It seems hand-crafted art is alive and well. This month, New Jersey-based artist and former Urban Climber Magazine Editor Joe Iurato landed a commission to create stencil artwork - yup thats right - for NBC Sports. The resulting piece aired on NBC's Sunday Night Football, for the (highly rated) Colts-Patriots game, on November 15th 2009.
Here is a compilation of clips of the final product from Joe:
I worked with Joe many times during his four years at the helm of Urban Climber. He was psyched on the kind of lit climbing photography I was producing at the time, that no one else would take. The look that Joe embraced early on is now standard in the climbing world.
I was intrigued by Joe's unique piece for NBC Sports, so I took the opportunity to chat with him about it, his work, and life after Urban Climber. What I got from Joe was an illuminating look into a true artist's life. All photos and videos courtesy of Joe Iurato.
AK: So, a few months ago, you talk to a friend about an opportunity to do something for NBC's Sunday Night Football...
Yeah, long story short, my friend Vincent's a producer with NBC Sports. While attending one of my art shows, he came up with the idea of using my stencils in place of photographs during a broadcast presentation. Next thing I knew it was being pitched to the producer of Sunday Night Football, Fred Gaudelli, and crew -- and soon after that it was game on.
AK: How long have you been doing stencil and aerosol art? What's your background in this?
I've been doing this type of art for about 4 years now, but seriously for less than a year. I've always been a huge fan of street art, or public art if that sounds better. I started out by making this simple stencil of Winnie-The-Pooh holding a machine gun and wearing military attire - he became my "Soldier Bear". It sounds absurd, but that was the whole point. Though as absurd as it was that little image was also powerful, and behind it was a lot of truth. Stenciling provided me an easy way to get it out there and hopefully make people think about how gnarly and twisted shit really is these days. At UC, I would occasionally leave on my lunch break and slap one or two up around SoHo. At home, I would go out late at night and bomb around town. I'd paint it on buildings, slap stickers on phone booths and signs, hit just about anything - but at the time it wasn't so much about the stenciling or the art as it was about the subject. Nobody really knew what I was doing except my wife. Needless to say she wasn't very supportive of my rendezvous, and it wasn't long before I agreed to give it a rest. But anyway that's how I started stenciling.
Later, I developed more of a love for the craft of stenciling itself and decided I wanted to take it further. I studied the work of the great stencil artists, people like Logan Hicks, Chris Stain, C215, Blek Le Rat, Banksy, and Shepard Fairey - not to mimic them, but to get a better understanding of the medium. I learned there's really no right or wrong way to do these things, and techniques vary greatly. So, I came up with a way of doing things that was comfortable and right for me. Now, my work is much different than that first Pooh stencil; it is much more complex and carefully planned out, and I'm not out manifesting images in the street anymore. If I paint the same cut 3 times, it's a lot. Most of my work is done in my garage, on found supports like old cabinet doors and planks of wood. And when I do paint outside, it's usually on a much larger scale.
AK: You sprayed these stencils on acetate, then NBC green screened them and did the rest. Walk me through your method a little deeper. Was this your usual approach or did this particular job make you step outside a little?
Well, as for the method in this case: First, I had to tweak out the images so they'd be partially black and white and partially color as discussed. After they were approved, I had 20 of each photo printed out on 18" x 24" sheets of paper (this isn't always the way I work because it's costly, but it provides a more exacting and consistent cut). Next, I cut each layer from the photographs themselves with an Exacto knife. This is the most difficult part because it's all guesswork and preference. Everyone has different thoughts and techniques on how to approach cutting. It's completely subjective. After the layers were cut, I took them down to my garage, cracked open a bottle of wine and started spray painting. I painted each layer on its own sheet of acetate so they could be photographed individually. In total there were 41 layers for 3 paintings. I also painted one final composite of each image. Lastly, I sent them off to NBC, where they were photographed against a green screen. The final images were uploaded to an effects program and rendered as seen on TV.
The whole thing definitely forced me to step outside my comfort zone. Aside from some big technical challenges I was facing with the stencils themselves, there was also that scary little voice that kept reminding me this was one of the biggest opportunities of my life...and what if I blew it? Without going into details, the stencils had to be cut in a way I never cut before and painted on a support I wasn't familiar with using. Take that and consider it was all being done for a primetime NFL broadcast, one of the biggest games of the year, that was only two weeks away...let's just say experimenting isn't what I would've preferred. But sometimes you just gotta run with it, really believe in yourself and bust your ass to make it happen.
AK: This seems like a pretty unique gig - custom graphic design for a broadcast network. Is this the first time you have done work where your art meets digital technology?
Definitely. Even when I was making climbing videos, I never thought to incorporate my art with special effects. That's what was so nice about this gig I think. It's not really about my art - it's the proof that even with all the graphic software out there, there's still a place for handcrafted artwork.
AK: I like the building effect of the individual stencils that make up the final piece. Was that effect your idea?
Stenciling is naturally done in layers. The idea, which is to the NBC's credit, was that these layers would be photographed separately and then rendered in an animation where the images quickly "rebuilt" themselves on screen. One of the reasons it wasn't done digitally is because layering and color separations are two different things. In order to provide the effect they wanted to achieve, you couldn't just separate the colors. To do it digitally, someone would've had to draw these like stencils in an illustration program, layer for layer, anyway. Airing a digital illustration wouldn't quite feel the same as an authentic spray painted piece. I guess some would argue it's the difference between film and digital in photography. There are differences, and there's a place for both.
AK: How has the response been? Any feedback from NBC? You're gonna need a reel pretty soon!
Feedback was excellent. It was such an honor to have been given the chance, and I'm ecstatic it worked out for all of us. I'm looking forward to what's next.
AK: It looks like you've got your hands in a lot of cool collaboratives like Artsprojekt.
Yes, I'm involved in a few collectives and collaborations. Artsprojekt.com, an amazing platform created by artist and ex-pro skater Andy Howell, is one of them. I'm also involved with Stencil History X, NOLA Rising and most recently with Albus Cavus. I've also been collaborating on special projects lately. The photographer Transgress and I have been collaborating for some time now on a series of portraits called "Why". Photographers Craig Copelin and David Toth, musician Abel Okugawa and myself are also beginning a new endeavor, one that will fuse live music and art performances with photography and video. The past few months have brought about some other extremely exciting collabos as well, though I'm not free to talk about them just yet.
AK: As an artist, what kind of resources are out there for you to grow creatively? Financially?
Purely as an artist, there are a tremendous amount of resources out there to grow creatively. For me, the number one factor in creative growth has always been inspiration. If you can stay inspired, you can continue to create work from the heart - work that's not forced - and if it's coming from the right place, people will notice. Once you make those connections, doors also open with the possibility of earning.
On the flipside, I'm not in a position where I can just be inspired, make lots of creative friends and live as a struggling artist. Growing financially as an artist, really growing financially, is extremely difficult. It's nothing that has recently taken me by surprise, though. I've always been a victim of my own head - my whole life has been centered around expressing myself through the arts. I've worked in some capacity with just about everything: illustration, graphic design, words, photo, video, fine art, and even some performing arts, including acting for a little while. That's my biggest problem; I never really locked myself into any one thing. I want to do it all. For instance, when I want to convey to someone the feeling of being in the mountains and climbing these huge, beautiful chunks of granite, I don't want to sit down and draw a picture of it - I want to use music and moving pictures and tell that story through video. When I want to capture the emotion of a person looking to the heavens with sadness and contemplation, I'll freeze that moment in a painting because their eyes are the story, and it's something that shouldn't fleet. There are times when nothing visual can express what I'm feeling, so I paint those pictures with words. And while it all feels really liberating to me, I'm trapped at the same time. How do I make a living and support my family with all of this? Yes, I am driven by my creative instincts, but is that enough? I don't have a formal education so it's all hustle and I'm constantly trying to prove myself. How long can I sustain being a full-time artist not knowing when and if the next project will arise? The truth is I don't know...
AK: A lot of your work I've seen online seems to revolve around a theme of childhood...
Ever since I had my son, my perspective on what life is about completely changed. The moment he entered this world, everything I thought I knew just shattered and went away. As we get older, life becomes more and more complicated until eventually we're all just balls of information and clutter. I needed to unlearn a bit and be brought back to a simpler time. My son did that for me, and it was the greatest gift I ever received. So, every now and then I paint pictures of children because we can all learn, or unlearn, a thing or two by gazing into the wondrous eyes of a child.
AK: I know you from the climbing world, when you were Editor at Urban Climber Magazine. From what I see now, it seems like that was a small part of a larger artist's life. How does photography and your time at UC fit in?
Climbing, and bouldering more specifically, has been a cornerstone in my life for a long time now. Almost immediately following my first experience in the Gunks I realized that it wasn't a new hobby I found - it was a real, honest-to-God piece of who I am and who I'd forever be. The day was a total revelation. And I was so intrigued by what it had done to me that I felt I needed to explore the reasons why.
I wanted to sink every ounce of creativity in my bones into interpreting what I thought climbing was. I couldn't focus on anything else because all of my inspirations were coming from my own personal experiences at the crag. It was the kind of feeling you get when you know the answer to something but you just can't get the words out to explain it. So, you search around the question for anything that might spark the tongue to work. That's how I felt all the time. It drove me nuts because I knew it wasn't about drawing or painting a picture. It wasn't about writing a poem or creating a sculpture. I needed to be able to recall my sentiments and share them in a way others could feel what was happening inside me. It had to be fleeting, changing with each unique day. With that in mind, I decided to try something different - I picked up a shitty little camcorder and started making videos. Eventually that's what led me to meeting Mark Crowther, the publisher of UC.
I remember the day he called and asked if I would be interested in sitting at the helm as editor in chief. I thought he was joking because I didn't know shit about editing or publishing. I declined at first purely because of fear. But he convinced me by saying all I had to do was be a climber and an artist. Do what I do with video, let my passion speak and my emotions do the work - and that that I could learn the technical side of being a magazine editor. So, I held the position for almost 4 years. Not a day went by I didn't appreciate where I was and what I was doing, but the job itself never really got easier for me. I struggled with learning how to be a great editor. It was such an incredible challenge. I don't know, I still think I had a long way to go in the learning process. All I know is I loved spilling my guts out about all the things climbing taught me; I loved hearing the stories from people all over the world who shared the same sentiments; I loved seeing our sport grow and being in a position to help to push it in that forward direction; and maybe more than anything, I loved knowing the community on a personal level. You know, I didn't choose to leave UC. I found myself on a very personal mission and I wasn't done yet. But all the same, I can understand why I had to go. It's economics, smart business decisions, and that's all. I'm grateful I was given the chance. Now, I hope to find another outlet that will allow me to continue what I started.
AK: Whats :02 for Joe Iurato?
Haha. I like that. I guess I should explain, :01 sort of became my mantra. It represents a new beginning, the very first second of movement in a forward direction. I came up with it after I was let go at the mag. It was a really difficult time for me, one that I won't go into too much detail about. I just went into a complete failure mode and I was stuck there. I started painting more and more because every time shit hit the fan in my life, painting was the drug that pulled my head out of my ass and provided some relief. Eventually I gained a little bit of clarity and focus and I told myself that I was going to move forward. I adapted :01 as my alias and it's who I've become.
As for :02, I really have no idea. As I mentioned, I hope to come back into the climbing industry at some point, though I don't know exactly when or how. I only know I'd like to be a creative force again. Aside from that, I'm going to continue stenciling and strive to push my art as far as I possibly can. I know for sure I've found a medium that I love and won't quit under any circumstance, whether it brings me financial success or not. I've got some really cool projects and collabos lined up for the near future. It's also possible I do more work with NBC. And I have plans to paint with one of my favorite artists, C215, in the streets of Paris...which, of course, will be during my next trip to Fontainebleau.
All in all, I really don't know too much about what the future has in store. We'll see. Tomorrow is far away. I'm still working on today.
You can see Joe Iurato's work at www.wix.com/joeiurato/01
You can contact him at joe.iurato@gmail.com
You can see more behind-the-scenes footage of Joe Iurato at work here:
Timelapse Video by Craig Copelin (www.nilepoc.com)
Music by Abel Okugawa (www.abelokugawa.com)
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After Sunday Night: Joe Iurato
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Manpower, Part 2:
Washerwoman and Monster from camp. Zack stoking up.
Sunday, March 14:
Trent: It was getting late and I wanted to get back to camp before it got dark. I waited for Chaz to fiddle with his shoes and then fiddle with his pack. I didn't want to just leave him but I wonder if he realized that he was risking us having to walk down in the dark. We finally ended up descending to camp ourselves rather than waiting for Andy, Zack and Devin. I wonder if they were pissed that we didn't wait? Soon it was clear that we were lost. It was a little bit of a scary feeling, but we knew we couldn't be more than an hour from our camp. It was cold as soon as we stopped! Chaz was shivering and ended up spooning against me for warmth. I was not thrilled about it but "you got to do what you got to do". Then it started raining. ...I think I slept a lot better than Chaz. I suggested he wrap his legs with our Bluewater double ropes. It took half and hour in the morning to get all the knots out.
Chaz: An amazing day on washer woman and monster, and a long, fucking cold night pretty much sums up day 2.
Two towers in the bag. Heading out from the Monster group to Monument Basin
Trent and Chaz stumbled back to camp the next morning, just as the rest of us were gearing up for a rescue mission. They were tired and ragged-looking, but after hearing their story, our tension gave way to laughter, and with two towers already down, we decided to take an easy biking day and plan for the next climb, of Standing Rock, a 320-foot flute of layer-caked rock jutting from Monument Basin, 15 miles away. The climb was described in an old guidebook as "the most serious and dangerous route in the desert."
Nuts.
Monday, March 15:
Chaz: A pretty chill ride to Monument Basin and some resting under the shade of a juniper helped speed a recovery for the next day's ascent of Standing Rock, which will hopefully not topple over by morning.
Trent: Standing Rock looks like it's tipping over a little. I think we were all a little intimidated by how narrow it looked. Chaz and I took a nice nap while everyone else hiked in to check out the tower.
Standing Rock, just barely.
Zack: Tomorrow is the climbing day that tackles the tower. 4 pitches: 10b/c, 10d, 11c, 7. Lots of work and I'm trying to get my head together. I'm not concerned about act of doing the pitches; it just looks so sketchy from here. The tower looks like it could tip over at any strong breeze.. I'm sure it won't seem so thin and shaky when I'm 2 feet away from it. The desert is so beautiful!
Halfway through our trip, we were using more food and water than we had planned. We'd soon have to face some tough decisions about our style. During the next few days, the stress of climbing, biking and staying self-contained would test us.
Sunrise at Monument Basin
Tuesday March 16:
Zack: Gorgeous sunrise! An awe inspiring walk across the basin floor to the Standing Rock. One of the most eye catching, intimidating things I've ever climbed. Sketchy, and at 5.11c, harder than anything I'd done in the desert.
Desert Rack
Devin: Climbing Standing Rock went off without a hitch. As usual, Zack and Trent made it look easy and kicked ass on a lead that would have scared the shit out of me. Tomorrow will be a long, hard biking day, about 27 miles. Water is becoming somewhat of an issue.
Left: Trent leading Devin up the first pitch of Standing Rock. Right: Pitch 2
Zack: We're down to two gallons of water a piece so it must be getting close to time to go home. I have one more tower to climb and lots of gnarly uphills to bike, but I know the end is within reach. Today was the roughest biking day so far. A lot of uphill pushing. These cadis flies and mayflies are about to cover me up.
Chaz resting after the last hill of the day
That afternoon we headed a few miles down the trail for another campsite. We had some gnarly climbs, and had to team up to push eachothers' bikes up the last hill. The riding was getting really hard and we had a day's worth of water left.
Miles to go. Headed down to the Green River on the longest biking day of the trip
The next day was a huge amount of biking, and as we neared the Green River, our only hope for water, we hit sandy sections you could barely walk, much less ride. I hung back a little, partly to take photos and partly because I was whupped. Chaz, being the strongest biker, was constantly offering to take gear from each of us to lighten the load, and always seemed to have an extra Snickers bar in a hidden pocket. As I crested the final hill to the river, I was astonished to see Trent filling two empty jugs with fresh water from a woman in a Jeep.
Left: Chaz on mechanical duty. Right: Zack under some rare shade near the Green River
Wednesday March 17:
Chaz: 10 miles of rolling downhill along the White Rim past Candlestick Tower brought us to the banks of the Green River. A casual lunch of peanut butter and tortillas followed by rest in the shade of a Cottonwood.
Trent: Some lady offered us water and I let her fill up one of my 2 gallon jugs. Then everyone else reminded me that we were self contained. I felt stupid. We then filled up some jugs of water with river water. Zack and Chaz swam in the river for a while. I really wanted to get as far as possible into Taylor before dark but I didn't feel like telling them not to swim. We started biking into Taylor Canyon towards Moses and encountered a lot of sand. Zack finally protested and said it was a waste to keep going all the way into the canyon. He said he had looked at the map and since it was relatively flat, it was going to be deep sand the whole way. We camped in the wash and made plans for an early hike and then climb. I sensed a little tension in the group. Zack explained how he knew the shit would hit the fan and how he was ready for it. Zack decided he would get up at 3:30am and hike the remaining 5 miles into Moses. ... I didn't say anything.
Chaz wading into Green
Zack: To think we climbed Standing Rock yesterday morning is sick. It seems more like a week ago! I'm tired and hungry. I'm down to less than half a gallon of water with two days left. We got water from the Green River today but it's murky and kinda sketch. Tomorrow we climb Moses, the last tower on the list. The approach is 6 miles off the main trail. We stopped, bivyed, and will wake up at 3:30am. The whole trip culminates tomorrow. Today was the first sign of difficulties. Team dynamic becomes apparent and very visible. I believe now is go time. Buckle down, do the deal, whatever it takes. Climb Moses and get the hell out of here self-contained, under Man Power!
3:30 AM. Moses.
Thursday March 18:
I was personally pretty cashed and I knew this day would be a killer. We thought we could bike the 6 mile approach from camp, but it was all soft sand, so it turned into a 12 mile round trip hike. Pretty much out of food, and with the last water supply at camp, we had to decide whether to camp another night after the climbing, or gun for the trailhead on the canyon rim, a full days worth of biking away and uphill the whole way.
To try and speed things up, I decided not to join the team on the climb. I explored the area and photographed while everyone else tagged the summit. It was a beautiful day, but part of me regrets that decision.
Looking back 6 miles toward camp from the base of the first pitch of Moses
Trent at the base of Moses, and Primrose Dihedrals (5.11d), Pitch 1
Trent: We got up and hiked in to Moses. It was still very dark and cold. Chaz seemed extremely tired. He would take twice as long as me to follow the pitches. I felt bad and tried to console him even though I knew time was of the essence on the trip.
We took some cool photos on the summit and began rapping down the north face. We then began hiking back to our camp in the wash. It was getting extremely hot. We sat under one of the tarps and rested. Zack proposed the idea of biking all the way back to the truck and driving home. The map came out once again. I believe there was way too much map analysis. We made dinner and boiled water. I wanted to bivy but Zack and Andy were jacked on coffee and wanted to keep riding. A vote was taken and Chaz was the deciding vote to go all the way back to the truck. I was a little amazed after all the climbs we did together and how much he had slowed me down. I guess my emotion boiled up and I said "thanks a lot Chaz". He freaked out a little because he has this need to make everyone happy. He then said he wanted to camp at the top of the hill as a compromise. I could feel the tension between everyone.
Mid-day back at camp
After some grueling but mercifully hard-packed biking, we gained mesa at 9:30pm. The next morning at the rim we were elated. Though we had no breakfast and just a few sips of water left, everyone looked forward to a casual few hours of flat biking to the car. That's when most of the journal entries, and the photos, stopped.
Psyched! Devin on the morning of day 7.
Friday March 19 :
Andy: We suffered today. Out of water. We rode on seemingly endless hard pack, up and down hills, across a barren landscape, constantly stopping to examine the map, in hopes that we were getting to a shortcut that led to pavement. At the shortcut, I was bonking, so was Zack. I asked if anyone had food left. Chaz miraculously produced several Clif Bars, chocolate bars and a precious Snickers, which Zack and I devoured. Taking the last swig from my bottle, I felt at least able to go the 3 miles or so in the growing heat until pavement. The shortcut was twisty and sandy. Lots of walking, and silent resting under the paltry Juniper trees here and there.
I sucked my tea bag dry, which I had brewed last night in river water. The group was spread out. I saw what I am fairly certain were mountain lion tracks over the fresh bike tracks ahead of me on the trail. I thought about how the pride seeks out the weakest member of their prey, the lame one lagging behind. I increased my pace, but I had no more hammer left. I had kept a strong pace on the switchbacks last night, full of hype, but now as I realized that today would be at least as grueling as the last six, I was demoralized. I felt strangely sleepy and found myself thinking about how cool the sand might be to curl up into. How long would they go ahead before they turned back for me? Would they find me devoured by lions? Not such a bad way to go, I remember thinking...
And then we were at the road! No elation yet, we still had miles to go, but I found extra strength, my tongue swelling, stomach in knots, legs jello, brain pudding. I stupidly tried to shift my gears lower and lower, even though I was walking the bike.
Finally in the distance: the entrance station! I was so happy. We had put together this crazy project and here we were, finished!
Done, doner, donest.
We descended like locusts on the nearest convenience store, hungry, tired and elated. On the way out, passing the train of jeeps and trucks laden with bicycles and gear queued up for the Trail, we felt we had accomplished something truly special. By being bold in our objectives and committing ourselves to a principle, we had climbed a proud desert-rat's tick-list, biked a fat-tire dream ride, and spent six nights under the stars of the southwest desert, all in one trip.
To propel oneself slowly across the still-awesome American wilderness is a profound joy. The window of opportunity for this kind of adventure in our public backyard is still open to anyone, yet it dims and sags with time, neglect, and the "march of empire." Once that window is closed, we may gaze through it and remember, but it will be closed forever.
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Manpower, Continued
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Had a fun trip through Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia last weekend to shoot a couple video spots, one for eBay, and the other for Chattanooga, TN outfitter Rock/Creek, to promote their trail racing series.
Town Crier
Shooting BBs
On a journey for eBay in ol' Kentuck with the new Panasonic HMC40
My assistant Sharif Hassan and I also got to shoot with the new Olympus E-P1 camera for the week, which is a ton of fun. It sports interchangable lenses, mounts for a variety of different manufacturers including Nikon and Leica, RAW shooting, and a movie mode. We both wore out the "Art" modes. The retro design felt a lot more usable in my hands than most tiny point and shoot cameras, but the OIympus pancake lenses made it easy to slip this thing into a pocket.
Interviewing Patagonia rep and StumpJump founder Matt Simms, along with Mark McKnight, Marketing Director for Rock/Creek
Interviewing local favorite Jaclyn Greenhill
Rock Creek's trail race series kicked off with the StumpJump 50K, a technical course through some new sections of the Cumberland Trail System. Besides shooting the race, I had the pleasure of interviewing some of the sport's luminaries, including "Ultramarathon Man" Dean Karnazes, Krissy Moehl (Female winner of the Tour Du Mont Blanc and 2nd in the Western States 100 this year), and Stump Jump champ Josh Wheeler. The field was pretty sick.
Makes me want to start running ultras...
NAH!
Beefy checking out the scenery at Green Life in Chattanooga between long shooting days. It's hard work being a player.
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Road Trip for eBay and Rock/Creek Outfitters
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I have recently been using the new Lowepro Pro Roller x300 bag, for location stuff, studio shooting, and everything in between. It's way more than just a rolling camera bag. It has TSA-approved locks, pimp new wheels and a wider wheelbase for offroad rally, a removable "Reserve Pack" that carries as a backpack (or in case your main chute fails), and an ingenious tripod/light mount at the top of the handle.
Yes, a light mount on the handle. Akorn Likes.
Check out this video review I did from a recent shoot in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Big thanks to Will Eccleston for video footage and Andy Scott on the assist!
On Location with the Lowepro Pro Roller X-300 from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.
Like this? Keep up to date by following me on Twitter !
Michael Clark:
Looks like you are making good use of the new studio space - nice job on this vid. Did you get the new D300s? Or was that the D90 you were shooting with in the video?
(09.01.09 @ 08:32 PM)
Anonymous:
Thanks Michael - I was actually shooting the video on the Sony EX1 but we were also using it to shoot my review... so I used the Nikon D5000 for some footage :)
(09.01.09 @ 10:13 PM)
Andy Herbick:
Cool work...really digging the "vids" esp. the still motion work. I'm curious about the stabilizing gadget you're carrying into the woods and then using to shoot the guy bouldering at the end - is it a diy solution or something that's commercially available?
(09.06.09 @ 08:40 AM)
akornylak:
Thanks Andy-
The gadget is a Glidecam, basically a counter-balanced platform that helps keep the camera on a steady trajectory as you are moving. This one is the Glidecam 4000. http://glidecam.com/product-4000-pro.php
(09.07.09 @ 10:47 PM)
Sarah Diebold:
Good stuff, Andy. Great to see your new space, too. Now would you usually carry more gear than your assistant? If so, I'll assist you any time you're working in Cincy. :)
(09.08.09 @ 02:33 PM)
Amish:
Great review. Just came across this on the lowerpro site. I have to say that bag is AWESOME. Pricey, but AWESOME.
(09.14.09 @ 12:42 PM)
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On Location with the Lowepro Pro Roller x300
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It all started six months ago, post-pump at Fellini's Pizza with the usual climbing crew. We got to thinking about our old buddy Greg Kottkamp.
One of the most talented and understated rock climbers the South has seen, Greg was in medical school at the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta. The closest climbable surface from there is one of the Atlanta gyms, 2.5 hours away. In the last few months Greg was making that insane day trip just to session with his friends for an evening study break, but now things had changed.
Word was that Greg's wife Katy, also a great climber, was doing her veterinary externship in Wisconsin, and Greg was dug in deep, diligently studying o-chem solo in his Augusta lair, with no time to flip through the latest Rock & Ice Magazine, much less get his climbing fix.
Now, Greg's a dedicated guy, and puts just as much focus on the books as on a sick redpoint, but everyone needs a break sometime. So after a couple Sweetwater 420s, we hatched a brilliant plan. Greg needed a climbing wall. A pimp wall, fit for a climber who can onsight 5.13 trad FAs off-the-couch, but also one that would integrate into his new lifestyle as a monkish med school gunner. And - the best part - it would be a total surprise.
Katy provided us with some pics of Greg's home office and the rough dimensions.
Greg's Lair in Augusta, pre-Pimped. photo by Katy Kottkamp
We knew we wouldn't have much time to install the wall once we got there, so we fabricated as much of the wall as possible, knowing we would have to be flexible with how it would attach to the structure of the room.
Chris Sierzant, owner of the Escalade Climbing Gym was our point man for the wall. Chris assembled the wood panels, which make up the climbing surface, pre-drilled and T-nutted to accept interchangable climbing holds. Kenneth McGinnis, an electrical contractor and veteran climber, also helped with the design, and would do the actual install, as well as any rewiring we would need since we would have to relocate some electrical outlets and lighting.
We chose climbing holds from Illinois-based So Ill. These guys make some of the best holds out there for training, and have some outrageous designs, including lots of anatomically-themed shapes that would be perfect for keeping Greg's mind on his studies, and body on the wall. Cooper Roberts of Big Up Productions donated some new films, and we would reconfigure the office complete with a Sony iPhone Deck to keep the psyche up. Josh Fowler was set to film the whole thing.
As the word got around, tons of people chipped in to help out. In the end, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to get Greg out of the house on a day when our crew could spend a day in Augusta for the install. Six months later, it all came together!
Below, The Crew: Clockwise from upper left: Danny Paulete, industrial sculptor and hardman, champion climber Kate McGinnis, her husband and longtime Southern strongman Kenneth, your's truly, climbing rep and idea machine Charlie Maddox, and her lesser half, Josh Fowler - a Nat Geo cameraman who can do pinchgrip pullups on a two-by-four.
We met early on a Sunday with a rental truck full of climbing goodness, with Greg safely out of town with the dogs. Greg and Katy were due back that evening, so we relied on Katy to stay in text-message contact with us during the install. Left to right: Josh, Charlie, Danny, Kenneth, Kate.
We got to Greg's house around noon, and got right to work. Moved all the furniture out and cleaned the space. Danny started crawling around in the ceiling looking for structural beams. The big question was, should we make it free-standing or could we attach it to the structure? Luckily, the room was perfect for the latter, and Kenneth and Danny were able to design an elegant, bombproof design with the panels Chris had prepped that would give us an 8' x 11' wall that overhung slightly more than 45 degrees - a perfect home training wall - and still leave space for the stereo and shelving on either side.
Early that afternoon it poured rain, so we had to continue construction inside. Meanwhile Charlie and Kate planned the post-wall layout of the new office, and we made a couple trips to the local hardware store, for a new fan, lights, a curtain to keep chalk dust contained, and other odds and ends.
Wall up, we were way ahead of schedule, with time to think about the details that would make life more bearable inside four walls (make that five now): pimp iphone deck, shelving behind the wall, new lighting, new outlets, new fan, efficient re-org...
We hit Waffle House while we waited for the increasingly shortened text messages from Katy: eta 2 hours... 1 hour... half hour... Would Greg confront Katy about all this secret texting and blow the suprise? Would the dogs come in before them and tear us apart? Would there be any beer left? Stay tuned for the video to see the conclusion to Pimp My Wall...
Todd Combs:
That's bad ass. I'm sure Greg will appreciate the stress relief.
(09.02.09 @ 04:46 PM)
Steve Bowman:
very impressive - both vision and stills
just bought a D300s and playing / we do mainly Transportation / Aviation/ Ships / Big trucks/ Trains
You should have a very ready market with a MAJOR library
worth exploring - miles of rubbish being supplied very few winners
I do have a long and good relationship with Corbis for what it is worth !!!
akornylak:
Thanks Steve - I've had a long and great relationship with Aurora Photos, which also distributes through Corbis and Getty worldwide.
(10.12.09 @ 02:18 AM)
Constantin:
Good job guys! Are you expensive? I have friends who may hire you :-)
(02.18.10 @ 07:46 AM)
akornylak:
Constantin- Thanks - probably not the most cost-effective thing to hire us to build a woody. But if you wanted to hire us to do another episode (episode 1 coming soon on video) let us know!
(02.19.10 @ 10:05 AM)
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Nice Joe! This is good to see. Joe was the first unknown to encourage me, and gave me my first break into the climbing industry.
(11.23.09 @ 01:07 PM)Joe , you really are cool ! look forward to more collabos !
PEACE ABEL
(12.01.09 @ 04:55 PM)