On Summit

On May 15 I posted about my submissions to this year's Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition . I'm happy to report that I've had two painting accepted into the show. I previewed one already ( A Pennsylvania Landscape (after Keiley) ). The other accepted work was this one: Moonlight (A Moonlight Poem) (after Becher) Right now, both pieces are being lovingly framed by my friends at Hackman Frames . Hackman is a one of a kind custom framing and gilding operation right here in Columbus and they really do terrific work. We're lucky to have them in town. Also, while I'm offering acknowledgments, Laura Alexander (who also got work accepted into the Fair!) has been kind enough to help deliver my work on drop-off day! I had some scheduling conflicts, but Laura has come through to help out. ...and just when I thought the Fair couldn't get any better, we got Weezer and DEVO tickets!

A couple weeks ago I was contacted by Carrie Ghose at Business First to share my thoughts on architecture in central Ohio. The recent controversy surrounding the new Student Union at Ohio State had apparently sparked a number of conversations regarding what constitutes "good" building design. Carrie was following that story , and developing a second piece to get feedback on other notable Columbus buildings. At the time I offered a staunch a defense of what I believe might be the most maligned and misunderstood building in central Ohio, the Ohio Historical Center. Business First wasn't able to run the whole piece, so I've decided to turn it into a blog post. photo courtesy of OHS/ www.ohiomemory.org The refrain is a as old as the building itself, "It's ugly. It's just a giant brown box. It doesn't even look like a museum". Sadly, it's that exact line of thinking that poses the greatest threat to the building Architectural Record referre...