Tools

ToolsTraditional still lifes usually portrayed refined and elegant objects of domestic use. I traded the tablecloth for the workbench and painted this series of compositions from a tradesman’s perspective.  I found the tools a more gripping subject than the pewter gravy boats of yesteryear and just as valid.

To extend the drama, I inserted these vignettes into oversized sheet-rock wall surfaces, channeling my days on the construction site as both a laborer and later as an architect.  Those who have ever visited a construction site will have noticed the wealth of scribblings left by the workers on the unfinished plaster walls. They will be painted over and forgotten when the job is delivered, but underneath the skim-coat the walls remain nonetheless as memories of the builder’s art and laborer’s fancy.