An Update

A lot has been going on over the last several months. Last August, it was decided to move–at least temporarily, down south in order to take advantage of the increased amount of “neon requests” that I was beginning to receive. All of these have been in various places in the lower-48 and so, long story short, we’ve been in Minnesota for a little while. Not certain that this will be a permanent move that would justify a residency change to here, but for now this is where we are. After a slow start and a very painfully difficult spring that I won’t go into right now, some of those “neon requests” have begun to take shape.

First off, I have been involved in the launch of a new neon organization, it is not quite ready for publication, so stay tuned, but it will hopefully provide an avenue for those interested without having to participate in a Facebook group (and all the collateral newsfeed strife that FB can entail.)

Next, I anticipate being able to do some teaching or special topic lectures for the neon program at FOCI in Minneapolis (https://www.mnglassart.org/) It is still early and so the details are not yet completely sorted, but they have a neat school and I am definitely looking forward to this opportunity.

Additionally, I have been asked to do a demonstration of some of my vintage neon shop equipment for the “Neon Curiosity Lounge” portion of this year’s Neon Speaks conference in September. (https://neonspeaks.org/) This will be held at MoNA in Glendale, CA (https://www.neonmona.org/) and it promises to be an exciting and fun opportunity to show, explain, and demonstrate some early tools and equipment that are an often overlooked area of neon history. …and there is a possibility of also doing another short course of some type while in town.

Since the specific items I’ll need for this are still in Anchorage, I will be making a trip to move them down for the demo at MONA. Due to the nature of them, adequately packing/padding and then commercial shipping is not really feasible, so I’ll be driving them down myself so that I can insure the smoothest and most careful ride possible. This detail puts me in a definite time crunch as well as a scramble to procure the funds necessary…..at the beginning of all this, fuel and other costs were far less than what they are now….and moving trucks aren’t exactly noted for being thrifty–especially over the multitude of mountain grades that must be driven. (Sometimes I wish there was an anonymous donor whose pet projects include promoting presentations of technical history of odd subject matter out there.) Still, it must be done….and so somehow it will happen.

(….and if you are that type of aforementioned donor who has enjoyed or benefitted from things I have shared on this site or the other places I consult, feel free to scroll on down to that donate button. Thank you.)