new moon, new year ...

happy new year everyone!

as we head into 2017 and my 38th year of custom furniture making, 

i'd like to wish all of you a healthy and prosperous new year.  

we had a lovely holiday season here, and after one more day of rest tomorrow, we'll be back at it,

we've got a number of projects we're wrapping up and several new and interesting ones on the board.

as i sometimes do on the new year, i'll leave you with a few thoughts that have 

been lurking around my brain for a while...
click the photos to enlarge them ... 

back in the 90s, for a while i kept a sketchbook/scrapbook.  it came to light a while back from a box in the cellar, and, while there's lots of (dated) stuff in there, i plan to put some effort into sorting through it this year.  while it was living in my drawer this year, i stuck two clippings on the cover, one about lou reed and one on leonard cohen .. 

'i'd go there more often.' ... perfect! ... both are worthy of some further thought ..

as i fast approach the big 7 zero , i am sometimes asked if i will be retiring soon,

at the moment at least, i think not ... 

besides work and my day to day home life with kit and the boys, i seem to be making plenty 

of time for painting, pottery, golf, tennis, and paddle tennis. i don't sit still well ...

this year, i plan to teach myself to paint at least somewhat more realistically.

i am still in touch with and visiting with my painter friend horst, and though he has recently had a physical setback at 92, is still painting from time to time. i had the most lovely visit with him yesterday as i dropped off a book that i had made for him as a thank you for his 'teachings'.

and speaking of late stage, there was a recent article in the new york times magazine on chuck close
about the source of ideas and their relation to 'process' ...
it's a long one, and it concludes with some thoughts on 'late stage' work ..

you'll have to blow this one up to read it .. the gist of it .... 'artists don't retire' ... 

so, after some fine visits with friends both old and new over the holidays, stories swapped, both new and familiar, it kind of, for me at this point, boils down to mr. marquez's thought below ..

happy new year!

20 minutes later .... 

on second thought, i leave you with a poem, 'Cosmolgy' by billy collins.

typically, i'm not inclined to read much poetry, but i like this one ...