Art Wall!

I’ve finished most of the work on the art wall. It’s this contraption which Ted Godwin described using in his book, “The Studio Handbook for Working Artists”. It is like a main easel for a dedicated art studio, and is made out of a sheet of 3/4″ plywood and 2x4s to provide mass and stability. Here it is with a mounted poster of H.R. Giger’s “Birth Machine” (I’m sure I’m using the image without his permission, but it’s more to show how big the wall is).

The trick was to come up with a way of mounting something on the wall without making it obtrusive, especially if using it as a photographic base for making slides. These shelf brackets worked really well for this job, and will suit my 61cm square pieces and just about anything larger. The spacing of the brackets is such that smaller pieces may need a strip of moulding glued to the bracket clips with construction adhesive, or perhaps a third bracket in the middle. I know the size of the pieces I work with, so this is fine by me.

This thing is damnably heavy, by the way. Some handles are really helpful for making minor adjustments to the positioning, and for moving it out of the way. In my case, I’ve got 4 different places to put this wall in the central loft chamber (I’m actually not sure what to call that big hole in the loft floor).

Also helpful are the heavy duty felt pads I’ve stapled to the bottom of the legs. These allow for small adjustments, but have enough friction to prevent the whole thing from sliding out and falling over. Still, I’d like to get some hooks for the top, while it’s leaning against the loft edge.