This year started out sick in bed. I was scrolling away and came across an annual event that I have considered participating in every single year. This year - I am going to sign up for the Barkitecture! That's right. I committed myself and my husband (by default) to building a dog house for a great cause. The dog houses go up for auction to benefit the Young Williams Animal Shelter in Knoxville, TN.
And so begins another project! (After seeing this blog, you'll understand where our name comes from.)
Let it be known that I am pretty handy. I am familiar with welding, woodworking, sewing, and have installed a dishwasher that remains to be working (still). But day to day, I am a 2D illustrator and painter of greeting cards and framable prints for this company (Project1128). Then designing advertising and marketing brand strategies for our sister company. My surfaces are generally flat (and often digital).
How hard can it be to build a dog house?
Figuring out which direction this design should go was challenging in itself. There aren't any parameters other than it needs to fit in the bed of a truck for transport - then throw in a sustainability component if possible. My mind was racing and researching. How modern or sculptural should I go? I have sketches everywhere, yes, even on napkins.
All the while that we were brainstorming, we kept driving past all these beautiful old barns in the hills of East Tennessee. Most of them have leaned their way into a collapsed heap. I posted a Facebook ISO request for barn wood donations and actually got a response. ...Looks like we're headed in this route. Barn wood from old barns is part of the sustainability component. Right?
Most of them have leaned their way into a collapsed heap.
We picked up the barn wood. It is gorgeous! Of course, the owner is a master craftsman. He explained how to plane it and get it workable into something magic. I'll be honest, I was getting discouraged. We don't have that refined woodworking skill nor equipment. (Oy -what have I signed up for!?)
With some humility and thought about the new, 100 year old weathered wood in hand, we decided to run with it!
We shall build a barn and use the wood as is! As much as I wanted to build something crazy modern, I became more in love with this barn idea since we really are old souls. I absolutely love old buildings and architecture. I am often pointing and exclaiming "Look at that!" when we pass one on our Sunday drives (Ha! Sunday drives - This proves my old soul description.)
And so build a barn, we did.
As a young girl in East Tennessee, I remember the many barns that we'd pass that were bygone advertising platforms for the since closed Rock City. If you grew up in the south, you saw the ubiquitous 'See Rock City' barn roofs. With our primary business, we can't help but be thinking about advertising and marketing. This was one of the brilliant strategies in a non-digital world. If we are going to do a barn, we need to pay homage to that.
Stay tuned for "Building the Bark City Barn".
This post is 100% human generated. All grammar errors are my own.
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