Canoes

Mid winter for me is the start of canoe building season. In January 2002 I
started my first one, which I finished in time for my 40th birthday on May
14th (I celebrated with a christening paddle from Lake Minnetonka to my home
near Lake of the Isles, via Minnehaha Creek). Since then I've built six and
am working on a seventh. They are made from strips of cedar covered with an
invisible fiberglass/epoxy skin. Their designs (I've made them in various
shapes and sizes; the one in this photo is 14') are based on those devised
by Mac McCarthy, author of Featherweight Canoe Building
(http://www.feathercanoes.com/). I'd done no significant woodworking before
building my first one, and found the process to be step-by-step simple and
incredibly therapeutic. I've heard the same from other boatbuilders. So I
guess what I'm saying is, if you're going through a little mid-winter,
mid-life funk, try building a boat (http://www.woodenboat.com). It's not
hard, and it will make you feel much better!

Ice Fishing

In my part of the world, a lot of men spend a lot of time out on the ice,
for the most part sitting and contemplating a hole in the ice. Much of this
is done at night, or at least in darkness, since the sun sets at 5 PM. Some
of them are in elaborate houses, with heat and electricity and all that that
implies, others are outside sitting on overturned 5-gallon buckets, exposed
to the elements. A lot of them are getting drunk. And they are all staring
down into those dark holes, waiting.

Last night I saw the beautiful documentary, Rivers and Tides, about Andy
Goldsworthy, a sculptor who creates things outdoors out of stones and leaves
and sticks and ice and so on. One of his recurring themes is dark holes.
They appeared in his work after the death of his young sister-in-law, which
left a dark hole in the lives of his family. A dark hole, he says, draws you
into it the same way a sheer cliff attracts you to its edge. Dark holes are
about a stark transition between two worlds, a portal through which life
both ebbs and flows. They are about mortality.

...And here in Minnesota, a bunch of good old boys, out on the nighttime
ice, staring down into dark holes, waiting.

Graffiti

I've got a question: Is all graffiti tagging? In other words, is it all
someone's mark, public signatures in some form or another?

I really don't know much about the various genres of this artform and tend
toward the more conservative "damn kids should paint a piece of plywood if
they want to be artists but can't afford canvas" school of thought.

As an outsider, it all strikes me as marking behavior, i.e. dogs pissing on
lamp posts. Which is not to say that I can't see its appeal. We all want to
make some kind of mark in the world, don't we? I'm particularly drawn to
stencils, and could see a younger version of myself going out and laying
down a few of them some summer nine-beer 4AM.

But like I say, my present self is a bit annoyed with that younger self.

Open Your Eyes

I was wandering around on the ice of Lake of the Isles the other day, where
I found this wooden block frozen into the surface (I had to chip it out with
my Swiss Army Knife). On one side is the Sharpie-written message, faded from
floating, "Open Your Eyes." On another side, a drawn eye.

So I did. And this is what I saw.

Better Than Your Kids

This is very evil and extremely funny (to me and my ilk). Don't go here
without a healthy sense of humor and the ability to handle profanity:

http://maddox.xmission.com/irule.html

I actually kind of like the Frankenstein monster by Bryce, age 10. He gets
at least a B in my book.