42
this guy all lined up the shipping company calls me and they're like we're gonna be a day late and so I called him
44:48
and I'm like what's your availability for you know the next day Wednesday and he's like well not good for you because
44:53
I'm going on vacation so I was like oh man so we had to wait another week but
44:59
we got them in and everything and let's just say that'll probably be the last time I buy brand new power
45:04
they should they should last the rest of my life yeah they should but it's new equipment you never know I mean is it
45:10
yeah I mean new equipment sometimes doesn't last as long as as the old stuff oh man yeah yeah it's my wife is a
45:17
jeweler I've talked about a bunch before but um I do know her but she only buys like the German tools you know like
45:24
that's who makes the good stuff otherwise it just wasn't it just won't last oh yeah that's awesome that you can
45:30
find that stuff yeah that's definitely yeah so where do you find the the kind of stuff you're working with like how do
45:35
you who even makes that stuff uh this guy so there's a guy down in Texas that Imports these particular hammers now
45:42
what you were saying before about older equipment uh there are other power hammers that you know they're older and
45:50
they're really really sought after so there's some American-made ones and German and French are like the most
45:57
popular ones yeah but you know they're they're really hard to find and people are getting a lot of money for them so
46:02
these ones they're readily available they're a relatively decent price I mean with the amount of money that you invest
46:09
into them and then they're you know they should be making you money right you know you're able to do your work on them
46:15
but it would be nice to have one of the old American-made ones or uh there's this French kind that was really cool
46:21
too but what is that old scene hens teeth so they are they're hard to find I
46:27
bet man I was uh I was teasing Douglas about the fact of of him you know he was setting up I think he got a new Fern oh
46:33
not a I don't even know what it's called I think it's a foreign but
46:39
[Laughter] um he was talking about his equipment and I'm like oh yeah I can relate I just
46:44
had to move my seven pound easel and I pinched my finger you know it's like I just don't have any of that stuff and
46:50
which I mean that's kind of why we like to do this podcast too to see how the other half lives and what you have to go
46:56
through I've finished paintings in my hotel room before you know on the road and and that that's no option for you
47:03
you've gotta right yeah yeah logistically it's uh the equipment is
47:08
Big the maintaining a big Studio yeah I mean it's a lot yeah but uh do you have
47:14
people that can help you move your your stuff around or no I do I've I'm lucky that I know a bunch
47:20
of people around here where we live uh I only grew up like 20 miles away from here so uh that that was the deal with
47:27
the guy who moved my power hammers in he's the carpenter that lives near here he builds log cabins and he's got this
47:32
huge machine that can lift like 8 000 pounds oh man so it was perfect machine to move these hammers but I mean if I
47:39
didn't know him I don't I guess I'd have to call up to Madison or something and find like a heavy moving equipment place
47:46
or something like that you know so you're not getting a moving company around I mean this guy it was like I
47:53
gave him a couple hundred bucks because you know it was all this gas and stuff you know but he didn't want anything I
47:58
gave him that in case of beer Ah that's perfect I mean that's old school kind of
48:03
country living too you know oh yeah oh yeah I mean it's it's almost good old boy Network getting things done you're
48:10
doing a modern day Barn raisin it's fun it is it is definitely like that you
48:15
know and but you know on the flip side of that too you to be willing to help other people out right away so but I'd
48:20
you know never mind doing that so yeah it's always fun yeah absolutely so I mean talk to me a little bit about
48:26
health like what's the longevity as far as being a blacksmith and um do you just do you have to Baby
48:31
yourself a little bit and I well yeah that's definitely like those all that big equipment that I'm getting and that
48:37
will definitely help you know the thing now is going to shows and it's
48:44
uh moving the pieces from out of the van you know like when I'll do uh Winter Park I'll be like man I got to be on the
48:51
street because I I got to get up early and everything but like I can't I can't Dolly this stuff through the park it's
48:56
just not even worth it to me so but you know and they as I as the work
49:01
progresses and evolves it just keeps on getting bigger and heavier which you know I don't know if that's the right
49:06
way to go but it just seems to happen I mean that is what happens but it's the
49:11
bigger uh the bigger the piece the bigger the price point I mean that's yeah that's that's true too you know and
49:18
I'm sure you're the same way as me is like you always want to push what you can do as far as like the ideas that
49:26
you're coming up with and the work that you're creating you know you want to push it and make it as the best that it
49:32
could possibly can be so with that you know in my line of work comes wait wait
49:37
and size yeah and I mean I remember what where are we neighbors I guess in St
49:43
Louis and you were there setting up um pulling all of that stuff out of the van and it's I mean that's a lot of work
49:50
man you got to watch your back it's like but again too I mean you have you probably have to watch which shows
49:55
you're willing to do talk about Winter Park and not wanting to be able or not even being able to be in the actual Park
50:02
you've got to pretty much pull up to your space Oh totally yeah that was that one at St Louis that
50:10
year that was sweet because uh I was like on the end and I basically just parked my van right there I was able to
50:16
unload right to the edge of my spot so that was that was handy yeah um but it's kind of crazy too I was next
50:24
to John and Sally clay that stuff's not that's not lightning no it's dirt
50:30
great big old boxes of dirt yeah that stuff is dense yeah and that is like
50:35
super heavy it's the same thing yeah I mean those guys they got the same problem I do right exactly yeah it's
50:41
talking to Michael schwegman about that and it's moving all those moving all them f-bombs around f-bombs I got to get
50:48
one of those every time tell me about that Gallery I mean I'm interested in
50:53
the fact that you're that you change your style a little bit to do something different for them I mean I think that
50:59
that stuff is totally totally sellable yeah thank you yeah that uh that Gallery
51:04
is pretty cool so uh it's called culture option he's in Manhattan so I've been
51:10
there a couple times to drop stuff off I went there the first time I went there though was like I I don't know I guess
51:16
it's like kind of the height of the pandemic in the first part of it right I drove into New York City and the first
51:23
time I stopped in traffic was at the first stoplight oh my God so if that was it was so weird yeah it was just crazy
51:30
that's insane and that big giant van dude but yeah super great Gallery so that was height of covid like that's
51:36
what you're talking about I think that was in like yeah I think it was in yeah it was in 2020 I think yeah that was
51:44
like a moving here and and taking my kids to school for the first time I'm like oh my God this is a dream you know
51:49
I'm an East Coast guy and Richmond is not a huge town but it's a big enough City and in a traffic jams to and from
51:56
school every morning and taking them to school and I'm like there's no traffic at all and I'm like wait a minute
52:02
there's there's covid you know like nobody's actually working that's that's what the problem was but it was that was
52:08
weird driving into the city in no traffic I remember Brian and Ella Richards talking about that and posting
52:15
pictures on Instagram about just empty streets and just Ghost Town it feels like zombie apocalypse it's so weird and
52:22
in that City I mean yeah I love that City it's it's a great place well it's a great place for me to visit
52:29
but it's I mean that that's like where it's at you know but yeah that Gallery
52:34
is super cool they uh it's some really wild stuff there's some other people there that you might know like uh Rachel
52:41
David she has worked there um I can't think I had anybody else off the top of my head right now but uh it's
52:49
a pretty pretty neat idea of what he's got going on because he's got great work there but it's you know it's people who
52:55
are not necessarily like just starting off but they're they're not really represented by any other major galleries
53:02
or anything like that you know all objects though it's all like uh you know culture objects interesting but very
53:08
cool yeah so that's it's been a lot of fun and talking to him is kind of like talking to my art show friends too now
53:14
with not doing as many shows and of course we're in like the height of winter right now of course I get uh I
53:20
get anxious to talk to people who are like-minded see what other people have been doing what kind of work they're doing and stuff like that yeah I mean
53:26
that's the thing about not doing Florida this year that's that's kind of got me um down a little bit I'm like man it's
53:32
just I'm having a really hard time getting it going you know I go in the studio it takes me like you know when
53:38
I'm rolling I can actually finish a piece generally finish a piece in like two two and a half days just like start
53:45
finish and just like power through something and I get in a Zone where I'm like a week will go by and I still have
53:50
the same piece on the easel and I'm like [ __ ] around with it and I it's just I I feel like I need that deadline I need
53:57
that deadline to get me going but um you know I've got a gallery show too that's one thing up in Park City so I'm
54:04
getting ready for that one those deadlines they they can be helpful all right I'm curious how how do you work do
54:10
you do you work on a single piece at once or like myself I'll have like five six things going at once so what I tell
54:17
people versus what I actually do like when I people you know you get the classic how long does this take oh yeah
54:24
whereas I I'm like okay how long does this take and I oh I have all these pieces going I never start one to start
54:30
to finish which is poor [ __ ] I have these very set steps that I do which
54:36
yeah to move the piece along so I never go back and and restart one of the
54:41
previous steps this keeps me going I'm a little add so I'm like is that
54:46
self-imposed or is that well that will mess up the way it looks no it's totally self-imposed because I know that if I
54:52
don't I'll I'll work and rework and rework a piece like um that Douglas had
54:57
a great talk with Cindy ohms this last week and she was talking about not stopping until she recognizes the the
55:05
character that's in the in the piece recognizing the figure where that would make me insane I'm like oh well I'd
55:11
never stop yeah you know I just keep on tweaking and painting and and so I just
55:16
I have to create these steps for myself enough about me oh come on it's
55:22
interesting I mean it is man I I and I appreciate like the fact that you're carving out some time to actually go on
55:30
a real vacation I mean it's it's yeah yeah we uh so you want to hear something crazy definitely the last time we went
55:37
on a real vacation was March of 2020. so we were yeah
55:43
we were literally like I'm gonna say we were in the car for about 45 minutes now
55:48
of course it was it was Florida because it was in between like two shows right so I think I flew home and then we all
55:55
flew down together uh got in the rental car and like I think maybe 30 40 minutes
56:01
into the drive started getting text messages from people like hey heard Winter Park canceled super sorry man
56:07
like what oh my God what happened yeah and all of a sudden it all happened
56:12
right now here we are we're going again and uh there's like this new variant and
56:18
it's like uh the height of it right now and everything and maybe it's us I don't know maybe that's just gonna end the
56:23
pandemic it's the it's the tractor family Florida did you guys get it at all
56:28
anybody in your family no no we've been uh we've been fortunate enough I mean I
56:34
wouldn't say that we took like extreme precautions or anything like that I mean you know wear a mask where everywhere
56:41
you were supposed to and you know get your flu shot and your vaccinations and what happens my kids are over it now but
56:49
they ended up getting it and your kids yeah uh both of my kids and and my ex got it too and uh but they you know they
56:56
were vaxxed and boosted and well the kids yeah they hit their two shots but it was super minor but they you know
57:03
stayed home from school and didn't get to go skiing it was just you know nothing major but well you know what
57:10
schools are like they're germ factories you know so they're I mean there's other our kids have gotten other stuff this
57:16
year though already you know like it wasn't Cove dad but like runny nose or something like that right we got like
57:22
our at-home tests and then uh here at our school district if the kids stay
57:27
home for them to go back to school you have to go up to the bus garage up in town and they do kova tests there and you got
57:35
to get one of those covet tests though and that takes two days to get back or at least it always has and then they can
57:41
go to school after that so one of them wakes up you know and it's 6 30 in the morning and they're like uh I don't feel
57:47
good wait do you really not feel good because this is two days so yeah there's
57:52
been a couple of those too where you know by like nine o'clock you're like
57:58
you were just tired oh my God yeah that's that sounds like me too I'm I
58:03
just say that to my kids like I I'm like man don't [ __ ] a bullshitter cause I've done every trick you're ever gonna
58:10
think about polling I've already pulled it off so don't even right yeah the whole hot water in the in the mouth
58:16
trick and um and I was good at that one I could get it just right where I want it because you hit too much of a
58:22
temperature you're going to the doctor you got to keep it right yeah you don't want like 110 no you know
58:28
like oh my God you should be dead yeah 100 that's the beauty rage
58:34
man perfect you're a big family guy you've got your kids your wife is working uh with you there she helps you
58:41
read books and yeah so that was she started working with me in I think it was
58:47
2018. uh she was a social worker so uh in her last job she worked at the senior
58:55
center in town so she was working with senior citizens there's like a uh I
59:01
don't want to call it a it's not daycare but it's you know what it is like a place where they can go and uh yeah yeah
59:07
they have lunch together and stuff you know and then she can help them get any sort of benefits that they they should
59:14
be getting but they you know maybe don't know about stuff like that you know so uh so yeah she she's in before that she
59:21
worked at Catholic Charities and she weren't there for a number of years and so yeah she's a social worker but uh
59:28
everybody in that profession my mom was a social worker too and it's it's a tough profession you can get burnt out
59:35
you know she was getting definitely overworked and but she loved her job she loved the people and everything I was
59:41
like well I'm I could definitely use some help seriously dealing just you know the financial ends of it doing all
59:47
the taxes like all those taxes that we have to do from each state and you know and then uh customer contact like I
59:54
would never follow up with anybody no I would you know no people would even email me I'd be like I'm going another
1:00:00
show like a month right but yeah like the first year that she worked with me she follows up with people and they buy
1:00:08
stuff it turns out so uh yeah so she like made more money in the first year
1:00:13
than she had made you know the previous year oh my God so it's been it's been good yeah and you know you follow up
1:00:20
with those things you don't have to travel necessarily as much too right yeah she's keeping you home
1:00:26
keeping your home well that was the funny thing I got those new power hammers in and uh her parents were down
1:00:32
uh weekend or two ago and her her dad was out there with me and we were all three of us were out there he is looking
1:00:38
at him he looks at her and he goes huh I guess he can work like 18 hours a day now nice you know I'm working I was reaching
1:00:46
I was talking to Dylan actually before this too and Dylan was like um ask him if his father-in-law understands what he
1:00:52
does for a living yet nope yeah it makes [ __ ] out of metal and then
1:00:59
charges people too much for it yeah that's the that's the head scratcher for a lot of our families I
1:01:05
mean my parents they're still shocked when I tell them which books I've read like you read I can't believe you know
1:01:10
how to read like you know I do read I'm actually thinking about reading a book on the plane it'll be the first time in
1:01:17
a while nice uh well you know what it's like with little kids it's like yeah I haven't read anything longer than like
1:01:24
10 pages in like nine years now how old are your kids they're five six and nine
1:01:30
oh my God the nine-year-old though she reads to me now that's great you're almost in The Sweet Spot you're gonna
1:01:37
get like it is kind of cool you know she's she's reading the classics she's reading the fourth grade nothing right
1:01:42
now nice so oh yeah got a little Ramona coming isn't that great yeah Beverly
1:01:48
Cleary I used to um I remember going to the pool for the first time my kids are a little bit older than yours 11 and 13
1:01:53
and going to the pool for the first time and they disappeared into the pool and
1:01:59
that disappeared but I just saw him just you know jump into the pool with their friends and leave me they didn't want to play with Dad anymore yeah and I'm like
1:02:06
oh my God I I didn't even I didn't I didn't bring a magazine I didn't bring a book like I just kind of
1:02:13
sat there like just hanging out into space yeah I'm like I guess I could I do know people I guess I
1:02:20
could talk to the other huh all right but yeah you're almost you're gonna get into that sweet spot you're gonna be
1:02:26
like oh man I I can read the book in there the first time I had uh with the
1:02:31
kids reading a book like getting into that sweet spot and going on vacation I
1:02:37
I had to go see a chiropractor of the words because I screwed my neck up because I had I wasn't used to looking
1:02:43
down like that like putting my head down and looking into a book so like how'd you hurt yourself I'm like wow I'm
1:02:49
sitting on the beach and uh trying to get to a little Carl Hyacinth
1:02:54
this isn't going where you think Dad I was reading a book exactly well cool you're getting ready to to take off for
1:03:01
vacation when do you guys leave uh Monday morning super early like six in the morning um
1:03:07
to go to Milwaukee there's uh so Madison's got an airport uh Madison's
1:03:12
closer but Milwaukee see we we use um I always use the Southwest card business card you know and then uh gain
1:03:19
the points and then we use that for plane tickets perfect right so it works out good you know free plan well I guess
1:03:26
they're free plane tickets yeah exactly that's what we do I've got the I've got the Marriott card and Susie's
1:03:33
got the the Delta card and so we we got it covered when we want to travel yeah so that's the way to do it you know I
1:03:40
don't know I guess it's always good for credit too but yeah you can pay for your tickets that way and then you just have to pay for you know lodging but uh
1:03:46
that's why we have to fly Milwaukee is uh Southwest flies out of there so nice so we got to go there but that's all
1:03:53
right cool and you're gone for a week gone for a week then it's right back to work so back
1:03:59
downstairs making stuff out of metal right are you uh how do you protect those ears I have a custom made earplugs
1:04:08
so uh when Tressa my wife when she worked at the senior center she uh had
1:04:13
to make a lot of appointments for uh hearing aids for people and she's like you know I think they make earplugs too
1:04:19
and I was like you're kidding me so I went in there and I just like inject the stuff into your ear take out the mold
1:04:24
like a week later you got a pair of custom molded earplugs so those work sweet they're really amazing yeah
1:04:31
they're good you got to protect your your ears oh man totally yeah but they're super comfortable I barely know
1:04:37
that I have a man they work really well then uh you know it's a good thing to protect your ears and your eyes yeah you
1:04:44
got to are you apprenticing anybody I don't have anybody no I don't really have anybody right now we uh it's just
1:04:52
been so busy with the regular work you know and and the kids being home all last year and everything yeah Tressa
1:04:58
does she does a lot with she's like the treasurer and like vice president on the Mount Horeb Art Association board and
1:05:05
she's on a bunch of other boards and stuff so we've been talking about reaching out to like the high school and
1:05:11
seeing if they want to do something where a kid could get credit yeah right so come in two or four hours a week or
1:05:17
something like that and then they can get credit that way and get a kid interested in something like that yeah
1:05:23
get something uh pass it on a little bit I just took over the emerging artist thing for NAIA and uh just starting to
1:05:31
try to kind of get the ball rolling and figure out how to get our industry a little bit younger
1:05:36
um yeah start people yeah that's always been the talk since ever since I started and like no I'm not like one of the
1:05:43
young people anymore isn't that weird I mean you're younger than me it's like I'm like God I remember when I were like
1:05:50
oh you yeah I'm like God now I'm that guy to somebody else you know I'm like wow
1:05:55
people and they're like we were out drinking till like two in the morning it's not like two in the morning
1:06:01
crazy right how are you standing
1:06:06
God I would do that but not you know at a show yeah sure sure what's next for
1:06:12
you you want to keep doing this uh keep doing art shows and and traveling around and
1:06:18
um you know I never want to say never or anything like that I I enjoy the show yeah someday you know retire but I you
1:06:25
know to be honest trust and I were talking about it the other night I don't know if I'd ever be able to like retire from making things yeah like I think I'm
1:06:33
just always gonna make something and if you know my body holds out I'll I'll do
1:06:38
this for years and I can't keep everything so I'll have to sell it somehow right you know but yeah I don't
1:06:44
know probably do it forever I guess yeah or else I'll just make something smaller I'm with you Iggy you could get down and
1:06:51
do the do the smaller things but I did I don't see that happening for you you're a big yeah you know just just keep
1:06:56
getting you know gets hey you guys move that over there you can yeah right there you go right I mean that's what these
1:07:02
kids are basically for right that's exactly they're supposed to go to work that's right yeah I just don't see any
1:07:08
way that I'll ever be able to stop making things so I absolutely I feel like our kids are going to rebel against us and become bookkeepers though
1:07:16
every it seems like I talked to a bunch of people on the art show circuit the art show tour or whatever you want to call it that they're like yeah my kids
1:07:22
going to school mechanical engineering you know uh chemical engineer a doctor you know I'm like Jesus Christ that's
1:07:29
crazy it is I mean but there are some of us uh like Bruno and Kemper and um oh
1:07:36
yeah yeah you know Kyle Spears are these some sons of the zachmans you know that that are passing this thing on so I
1:07:43
could I could see we just have I think that's awesome too that's a that's a pretty special thing I
1:07:49
think it would be a pretty special thing as the parent to watch your kid do that too so that's there's a great talk
1:07:55
coming up next time that Douglas does with Tony cray and his son is just he's
1:08:01
awesome oh my God he's amazing and his son is is an incredible glass worker too dude yeah Nico I follow him online yeah
1:08:08
yeah his work is super cool it's incredible just uh just another kind of rock star on on a different plane
1:08:15
selling his work on a different totally different style he doesn't have to travel like our dumb asses no
1:08:22
I know he doesn't get this see the interstate that's true that's true well what do you wish I'd asked you what do
1:08:28
you anything else I'll tell you one at every show that I get at least half a dozen times so do you shoe horses
1:08:35
at least half a dozen times that's amazing but that's kind of weird I'll tell you one thing about that I was taking this class one time with this guy
1:08:42
who he was the head blacksmith at Colonial Williamsburg so I don't know if you ever went there when you were a kid
1:08:47
or anything like that it's 60 80 miles away yeah I figured you had to be cool definitely so so this guy he's he does
1:08:54
different type of work than I do but I thought it would be interesting because he's he's really well known and he does
1:09:00
a really good job but I was telling him that story and he said well of course it was that way in America because all
1:09:06
these immigrants came you know from Europe and in Europe it was a class system where there was you know
1:09:11
blacksmiths that only did Gates or railings window grills uh tin Smith silversmiths so it was very
1:09:18
individualized and they were they were all paid accordingly too as far as that goes but you come to this country and it
1:09:25
was Cowboy Up you know it was like you had to do what you had to do to get by right you know so I get all these people
1:09:30
who would be like my grandpa was a blacksmith and he could fix anything and now I know like he had to there was no
1:09:36
other choice that's amazing I always thought that I thought that was kind of interesting as far as that craft goes I mean
1:09:42
I can't imagine too many other people get questions like that no I think 2D is just how long does it take you how long
1:09:49
does it take how long does it take you like that's the big one for um yeah a lot of the 2D I think that's the that's
1:09:56
the big one they want to know they want to know yeah they how long how much you seriously yeah right they want to know
1:10:02
they want to work it down to an hourly rate yeah yeah and then you know you tell them like well like this this
1:10:08
painting right here this piece right here this is more well traveled than you are my friend so yeah and it's like we
1:10:16
are as artists on the street it's like we're the we're the Hat person at the bar you know they're just trying to find
1:10:22
an N they just want to talk to the person that they they're like well it's everything's flattering if even if they
1:10:27
say something super dumb they're just trying to get a little in with you we're like hey do you blah blah blah I'm like well no I don't shoe horses but you know
1:10:34
right it's just a shitty pickup line it's all they're trying to do I you know
1:10:41
I I totally agree with you now that you say that that I think you're right yeah they definitely want some sort of
1:10:46
connection they just want that little in yeah yeah right
1:10:52
so well have a fantastic vacation my friend and uh cool man thank you thank
1:10:57
you so much for having me yeah definitely I wanted to have some um like heavy duty just craft uh on here you're
1:11:06
the man so thank you so much cool man cool all right safe travels cool man all
1:11:11
right man bring my uh bring my fireplace uh yeah yeah we'll do that or uh yeah we'll
1:11:17
talk definitely all right safe travels all right see you will bye now great
1:11:22
talk with Luke will I really enjoyed everything you guys talked about now it's cool to get inside Luke's head a little bit and see where that old world
1:11:28
craft and uh New World design kind of comes from I have a little experience with the old world trade you do thing I
1:11:36
do so I talked about this on our first episode of the podcast but we found out
1:11:41
after we got into blowing glass that I actually came from a long line of
1:11:46
European glass blowers which that's incredible I love that story and so after we started blowing glass I got to
1:11:53
learn about glass as a trade and I thought that what
1:11:59
you talked about with Luke how there was kind of like this hierarchy or this class system involved in the different
1:12:04
types of blacksmithing that was done in Europe there was a similar aspect to
1:12:09
that with glass the sigworth glass blowers they were a nomadic group of people they would build these glass
1:12:15
blowing Villages and they used wood as their resource to burn their furnaces to
1:12:21
melt their glass well once they would use up the trees in that vicinity they'd
1:12:26
pack up nomadic tribe move on to another area and they would move all throughout
1:12:32
Europe so there's cigarettes in just you virus of a people just eating up the
1:12:37
resources and moving on absolutely but think about this I think about okay well glass blowing's in the blood but there's
1:12:44
also that nomadic quality that I feel like is in my family's blood as well where you know I go to these shows and I
1:12:51
kind of feel like Destiny I mean it's so bizarre it's just really crazy that's incredible that's really cool did you
1:12:57
know that the Armstrongs used to go into these little glass blowing tribes and smash and smash no they didn't know they
1:13:05
did not that's amazing though I love hearing those stories do you guys have a uh
1:13:10
Crest like an old world kind of Crest that we do I actually do there's uh there's a sigworth that's on the same
1:13:17
generational line as me that if you go back like six Generations they are family shared siblings in the same line
1:13:23
or whatever and he heads up this entire ancestry Association that is like
1:13:29
thousands of cigarettes are part of and he writes these these yearly histories about different things about our our
1:13:36
family and he's come to the U.S and he actually showed us the crest and I didn't give it the kind of reverence I
1:13:42
should I think I was a little flip about it but anyway these things are a big deal to these
1:13:49
people yeah it's really yeah all right we will post our uh I've got an Armstrong family crest and the Armstrong
1:13:56
we actually have um we have our own plaid the Armstrong plaid really which
1:14:01
is really cool my mom is way into it um but it's uh I'll we'll post that on our
1:14:07
either our Facebook links or our um uh website there at independent artist
1:14:12
podcast will we do that well will we okay
1:14:17
no that's really interesting to me I love history like that and that is uh I
1:14:22
don't know it's why we sit down and talk to the people that we do and Luke Proctor needs himself a Crest so you
1:14:27
need to come up with one big old Hammer his big his big electronic Hammer I was
1:14:32
actually talking to him this week a little bit um after your episode and I he sent me some photos of himself in the
1:14:38
studio and I said Luke you look like a glassblower and he said actually I have a lot of the same equipment you have in
1:14:44
common he was talking about these burners that are glass blowing burners that we have in our in our furnaces and
1:14:51
so anyway it's just kind of cool to learn about how other people do things it is and that's why we're here and I
1:14:56
can't wait for folks to hear next week's talk as well as you sit down with uh just one of my favorite humans Tony cray
1:15:03
he's just like the Zen In The Art of blown glass it's it's going to be
1:15:09
incredible to sit down and hear what he had to say with with Tony it was good he's somebody who I've been doing shows
1:15:15
with now for 20 years I thought I knew everything about him but I learned a lot of new stuff that was really kind of
1:15:21
cool and a really great talk with him yeah I'm not a glass blower obviously and and I I carry my little easel around
1:15:28
it can it can work wherever I want it's cool to sit down and hear that talk with uh and you don't nerd out on glass
1:15:34
either you keep it you keep it reasonable it's just I don't know I've always
1:15:40
admired Tony in the way he goes about his business so it's it's a great time I'm talking about making stuff being
1:15:45
makers and creatives and uh yeah well folks uh here we come to the end of
1:15:50
another podcast and I hope you've had a good time and have good luck at the shows if you're traveling to and from
1:15:56
good weather uh good sales good luck we'll see on the road guys thanks for listening
1:16:02
podcast is brought to you by the National Association of Independent Artists the website is
1:16:08
naiaartists.org also sponsored by zapplication that's zapplication.org and while you're at it
1:16:15
check out Will's website at willarmstrongart.com and my website at
1:16:21
cigarithglass.com be sure to subscribe to this podcast to be notified when we release new episodes
1:16:28
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