Old School Playhouse making news

At www.mlive.com those interested can take a gander as the Playhouse gets spotted by our local distributors crane truck. Going to make it a point to get by to see this project.

Well done, John!

Well, I got a lot of votes, but not enough to be in the running. No luck this year.

Thanks guys. The "juried" results are out and I didn't make it with them. that is not surprising. The People's choice runs until this Saturday at Midnight, and then the top 5 in each category are set up as the only ones to vote for and the voting starts again for a week. At the end of that week (Oct 10) the votes are tallied and the winner is announced. All of the pieces in that final count will receive a cash prize of $12,000 I think with the winner taking home $200,000. It is a BIG deal. I am sure I am doing well, but the place I am showing is a bit far from the center of the whole thing. About 3 blocks south. The weather has been wet for the last few days too, and when it rains, people go to the inside venues and Mine doesn't get the traffic I need. We will see how it goes. I have had many people come in and say they were looking for me specifically and I was the first one they went to see. It is a crap shoot. Wish me luck.

Old School Said: Hey thanks Andy. The guy at the restaurant made some phone calls to the media and they literally swarmed me when I got up there. I worked all day on Thursday, trying to get that damn thing picked up and on the truck with the best Pittsburgh roofers. Friday morning, I went and got the materials to make the sling that we finally used. I had to design it and make it and then use it twice, once to lift it on and then to get it off. I had a couple of eggs and a cup of coffee early Friday morning and then nothing till after the second interview. I was so parched I could hardly talk.

It was a mess inside when we got it up there. It was clipping tree branches till we got on the main roads and there were leaves and acorns everywhere. I got the gutters back on and the inside cleaned today and it looks whole again. Now, some touch up paint and a few other details and I can relax for the first time in 10 months. I will post some pictures of everything after Tuesday when it is going to be ready to be viewed.

Mike, I have never read anything on facebook before and when I saw the comments from people that just saw the pictures and have never met me or even knew of me I was amazed. I suppose I look like a carpenter because I are one. I wonder what an artist looks like?

GOod luck with the voting John. I wonder how this turned out. I think that if you put your all into doig something that its not just skill that will get you there in the end.

Good luck with the voting John. Hope the whole experience is rewarding. As for the various and sundry editorializing you can expect anytime you stick your neck out, I'd say you have a good solid base under you and if Andy can "see the excitement in people's faces" you can pretty much assume you're solidly into the art category.

You'd have to pay over a hundred million dollars for artwork that when new was considered by many to be not art. But then, you could pay over a hundred million dollars for something that is still not art. The whole subject is a bit slippery and often very contentious.

And then, when one gets over the initial hurdle, the question inevitably comes up: "Is it art or is it great art?"

If you put your heart and soul into something, not merely skill, I can pretty much guarantee you are an artist. In my not very humble opinion, art is never about money, even where artists, agents, and collectors are. Whether something sells for $8.50, $850, or $85,000, the artistic question is a thing separate unto itself.

Artists do what they do when they do and how they do because they are moved by an impulse beyond the merely pedestrian and practical. Once you take that leap the whole question of art becomes moot and also largely nonsensical.

Back atcha, John! It was good of you to take a few moments out of your busy day to visit with us. It is great to put the personality with the face, but with all of the back and forth on the forum over the years it all felt very familiar.

The castle is a real stunner. You could see the excitement in people's faces. We experienced a traffic jam as we drove up on the site .... people were driving the street, looking for your project, stopping and pointing fingers . . . pretty cool.

Woody, I had builders risk insurance on it through the company as I built it . When I got set to lift it, we then transferred to an Inland Marine Policy that covers it while moving and setting it down etc. That policy will stay in effect until I sell it and get the check, or until i bring it back and set it at the house on a permanent foundation. The venue also has insurance on it in Grand Rapids. Tomorrow they are going to "Stage" the outside and start on the staging of the inside. I am about done with my work up there. Now, let the voting begin. I don't know if they will bring in school kids to look at things. That would be good. I am sure that a lot of families will be down, as a lot have been there already. It doesn't officially start until Wednesday. So far, the "people" have loved it. I am not sure who I would send the bill to for the transportation. If I win, it is no problem, If I can sell it , no problem. If not, it was an expensive media campaign for the company. I had fun anyway!

As I get older and nearer to retirement, I have become far more risk averse. If I had a project that involved using a crane to lift something massive in a downtown area, I would pass on it unless it was really financially beneficial.

For what you had to do, I would add up all the expenses of the crane, rigging, labor @ $70 per hour and insurance and add 25% for overhead and then add another arbitrary number, somewhat over $2,000 just to make it worth the bother. Just getting it setup would likely be a bill over $6,000.

John, did you take out an insurance policy or rider to do this? Was it on your business or homeowners policy?

As to relying on the voters, if they bus in schoolchildren to see the exhibits, you're a lock. Also, if lots of families visit to expose their kids to art. But if you have to rely on the pinky-finger-in-the-air crowd, you probably won't have as much of a chance.

Ah heck, When I first read them I was offended and hurt a bit, but then again, I don't know them and they don;t know me. That is half of the fun of going to Art Prize, just to see what people do with things and then call it art. There is a lot of interesting exhibits up there. I could not do a lot of it, and I know that most of them couldn't do what I did.

The public vote is what I am after and the people were going crazy over it today. The whole thing doesn't open until this Wednesday or Thursday, and I have gotten more publicity than any other exhibit up there. That bodes well! I have to finish up a few small details and clean it up yet and then it will be "staged" both inside and out, and I say, "let the voting begin!"

I was eating lunch up there and who but Andy walked in! I got to meet his wife and BIL and his wife and show them through the house. They couldn't go upstairs as the steps were still wet, but then again, it is a tiny house and it doesn't take much to go through it. It was good to finally meet him after talking on the forum all of these years.

Those left wing artsy-fartsy people get their feathers up when someone not of their ilk tries to express themselves. In their world you can establish your name and then shoot paintballs at a canvas and call it the "Tragedy Of The New Millennium Man" and sell it for millions. What thought process did it take to create something like that compared to what you did in your project.

All those comments sound like the parents at their kids science fair who grumble about some outstanding project that appears and belittle what their child has done.

Thanks for the reality check guys. I am with the masses too! It is pretty bad when a 64 year old grand father can't build a heirloom for his grandchildren without being criticized. I believe I told them it was for sale for a minimum of $85K and if it doesn't sell I don't have to build another one. Maisy, my oldest grand daughter told me that I could build another, "but this one's mine!" If someone offers me a ridiculous amount for it I would be a fool not to take it. The market will tell me how much it is worth. I already know how much I value it at so I really don't care what other people think.

It was a lot of work to build, but a lot of fun too. I learned about 20 different ways NOT to build one and I will make improvements as I do others. I wanted to show others what building could look like and this is the perfect venue for that. What exposure!! One of the owners up there told me that "Art Prize" was on the cover of Newsweek in 2014 and it is listed as one of the 10 best things to do and attend; not just in Michigan, not just in the United States, but in the WORLD! There are about 400,000 people touring the city and looking at the entries on any given day. The impact on the economy is enormous. If I can do well in this, it will be a feather in the cap of all builders everywhere.

I just wanted to see if I could do it. I was successful! The heck with the naysayers!

Andy and Sean and Twil. You guys are closer than most with Andy and Sean being right in the area. If and when you go up to tour the city, give me a call. 269-806-1266. If I am up there, I will give you a private tour. John Crookston: Old School!

Art is in the eye of the beholder . . . the naysayers need to carefully consider the diversity and depth of talent involved to take this project from concept to completion . . . the attention to detail and the workmanship speaks volumes.

The "artist community" has an issue with works that speak to the "common" man. They decry the works that get the popular vote from the "unsophisticated" masses.

I am proud to be a member of the "unsophisticated" and "deplorable" masses. Any day . . . all day . . .

The thing that most of those making the artist vs craftsman argument don't seem to comprehend is not being "just the artist" doesn't make you less the artist. Most of them would consider architecture to be an art and you were the architect. But you also had to be the construction manager, the roofer, the sheet metal installer, the carpenter, the last-minute pod transportation engineer and the gambler ( I probably have left several other things out) I say gambler because you probably didn't know for sure that the lower structure, with the open end, would be able to withstand the moving without cracks until you had actually had it in place.

As for you doing it for the publicity, that is the point of the whole event.

Hey thanks Andy. The guy at the restaurant made some phone calls to the media and they literally swarmed me when I got up there. I worked all day on Thursday, trying to get that damn thing picked up and on the truck. Friday morning, I went and got the materials to make the sling that we finally used. I had to design it and make it and then use it twice, once to lift it on and then to get it off. I had a couple of eggs and a cup of coffee early Friday morning and then nothing till after the second interview. I was so parched I could hardly talk.

It was a mess inside when we got it up there. It was clipping tree branches till we got on the main roads and there were leaves and acorns everywhere. I got the gutters back on and the inside cleaned today and it looks whole again. Now, some touch up paint and a few other details and I can relax for the first time in 10 months. I will post some pictures of everything after Tuesday when it is going to be ready to be viewed.

Mike, I have never read anything on facebook before and when I saw the comments from people that just saw the pictures and have never met me or even knew of me I was amazed. I suppose I look like a carpenter because I "are" one. I wonder what an artist looks like?