Martin Delabano: Musings of an Artist

It was a fairly quiet Christmas holiday at the Delabano house.  My wife left town to be with her Mother and extended family and I hunkered down in my studio.  I was grateful to have the gift of time to allow my mind to wander and indulge my various interest in craft and play. Some people might look at my studio and think what a mess it is.  I look at it and think of all the possibilities.

Let me take you on a tour.

This past year I started  building two guitars. This one is a small bodied “Parlor” Guitar with a side sound port.  It has a spruce top, ebony fret board and bridge and a rosewood back and sides.  I’m in the process of the final scraping and sanding.

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I’ve been having fun making all these small pieces from scraps I’ve swept off the floor this past year.  I have a hard time throwing material away.  I originally thought about these pieces as being Maquettes for larger pieces but also love them for their smallness.

The next piece here has been in the works for a year and during the holidays it finally start to take some direction.  It stands almost as tall as the ceiling in my studio.  I’m still mulling about a name for the piece. One piece of inspiration for this piece was one of the verses of Bob Dylan’s “I shall be released”.

“Standing next to me in this lonely crowd,
Is a man who swears he’s not to blame.
All day long I hear him shout so loud,
Crying out that he was framed”.

And then there was Trump

This next piece was started early after Trump won the Republican nomination.  I was going to call it, “Make America Ape Again”.  I quit working on it for a while because I thought…why make a sculpture of someone who didn’t have a chance to become President.  Now with the his impending inauguration, it’s time to get back on the piece.  He’ll be wearing a “Make America Ape Again” red baseball cap with a made in China tag attached to it.  On his shoulder he has a tweeting bird that will be spewing nonsense.

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.  Here on my grandfather’s work bench I have more evidence of play.

Here on the other side of the studio is the other guitar I’m building.  It’s a commissioned piece.  Back, sides, bridge and head plate are Cocobolo.  The top sound board is Spruce and the fret board is Ebony with Mother of Pearl, snowflake inlays.  It has a side sound port as well.

So that’s a slice of whats going on in the studio right at the moment.  No new shows to announce at this point but I’m working toward one. I’ll keep you posted

The holidays were a time to totally lose myself and now it’s back to work. So it’s time to press into the new year.  2017 promises to be an interesting year……..interesting is probably a huge understatement.  Wishing you all the best in the new year!  Peace to you and yours.