what was that? is that all there is? who is this? this is it.

Fourteen years ago I made a silkscreen of the slippery-when-wet bike safety sign (if you speak the lingo you know it's W8-10 bro) Yesterday I made myself another black t-shirt with it and it came out OK. But when the silkscreen was still wet I slathered it onto a campus map that was sitting around. And that [map + sign] got me more excited than the t-shirt. The front hub just happened to land in the middle of Red Square. I couldn't have lined that up if I tried. 

Bob Ross would say it's less of a logical progression and more of a happy little accident. 

Yesterday I got seven sevens from Steve hand-delivered all the way from Rip City. Each digit is hand-painted with unique color combinations. Each digit also has two kick-ass magnets installed.

the minifridge has never looked better…

run the numbers

numerology buffs 

talk amongst yourselves

endless possibilities

open to interpretation

oh 7 oh 7

seven 7’s 

7 sevens

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 

am I able? 

yes

am I amiable? 

occasionally

after a few beers

am I available?

am I approachable?

am I affable? 

amiable upon request?

am I able to be amiable

upon request?

fake it 

‘til you make it

or not

Am I able to scrounge a

FLAMMABLE LIQUID

warning sticker off the ground in the LifeSciencesBuildingbro loading dock? 

Yes I am

Then I chopped the sticker into pieces and shuffled them onto a scrap of cardboard and called it a postcard. Weeks and weeks later I wrote on it and hand delivered it via electric ass bathtub to the Medicinal Herb Garden Guy.

Completing the round trip to Life Sciences. 

a recurring theme

Mister McFeely

keeps coming around

read a book

read a magazine

send a postcard

A recent shift in my shop space created a gap for a table, a drying rack, a slop-sink mop-sink utility-sink off-loading silk-screen supply platform if you will. 

I could go to the store and buy some new fasteners. I could find the exact match online and buy two of them. I could give a shit about color coordination.  I could get a brand new table, in just the right size at IKEA and it would off-gas its particle board odors for 5 to 7 years. Fuck that. 

What truly brings me joy is finding old seemingly incompatible  shit that’s been sitting around in the garage for years and slapping it together to create something new. Something new to me.  Some people call that In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) 

I call it taking it out of context and putting it back in.

On this project there was no measuring, no calculation, no trips to the hardware store and no out-of-pocket expenses. This project cost a total of zero dollars because it was all just sitting in the garage collecting dust. 

A few years ago I found a Lyon stool in a to-be-tossed pile. It was  missing...

these are 175mm

let's talk

about

something else

We all know why SIX was afraid of SEVEN. 

But what do we know about FIVE SIX? 

It’s a quality of life issue since 1969

Angel number 56 signifies embracing change and new opportunities with positivity and adaptability

It’s Lawrence Taylor's number and it’s retired 

Fifty-Six is a town in Arkansas for real really. Not to be confused with Fiftysix, Arkansas. 

56 means something to Koshalla

Math geeks could go on and on about 56

56 is the number on the mail room in Bagley Hall. It’s more like a storage closet where the mail gets delivered each Mister-McFeely-morning. 

Bagley was built in 1937 and houses the Chemistry Department at UW. I like to visualize the craftsman that hand painted those digits on the doors in Bagley some time between now and 1937. Years later the 56 was covered up with tape and a sign for some reason. Then more years later the sign was removed but the residue remains and it makes me smile in 2025...

FIVE SIX

like riding a bike, it is

asking for it

what you wish for

careful be

jackets

Members Only 

consolidated laundry

redundantly 

repetitiously

repeatedly

as often as necessary

blurring the lines 

all you can eat

salad bar 

sneeze guard

overspray 

work-around

run the numbers

plug & chug

two

seven

five

four 

eight