Tuesday, December 23, 2008

My latest Effort

I have all good intentions of going back and showing off some of the stuff that I have done over the years but for right now I guess I'll just show off my latest piece. But before I show it, I have to give you a little background... Information point #1 - For the past several years I have been carving my contribution to the annual Christmas Grab bag at work. We have it set up so that everyone places their gift on a table, and in turn, selects another gift. However, if you happen to like the gift that someone before you got, you can swap your (as yet) unopened gift for what that person has. Last year my gift was "owned" by 12 people before the final person got to take it home. This year it made it through 6 people before that last person finally snatched it. Information point #2 - The company I work for makes electronic equipment for the railroad industry. One piece that we make (based on a design from the 30s -- sometimes the railroad business is slow to evolve) is enclosed a nondescript lump of aluminum bronze (for protection from stuff hanging off a passing train that might hit it) that sits along the tracks and is called a "pig". Information point #3 - I try to incorporate one of our pieces of equipment into the carving somehow. I was running out of ideas (our equipment is not very "photogenic") but I finally decided to do something with a "pig" in it. OK, so what to do with a pig? Well, have somebody sit on it. I then remembered this Norman Rockwell painting of a Hobo and his dog (It was a Saturday Evening Post Cover way back in 1924) -- and a carving was born. So here it is. I'm getting a little fancier with my photography. I realized that I could make it a video and that would give you a view from all sides. It sure beats having to up load a whole stack of pictures. So without further adieu, here it is: I hope you like it. Keep makin' chips!