Re: [CR]Re: Frame Art

(Example: Framebuilders:Richard Moon)

From: <OROBOYZ@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:01:37 EDT
Subject: Re: [CR]Re: Frame Art
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org


In a message dated 10/16/2003 6:58:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, BobHoveyGa@aol.com writes:

<< Granted, many of the details that separate the art from the purely functional in this case are things that would be apparent only to the framebuilder or avid aficionado... but the details are there and they are no less art. If you examine the fine points of Shaker furniture or Japanese teabowls, you will see the same attention to subtle detail that characterizes them as both the highest and finest art AND objects of perfect functionality. >>

Bob, thank you so much, you nailed it for me. You must be a helluva an art teacher! My friend McLean Fonvielle (deceased frame builder who made "Silk Hope" & "McLean" bicycles) used that Shaker furniture reference in his work. He was extremely understated in his path to his "art" but he agonized over matching every fork blade curve, whittling ever so subtly every lug profile. This was all hand-in-hand with his utmost effort to make the best tool (bike frame) for it's purpose. I see that same duality, form and function, at work in all the builders who I think are at the top of the "trade" ...Brian Baylis, Peter Johnson, Richard Sachs, Peter Weigle (alphabetic order!) being the closest buds too. What a sheer delight actually having these guys as friends!

Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina