Chicago In Parts - Part 1

Lake Michigan

I spent last week visiting a dear friend in the wind swept city of Chicago. In lieu of dropping the hundreds of photos taken onto this site, I will spend the next few posts focusing on specific aspects of my trip, and the city, that I found most intriguing. So to start, here is a view of Lake Michigan from the Chicago Harbor. Having arrived just after a massive blizzard, much was still covered in heavy snow, and the harbor itself was completely frozen. I saw my first ice-fishermen here. As both my friend and myself hail from the tropical south, we thought it odd that so many people were walking atop the icy harbor water. However, after watching a ten-year-old boy struggling to use an ice fishing jig, and then realizing that everyone was dangling miniature fishing rods into small punctures into the ice, logic put it all together. I wonder what all of this must look like from the fishes' perspective. Skylights? Impending doom?

Good Morning

Eagle Creek

Spent Sunday with Jackie on the fuzzy, furry mountains at the Columbia Gorge.

Micro Journals

Yes, that is an almond, and it is there for scale. These journals measure at about 1 1/2" x 2" and are made of dark suede, recycled paper and waxed linen thread.

Recent Projects

In the last few months I have been working mainly on journals and wallets. These are all hand cut, and stitched using waxed linen thread, recycled paper, and local leather from Oregon Leather Company.

Teddy Cruz Lecture

Re-purposed San Diego modular house in Tijuana. 

Land-use analysis at San Diego - Tijuana border.

Last night I attended a lecture at Shattuck Hall put on by Portland State University's Department of Architecture. A personal friend of my former professor Sergio Palleroni, Teddy Cruz presented an incredible breadth of work. Starting with his analyses of the San Diego - Tijuana border, then traveling to Barcelona, South Korea, and Argentina, Teddy's work, through varying lenses of art, architecture, and urban planning, dives deep into the complex relationships between opposing sides of a conflicted border. This conflict materializes in the ways residents relate, the ways communities function, and the ways in which cities evolve. I found the work that Teddy presented to be not just inspirational in its beauty and depth but also sincere and on-going. It served as a true testimony to the bountiful ways which design professionals can apply themselves so that their work can not just benefit their clients, but also their surrounding communities.

Fog Town

My bike ride to work this week has twice consisted of riding through dense nebulous fog. The city's sounds were entirely absorbed, and all things distant were desaturated into ghosts.