For the 2nd straight year, we were guests of the Philadelphia Phillies on the occasion of Jackie Robinson Day, April 15, 2012. The statue is a one-of-a-kind, hand-carved, solid-wood statue, depicting Robinson in a 1955 home Dodger uniform. Everything you see on that statue is wood; the shoes, shoelaces, hat, skin, uniform: everything. Fans enjoyed taking photos with it all game long. It was a great experience and I want to thank the Phillies, particularly Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi, for their work in making this come off so easily.
Jackie’s next stop is scheduled to be the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO, in time for this Summer’s All-Star game, which is in KC this year.
The Phillies crew gets some close ups of Jackie right off the bat.
The boys eat lunch behind the sign. It’s a long drive down for them and they need some fuel.
The boys each got a Phillie Phanatic from the guys at the Phillies. It was a very generous gift for them and they loved them! All day, they were our constant companions.
Here’s Gregg Murphy of the Phillies going over our in-game spot in the 5th inning. They could not get a camera to show the statue live, so they used the shots they had gotten earlier and we did the spot from the standing room section behind the left field foul pole. Murphy was very nice and put me at ease and the spot came off nice and relaxed.
The boys were tired but rallied in the suite. We only had an inning or two up there, because we have to be with the statue mostly, but we did get up there. The two gentlemen in the background are the fellows who played for the Phildelphia Stars in the early 1950′s. They signed the ball we got last year and we were glad to see them again. The Tuskegee Airmen were in a different suite and I got over there in time to speak to a few of them and that was a real nice treat. They are great guys and the country should be aware of their sacrifices under trying conditions.
The boys pose with their Phanatics.
The boys loved the doughnut car and even got some freebies.
All in all, it was a wonderful day. Both boys were old enough to go and really enjoyed it. The Phillies’ staff was just great as always and we hit all of our marks during the day. Many, many people said very nice things about the statue and it’s always great to get the statue out in front of baseball fans and hear their comments. It makes all the hours spent covered with sawdust seem worth it. Thanks, everybody. Hope to see you next year.
Recently completed: a solid-wood, hand carved, life size statue of Curt Schilling’s leg (yes, leg). The sculpture will be auctioned off to benefit ALS at a future date to be determined.
I had a ball making this item and I really like it although it generates some interesting responses, from bemused to, “who’s Curt Schilling?” from the non-sporting crowd. I have had it in front of people and the responses have been nice.
I got so tired of people not understanding that my art was 100% wood, even, at times, when they were standing in front of it and being told by me that it was wood. You would be surprised. So with this piece, I put it right out there and I plan on doing that with all of my pieces from now on.
* And before anyone asks me, I’ll tell you. ALS is handling the auction. It’s not on any fast track right now. Yes, I have tried to contact Curt Schilling through social media to propose the idea that he sign it to give it legs in the auction. Since I’m not making a dime off of it, I figured that I’d at least be acknowledged and to date I have not been. Am I disappointed in that? Well, to be completely honest, I am a little, I have to admit, but, I know he’s doing this huge launch to a product that his company has sweated blood to produce, so I understand the busyness.
I know he has people coming at him from all angles with his gaming company and on and on, so I do respect the demands placed on him, however, when someone spends the time I did, meticulously creating an art object for a charity auction for a cause that he champions, then I would hope for an acknowledgement at least. Even if the answer is “no”, which it could easily be. He may be uncomfortable getting too close to something that might appear self-serving. I would totally respect that. But I would like to at least hear, “message rcvd. great work. sorry, no can do good luck”. That’s it. Would that be too much? I read 10 tweets a day from him about the video games and sundry so it’s not like he’s not plugged in. Oh well, everything happens for a reason. So don’t ask me this question again! Got it? haha. Thanks.
Addendum: The Jackie Robinson statue looks like it will be appearing at Citizens Bank Park for the Mets-Phils on Sun April 15, 2012, but I do not have confirmation on that as of right now. It’s a strong possibility however. Love to see everyone there. Day game! Very pleased that the schedule makers did that.
Also, I am in talks with the Negro League Baseball Museum to have Jackie shipped out to Kansas City and displayed at the museum through the All-Star Game period. I’m very happy about that as well. Jackie belongs there and I hope a lot of folks get to see him.
Buried Treasure, Fox 5 NY, Wed 8pm, w/ 2nd show at 9pm
My family, like a lot of others, is into collectibles and antiques. I have, along with my brothers, collected antique glass since I was in gramar school. I’ve literally dug antique glass out of 150 year old rubbish heaps as well as bought & sold it at shows, auctions, online and through magazine want ads. I’ve been a dealer at shows as well. So naturally, we like Antiques Roadshow. It’s a great show. It was one of the first reality shows. It made stars of the Keno brothers, the identical twins who do the furniture reviews on Roadshow.
In the last 2 years, you have seen several shows get into that space: Pawn Stars and Pickers namely, but there are several others that center around auctions and appraisals and even restorations. Apparently, PBS’s show just scratched the surface of the true demand in this space that they so expertly pioneered. Now, after over a decade, they have spun off the Keno’s into their own show. My first thought was “boy, was that late–they should have done this 7 years ago!”.
My mother and I watched the first shows and even though we were really fired up about the concept, we were scratching our heads as to how they decided to implement it. I don’t know a lot about TV, but I assume that the Producer or Executive Producer is the one who shapes the show’s final look and feel. Here is the blurb on the website as to who this is:
BURIED TREASURE is a production of ITV Studios America. The series is co-created by Joe Livecchi (“What Not to Wear”) and Tim Miller (“White House: Behind Closed Doors”), and executive produced by Livecchi, Miller, Paul Buccieri (“Eleventh Hour”), Leigh Keno and Leslie Keno. Tim Eagan (HELL’S KITCHEN) serves as co-executive producer.
So I guess our beefs are directed at one or all of these folks.
Anyway, our beefs are many. First off, we watch these shows to
(a) learn about the pieces and to
(b) see the pieces and
(c) then hear an appraisal with regard to condition issues.
In this show, we don’t learn much about the pieces. On Roadshow, which is the gold standard, we get a real concise but thorough education about a piece by an expert.
We don’t always see the pieces long enough or in enough detail. There are too many edits to the Kenos and to the people sitting there trying to ratchet up artificial drama. Treat it more like Roadshow. Put everyone in one big shot for the “payoff” moment. While we’re building up to it, let’s see the piece!
The single most annoying thing about the show is the producer attempting to build tension and tease the big price reveals. DON’T ABUSE your audience! We know you’re going to talk price so just do it and get ON WITH IT! For heaven’s sake, don’t have the Keno’s stutter in their sentences to build up phony tension! It’s annoying! Ask the Kenos if they would EVER treat a client that way in their biz–they wouldn’t DREAM OF IT! But you think nothing of doing that to your audience like we are idiots! Speak plainly like they do on Roadshow! Save it for last, ok fine, but don’t tease it so much and don’t have them try to add drama with spoken pauses! That’s just obnoxious!
There are other more mildly annoying things about the show. One is that they try very hard to inject some personal tales of woe into the narrative. Most of the time, it’s a reach. One woman was a borderline hoarder; one wanted money for a child’s education; one wanted to (get this) feel “closer” to his dead brother! These are thinly disguised and thoroughly manufactured premises. We see through them. Just reveal the items and educate us and appraise them. It’s nice that they might want the money for a child’s education, but it doesn’t materially change the item, what it’s worth and the appraisal. I honestly DO NOT care if someone will, or will NOT, sell their item. It’s moot. I am not all tied in knots because a guy won’t sell his Superman comic book worth 20 G’s. I just don’t care. It’s his book and his life. If finding out you have a 20 thousand dollar bill there is causing you conflict, I think that’s phony-baloney. I suspect the producer is TELLING you to act this way for his dopey vision of what a good show is, or is not. I smell a rat. It’s immaterial. The item, the history and the appraisal, are why I’m tuning in and the phony, ginned-up “drama” is why I probably WON’T be tuning in much longer.
Look, it’s a neat idea. Keep it simple. Some people have big jumbles of old stuff and may not know what they have. You want to bring in pros to sort through it and highlight the highlights, then great! That concept stands on it’s own merit. The teases and delays and repeating things after the break are just obnoxious and get in the way of a nice concept. You have something the other shows do not–the Kenos! Put them in the best light, doing what they do best and LET THEM DO IT! People LIKE them and what’s more, people feel they know them and trust them so let them lead in an uncluttered way.
It’s not too late for the show, but you have to be ready to really rethink some of the things you’re doing and simplify it. Force it less. Let it flow more via the Kenos, otherwise, why have them?
After 3 hours of sleep, it was up at 3am and driving down from NY with the Jackie Robinson statue to do the first of many interviews and appearances at Fox. Ably assisted by Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi of the Phillies, we hit our marks out in front of Fox at 7:20am. A few teaser shots and then a short interview with Fox 29′s John Anderson. Click here to see the interview in a new window
Here’s a small clip my brother took from a little way away during the Uke Washington interview:
Then it was on to a community Jackie Robinson Event at the Philadelphia Stars Memorial at Belmont and Parkside Aves, in Philadelphia. That crossroads was the location of the Philadelphia Stars ballpark. The Stars were Philly’s entry in the old Negro League. Later this day, my family would get to meet two of the last surviving members of that franchise.
There were many groups attending and special promotions from the Phillies. The children were having a ball and posed for this photo.
There were several groups and this particular group did a dance number before posing.
There were many nice monuments marking the site and those who were a part of it. I really enjoyed meeting regular folks from this community and just listening to the older fellows tell me how much Jackie Robinson and Monte Irvin and Larry Doby meant to them growing up. You know, when you do an event like this, those dusty pages in a history book become real live anecdotes and recollections and it was amazing to take it all in. It was also very flattering to hear the very sincere compliments for the statue. When you spend that long covered with itchy sawdust, it is very gratifying to hear these things and see the sparkle in their eyes, as opposed to words on a page.
Here we are finally at The Bank. It’s early; well before batting practice and my amazing handlers with the Phillies (Kenny Johnson & Deb Rinaldi) lined up a couple of more interviews. The first was with John Mayberry, the man who’s hit won the exciting Phils opener. I don’t have any photos of that interview but it went very well and it was nice to see and hear John’s reaction to the statue. It was probably the first time I had spoken to someone who was directly in line with Robinson’s courageous work, so it was extra special for me.
After that piece, we did a short interview with Comcast out in dead center field. What a beautiful backdrop! I have been to 40 different major league ballparks in my lifetime and Citizens’ Bank Park is my favorite building. Everything about it just feels right.
All night it was the same thing: folks lined up in a semi circle around it, taking photos and asking questions. It never gets old. I met some really tremendous people and heard just an amazing array of stories and anecdotes about Robinson, Civil Rights, baseball, art and on and on. This part of it is easy and never feels like work.
By this point in the day, I’m feeling my 3 hours of sleep and nonstop itinerary pretty acutely, however, a great subplot was that my 3.5 year old son, Thomas, came to the game and it was his first time in a big league ballpark! What a way to break in! His uncle Bob, shown below, was holding him up to see the Phillies take batting practice and he caught a BP homer left handed while holding Thomas in his right hand! So on his first game day, Thomas gets a ball!
Later on this evening, Thomas got the ball signed by the last two remaining Phildelphia Stars and for that I am very grateful and want to thank both the Stars and again, my Phillies guardian angel, Kenny Johnson. Kenny is just a pro’s pro and he hit his marks (and kept me hitting mine) all day long with aplomb. He put on a clinic. It’s a pleasure to watch someone do something that they are so good at, whether it be art, or sports, or even business.
Below is Thomas showing off his baseball. How great is that?
Here’s the family; my wife Carol and Thomas (Jack Benny is too little and is spending the day with his grandparents). I’m looking a bit tired by this point and perhaps a bit cold as the temp dropped towards gametime, but on April 15th in the East, you are going to have that. I was just thanking God all day that there was no rain as that was the one thing that would have given us a problem.
Since my statues are 100% solid wood, they will not hold up to weather, so it was a concern. All around baseball, there are many life size statues that honor players but they are all bronze. Bronze is great for holding up to weather and can be outdoors permanently. But Bronze is one color. The great thing about the wooden statues is that I can show color and isn’t baseball a colorful thing anyway? Add to that the color component of the Robinson story and it makes a nice fit. There are currently no color statues such as this permanently residing in any major league ballpark. Wouldn’t it be nice (and somehow fitting) for this statue to be the first?
After a little breather, I did two more spots thanks to Deb Rinaldi and Kenny Johnson. The first was a spot right behind the statue that went very well. It was what they call a “talkback”, which means, I wore an earpiece and had to listen for a cue from an unseen host. It was hard to hear with the crowds and I was worried that I would miss the cue or not be able to make out what the host was asking me, but it turned out to be the best one all day just about. I think I was too tired to be nervous! I’ll tell you, I have new respect for anyone who makes their living with a mike and a camera. They make it look easy–it isn’t.
Here’s what it looked like. I sure look rigid in this shot, but I felt pretty loose, all in all.
After that, I had to run halfway around the stadium and do a pregame radio spot and that was fun and went really well. By then I suppose, it didn’t seem so strange to be doing this stuff.
On the way back to the statue from the plate area, I heard my voice on the PA and quickly ran down the tunnel to the seating area, so that I could see the Phanavision screen. They were showing my 2 minute video which I had narrated. It was the strangest sensation to hear my voice blaring around Citizens Bank Park like that, but there it was. It was a day of things like that and one that I’ll never forget.
I mentioned that two of the old Philadelphia Stars had signed Thomas’ ball and here are their names on the statue by their old stomping grounds which we had visited earlier.
The gentlemen who signed were Mahlon Duckett and Harold Gould. I also got a chance to meet some of the Tuskegee Airmen and that was a big thrill. My father and just about all of my uncles were WWII vets. Men of that generation shaped me more than any other and I have read a great deal about that war and so it was just tremendous to shake the hand of men who flew Jugs and P-51′s against the Germans in those dark days.
Guys like that gave us a lot of freedom and I think it gets taken for granted sometimes, unfortunately. The Tuskegee Airmen, not only had to deal with bombs and bullets, but the institutionalized racism of the day: a double whammy. They are great men for having done all of that and children should know their story.
And again and again, all night, folks stopped by to talk, take photos and ask questions. It was great.
April 15th 2011, a day in which the Jackie Robinson statue went many places and met many nice folks, hopefully, making them happy and spreading awareness of what went on, not that long ago. The statue is tentatively slated to visit the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City later this Summer but as of right now, there are no details.
I want to thank the Philadelphia Phillies for all of their support. I have worked with various organizations and baseball clubs through the years, but I have never seen the professionalism and can-do spirit that I did these past few weeks while working with the Phillies. As I have said, much of that was through the hard work of Kenny Johnson and Deb Rinaldi, who made it easy to do all of these things without one single hitch. As I look back at the itinerary and see all the marks we hit from 7am to 10pm, I am amazed that it went so seamlessly and that is a testament to their diligence. I hope to work with them again in the future.
Here’s my takeaway shot for the day: the first time my little buddy is at a big league game. It was filled with memorable things. I have to wonder, however, that at 3 and a half, will he remember it years from now? I hope he does. I know I will.
Thanks for all the kind words and stories! Enjoy the game.
Saw some search engine searches coming through that had the text string “Mickey Mantle statue” in them, so I figured I would put this out there. This photo was taken at Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant on Central Park South in New York City way back in the mid-90′s.
I still have this statue in inventory–inquiries welcome!
He’s life size in all details and depicted in that classic Mantle left-hand hitting power stroke. The foot print is about 5 feet in length by about 2.5 feet in width.
I’ve finally gotten the time to edit the clips together and it came out fairly well. I’m pleased. We are in talks with some potentially big parties so fingers crossed. Enjoy.
With perhaps days/hours to go before the baby, I’m doing a big push on Jackie Robinson to see how far I can get before my life changes so much. I had a big day in the shop yesterday and took these stereo photos.
Together, they can be viewed in 3-D. If you were one of those who could left your eyes relax and see those old 3-D, computer-generated drawings, then you SHOULD be able to do this the same way. I can do it. But it takes a few moments to get it.
The trick, for me, is to get far enough away from the two photos, so that they are a little smaller than a postcard, held at arms length. Then you stare, allowing your eyes to relax and not truly focus. When your eyes are relaxed correctly, you should see double–that’s 4 images. Keep trying different pressures on your focus until the two center photos become 1 photo and it will be 3-D. It’s eerie. When you get it, you will KNOW, so if you are wondering, then you don’t have it. Remember: Try and make the middle two images merge into one, so that overall, there are 3 photos, and only concentrate on that middle photo–that’s the one that will become 3-dimensional.
How did I take this photo? With a 3-D camera? Nahh, with my own camera. Since I’m working with a tripod, and nothing is in motion, the time lapse between photo1 and photo2 can be ignored. You couldn’t do this trick with live action, because p1 and p2 would not match. But in the studio, you just take one photo and then move the tripod 80mm to the right and take another one. 80mm is about the distance between people’s eyes. The “interpupillary distance”. Actually, in the population, it’s much smaller for most and is smaller for women and bigger for some ethnic groups. It runs between 65 and 83 mm. At 25.4 mm per inch, you do the inch-math.
With the two photos of EXATLY the same thing and yet from two slight different (80mm apart) vantage points, they are about what your brain takes in and processes into one, 3-D image. The slightly different perspective means that the right eye sees a little further around Jackie’s left side, than the left eye can see. That info is used by your wonderful brain to give you all sorts of depth and distance information. Imagine trying to golf without it! “How far to the pin?” “Where’s the 150 yd marker?”
And for you Liberals out there, remember, the beauty of the eye and the brain and the depth is pure chance–we’re talking NO INTELLIGENT DESIGN, right? Don’t even think those words in a public school.
Before you go thinking I’m some kind of techy person, realize that 3-D cameras and looking at “stereo-images” like we are here, originated at about the time of the Civil War. Stereo view photos were all the rage from about 1870 to 1910. They looked like this:
They were viewed in a viewer that looked like this:
The slides were available as canned, commercially produced photos of current events and famous places and landmarks. Think GAF-viewmaster from the 1970′s:
I’m not sure why they fell out of favor. Perhaps WWI, which destroyed so much of what good was happening in the world around 1914.
Anyway, they did commercially produce stereo cameras for the home-gamer and here is one:
All you need is the ability to take TWO images simultaneously, one interpupillary distance apart. Now if you search for these things, you will only find, I believe, film cameras from yesteryear. There doesn’t seem to be any digital stereo cameras available. There are a couple of guys who have hacked together two digital cameras, but the hack is never simple and the mounting and alignment is never easy. Both lenses have to point at the same focal point out in space, or the pictures will look hokey–like mine!
What I want to know is why doesn’t SOMEone produce a decent digital stereo camera? WHY? With PC’s bringing down photography prices and giving us all sorts of exotic ways to display them, it’s a perfect marriage! I have searched, but not recently, so it’s possible that there is something out there now. If anyone knows of a product, comment in please.
For Jackie fans, Jackie may be getting his first paint today on the lower legs and shoes and pants. It’s always the single biggest, quickest change in the statue and for a medium that goes crawling by in the hundreds of hours, this is a welcome thing.
Jackie’s hands are in that block. Although I’m not quite there yet, I’m dreaming of the moment I can begin to cut up that block. My wife thinks I should be dreaming of our impending baby–on or about March 17th…
Jack in his earliest full figure mode. We’re a bit beyond this point by now. Other statues have had the “second-story, box-construction”, but none have been done as well as this one. After a few attempts and some wasted wood, I have gotten it right. Not only the size but the fact that you leave the back out, and do that as a separate piece–a third peice, to be joined later. I’ve finally gotten smarter and gotten over my monolithic thinking.
While it’a about wood, it’s specifically about 4 equations: Wood=$. Wood=LBS. Wood=Time. Time=$.
The project at my IT job is going full bore. I’m 12 hours a day on site every day and I haven’t even looked at Jack Roosevelt this week. And a time when I was cruising too! Hurts, but what can you do.
I am working with a project manager from the vendor who is challenging every fiber of my self-restraint. And this vendor has already pushed us back 4 months on this project on basically, a whim. I got a call from the VP of Client Services saying, “…ahh, we can hit our Sept go-live and training dates, but you won’t have the best experience. If you want to push back to Jan, we can recommend that will be better.”
I was dumbfounded. I was also impressed with their honesty, but overall, they were telling me flat out: “You aren’t a big client and/or you don’t mean a whole hell of a lot to us right now. Your gig, is peanuts–we have bigger irons in the fire and we’re pulling the resources from you to deal with that, and you will probably be better off listening to us”.
It’s like a waiter saying, “you don’t really want the lamb (something that actually happened to me in Toronto once)”. You listen to that because you KNOW it’s difficult for them to say, so you KNOW that there’s a damn good reason that they are saying it!
My one feeling after agreeing to table the project to January, was that, “…boy, after pulling that, they are going to really overdeliver in Jan on the professional services…”
Ha! WRONG! I would want to overdeliver to a client after pulling that stunt, but THEY see it differently. They gave me not just the junior varsity, they gave me the freshman squad. You know when a project manager is so clueless, that they don’t even know they’re bad? They still have that dopey, annoying, high-opinion of themselves while they happily waste your time, money and resources.
On their leaving the data entry portion of the project, on Thursday, this woman said to me, “…don’t worry, as your people key in more charts, the folder with the charts to be keyed, will go down, and the completed folder will grow”.
She took a few more words to say it than that, but it was essentially that same message. At the point I was hearing it and realizing what captain-obvious thing she was saying to me, it was all I could do to not laugh out loud in her face. And this was after her lying and unpreparedness, cost me a few grand earlier that day–to which she instantly blamed another vendor. You can’t make this up.
Here is the output of a program I wrote in VB dot net. It’s a slap-together program but it does what I want it to do and it’s not for sale, so I don’t care about the polish or lack thereof.
Among other things that it can do, it allows me to resize and overlay and most importantly, fade the opacity of photos, so that I can compare. Compare what? Compare a photo of a person in the position I’m sculpting with a photo of the work to-date.
It does in actuality, what sculptors do in their heads. While most sculptors would love this for helping them “see” what to take-away, because of how I work, it helps me save time and material in knowing how much wood to ADD before I do the take-away thing.
I’m still going to measure like crazy; and squint; and visulaize and draw on the piece with pencils and sharpies, but to have a static record that I can measure OFF of, without repeatedly posing and measuring myself (don’t laugh, it happens all the time), I can be quicker and more precise.
The unsettling part is that the overlays reveal errors that I have made that annoy me. Hopefully, we can correct for them and the viewer will be blissfully, unaware and no, I never say specific, negative things about my work because that would prejudice the viewer and if they don’t find the faults that I find with the piece, are they really there? And also remember that my standards are a lot higher than the typical, casual viewer.
They were viewed in a viewer that looked like this:
The slides were available as canned, commercially produced photos of current events and famous places and landmarks. Think GAF-viewmaster from the 1970′s:
All you need is the ability to take TWO images simultaneously, one interpupillary distance apart. Now if you search for these things, you will only find, I believe, film cameras from yesteryear. There doesn’t seem to be any digital stereo cameras available. There are a couple of guys who have hacked together two digital cameras, but the hack is never simple and the mounting and alignment is never easy. Both lenses have to point at the same focal point out in space, or the pictures will look hokey–like mine!
Here is the output of a program I wrote in VB dot net. It’s a slap-together program but it does what I want it to do and it’s not for sale, so I don’t care about the polish or lack thereof.
