Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/853426
LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 8.17 129 PLAYLIST MY METHOD "I never listen to music while making art," says Ann Stewart Anderson, whose paper mosaics will be on display at Galerie Hertz (1253 S. Preston St.) through Sept. 2. "I find it too distracting and prefer the small sounds of creativity — scissors cutting, brushes swishing in water, the ambient noises from outside like birds chirping and distant human voices." She does, however, have a sort of playlist to stop working. Anderson's phone alarm reminds her to take her pills throughout the day, and — because "ringtones are intrusive and ugly and so annoyingly insistent that they make me crazy" — she has synced her favorite music to the alarm. "I take a break, swallow the pills and, refreshed, return to my gluing and cutting," she says. Morning: "Morning Has Broken," Cat Stevens "I wake up to this song. Thirty minutes later I hear Pete Seeger with 'How Can I Keep From Singing?' This combination makes me glad to face a new day and a reason to find something positive." Midmorning: "Amazing Grace," Judy Collins "It has lots of verses, so I have plenty of time to find pills and water." Mida[ernoon: "Simple Gi[s," Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss "This is usually one of my down times of the day, but the soprano voice and the magic of the cello energize me." Evening: "Summerঞme," Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong "Ella's swooping vocals and Satchmo's gravel voice and clear trumpet never fail to send cooling shivers up my spine." Middle of the night: "We Shall Overcome," Harlem Boys Choir "I wake up briefly and seldom get farther than the melodic piano intro. But the message not only wakes me enough to take my pill, it erases the vestiges of nightmares and those omnipresent hovering fearsome nighttime thoughts." Jeremy Vessels was working as a carpenter on a "million-dollar jobsite" not long ago, and he started to learn how to mold plywood — gluing and pressing multiple layers of veneer together. The lifelong skater knew the boards he'd ridden for three decades were molded plywood. If he could master the process, he'd be able to turn old boards into art and furniture. After purchasing the tools and supplies he'd need (band saw, bearing press with a 12-ton jack, wood glue) and finding inspiration in the work of Haroshi — "the Picasso of recycled skateboards," Vessels says — he got to work making tables, wall hangings, sculptures, cutting boards and even beer tap handles on commission. He starts by picking up used or broken skateboards from Home Skate Shop on Bardstown Road or Tiny Skate Shop at the Riot Skatepark off Bluegrass Parkway in J-town. "Until I started doing this, they were just going in the trash," Vessels says. He works out of his Germantown home, where he strips each board, or deck, down to its raw wooden state. He peels off the grip tape with a heat gun or by setting a deck in the sun. A razor blade scrapes off the adhesive residue. He sands off any graphics. What's left is a seven-ply piece of maple wood. Many decks have colorful layers within. "Since the '80s, (the skateboard industry) has been dyeing the veneers. It's basically food coloring," says Vessels, who's in his 40s. To make a table he needs 25 to 30 decks. "It's a ton of work," he says. Some people tell him, "Yeah, but you get the material for free." His response: "But I'm polishing dirt over here." — Kaঞe Molck