Storm from the rooftop 15 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Photography, Siloam Springs.add a comment
Posting as I’m able this week. Glanced at the radar after still more packing this evening — we’re pretty close to done now, so hopefully we’ll be able to enjoy our time with company and social engagements of the next few days — and noticed a little action immediately south of town.
From our roof it was probably the most photogenic storm of the year for me. I didn’t watch it all that long though. Low hanging clouds crept in front of it and obscured my view, beside the fact it was almost dark.
Last update on downtown Siloam Springs 11 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Siloam Springs.add a comment
This will likely be the last update before we move on downtown Siloam Springs, at least made by me (hopefully my cobloggers will pick up some of the slack). While out hunting for boxes to pack up the house, I noticed stucco has begun to appear on what will very soon be Emelia’s restaurant.
A human’s first “non-need” 4 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Interior design, Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.1 comment so far
In my first college design class, as an architecture student, one of our projects involved researching of and writing about chairs. We read about designs by Eames, Bertoia, Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and so forth. Our professor pointed out that a chair, or somewhere to sit our sorry plebian butts after a long day in the field, is the first thing we will think of to buy or build assuming all of our other needs are met.
And I think she was right.
As we pack up the house we’re selling some things we won’t need in the foreseeable future, or won’t have room for in our upcoming living space. I used Craigslist, which I’m pretty new to, and easily sold our guest bed and couch.
We really miss the couch.
We own other comfortable chairs, but apparently they aren’t comfortable in the same way. The plan was to replace it with a svelte black leather couch that wouldn’t aggravate my allergies like the whimsical, eight year old model we just sold. However, I was looking forward to one less large piece of furniture to move.
So the past few days I’ve been on a hunt to find a cheap and temporary replacement, most likely a comfy chair for the wife to read in. There are a couple places in town that sell used, and I’ve been to a few garage sales as well. So far everything I’ve seen has been dirty or overpriced — or entirely hideous. The one exception was a blue recliner at a friend’s yard sale; unfortunately it formerly lived with cats, which I’m quite allergic too. Another vintage store in town, Amandromeda, purveys a number of well designed seats, though none are suitable for extended periods of time with a book in your lap. I’ve also inquired via Craigslist and the Facebook Marketplace to no avail.
Next up I plan to hit a vintage spot in Fayetteville called the Flying Dog. Moving is stressful enough without a decent place to rest your rump, so I hope I can come up with a chair on this holiday weekend!
Intentional Observation: Mennonites in flip-flops 1 July 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Color, Handmade, Intentional observation, Northwest Arkansas, Siloam Springs.add a comment
“A little bit of dissonance is really required to have something
that will hold our attention for a longer period of time.”
- Pete Pinnell
Two things in the past few months prompted me to ponder the idea of contrast.
First off, I’ve taken note this year of the mennonites (at least that’s what we assume they are) shopping at our local Walmart. I’ve long had a fascination with Amish (and old order Mennonite, thus) cultures, probably in large part because of what seems to be their slower paced, more relationship and community based lifestyles. Another part of my interest almost certainly stems from the culture’s seeming affirmation of working with your hands.
There are two observations I’ve made with respect to contrast in observing the local mennonites. First of all, the men dress in such a way that you can’t pick them out of a crowd: Boots, jeans and t-shirts, but you know they are mennonite because of the lady on their arm in a very modest handmade dress, with a bonnet or cap in her hair.
Secondly, the women’s more conservative dress is often at odds with their footwear. I’ve seen them wearing tennis shoes for years now, but it was only a few months ago I saw some of them wearing flip-flops for the first time. This wonderfully jarring discrepancy scrawled a grin on my face that lasted all the way into the parking lot. The bright, nearly neon flip-flops next to pale blue, floral handmade dresses worked for me, and apparently work for mennonites too.
I wanted to take a picture with my cameraphone, but abstained from bothering the young ladies. Instead I searched through Flickr and found the fantastic image above, taken by Jizzon, showing a group of mennonite women, some in bright colored flip-flops (click on the image to go to the Flickr page where you can enlarge it). The clothing contrast in Jizzon’s photograph isn’t as stark as it usually is in the Siloam Springs’ Walmart. The girls in his capture are wearing much brighter handmade dresses than I’ve ever seen the group in Northwest Arkansas don.
If you’re craving even more paradox, look at this image of two mennonites in dresses and bonnets on a jet ski.
Secondly, after looking through an album posted by a photographer friend, Aus10, on Facebook I commented as follows:
Interesting to me how so much portraiture (including wedding photography) in the past five years or so has been about creating contrast — or so it seems to me as an observer. The well-groomed subjects are placed in rough and rustic environments: Against decrepit buildings with peeling paint, along derelict railway tracks covered in weeds etc. Seems to me this is a new trend for the media, and one that I like (unlike this everybody jump up in the air phenomenon). Is my observation correct in your professional opinion? And can you talk about why you think this is the case, if you think my assessment is correct?
The photographer’s reply was more or less to say that the high school seniors, in the case of the album I responded to, see their friends’ photos or advertisements for Urban Outfitters and want the same thing. Regardless of these teen’s, um, less than intellectual desire for this aesthetic, I must reiterate that I think it works and works well.
My own senior picture was from one of those gimmicky old-time photo rooms (which is what I wanted it to be, although mom had me submit a color image from a $10 Sears sitting for the actual yearbook.) However, I would have liked something akin to this popular contrasty style if I would have thought it was worth it for my parents to spend $400 (I’m sure it’s much more nowadays) for proper senior photographs.
Wire drawing of espresso machine 22 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Abstract art, Art, Drawing, Northwest Arkansas, Sculpture, Siloam Springs.add a comment
My friend Joel Armstrong recently created the following wire drawing of an espresso machine for the Cafe on Broadway in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
On leaving Arkansas 21 June 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.2 comments
The day before we flew to Florida we received an offer on our house. We didn’t expect it to happen this quickly, and I think the realtor was even more floored than we were (We knew we had a great little house, but weren’t always convinced our realtors thought the same way.). After looking it over we decided to accept the offer rather than counter given the current market.
The timing of the offer, considering our present circumstances, seems Divinely orchestrated. Although there are still a myriad of things that could cause the deal to fall through (it’s still quite early in the process), at the moment we expect to be living with my parents up in Nebraska by the end of July.
On the assumption that we’re moving back north, I thought I’d write a little lament about leaving Arkansas and Siloam Springs.
Other than the pervasive lack of sidewalks, Siloam Springs is a great little community. Sure, it has [other] peculiarities and political, um, intrigue, but so does every town. Overall we’ve come to love this place and its people. Upon moving we’ll especially miss:
- The people, first and foremost. It’s quite rotten that, being summer, some of our closest friends are traveling and won’t be back before we move!
- The flora, something the Ozarks are known for. We’ll miss the the golden raintrees, southern magnolias, mimosas, myrtles, dogwoods, wysteria etc etc
- For the time being, we’ll miss being in a community with a liberal arts university.
- I will miss the sound of summer nights, when a chorus of insects pierce the still, muggy air. Although we won’t miss the insects.
- Tower Bar-B-Q, and barbecue in general.
We’ll also miss the quaintness of the community and the renewed downtown with its parks, just three blocks from our house. I walked through yesterday evening and noticed significant progress on one of the few remaining vacant buildings. A swanky Greek restaurant is going into this building, something that downtown Siloam Springs has wanted for years.
On not being poor vs. doing what you love 31 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Affluenza, Business of art, Entitlement, Modern culture, Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.12 comments
“Screw cash. Do you know what it’s like to wake up knowing that you’re doing what you love?”
Over the course of the past ten years or so I’ve heard a few different people declare that they aren’t going to “be poor!” This is usually in the context of college majors, career choice or current job. I haven’t probed when it’s come up, but I’m guessing the sentiment is often the result of personal past impoverished experiences. If I recall correctly from a book of his I read five years ago, Dave Ramsey’s wife has a bit of this complex.
My wife and I are in a pickle, as I explained a week or so ago, and might be on the poor road very soon (if we’re not already). Just after moving to Arkansas in 2003 we were in a similar financial situation. Needless to say it’s not a fun place to be. We’ve given ourselves to the ministry we moved down here to serve with and making money, beyond what we need to live on, has not registered on the radar.
The question all of this is raising in my mind is as follows: Is American affluence driving people away from their gifts? In other words, does the cultural pressure in our consumerist culture keep people from pursuing careers they might enjoy and excel at, instead wooing them to pursue more secure and higher paying marginal careers?
It’s on my mind in a personal way as we think about what will come of the rest of this year, and the years to come. The hope is to move to a place with lower housing costs and more part-time work to supplement our continued service with the ministry. In theory, our living expenses would be cut to the point we wouldn’t have to maintain full-time employment, freeing up more time for both of us to work on our crafts.
It seems to us that our plans are pretty modest. We’re eager to pursue the things in life we’re passionate about — missions, sculpture, writing, the fiber arts. Despite these seemingly modest aspirations, though, I’m wondering if we’re actually going to be able to execute this plan. Learning the house isn’t worth as much as we figured and noticing yesterday that we haven’t paid off as much as I’d thought in the past four years were chinks in our armor.
I’ve never developed or cultivated an aversion to poverty, assuming we still have a roof over our head and food on the table. Regardless, our present circumstances have been testing our faith. I really like the so-called plan we’ve sketched out (on a napkin, so to speak) and hope it works out. If we can’t make it work, I have positively no idea what we’ll we be doing or where we’ll end up.
And while I won’t refer to that as “scary,” it’s certainly the kind of situation that makes most of us humans very uncomfortable.
Intentional observation, as I clean 26 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Intentional observation, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.1 comment so far
Tidying up the house and yard in a bit of a fury, and at the same time trying to get a sense of where we’ll end up. As I was picking up sticks in the backyard this Memorial Day weekend (the eleventh anniversary of the day I met my wife!) I found this rotten little specimen.
All of the futuristic postulating was dented this afternoon when the realtor we’ve begun working with told us our cute little bungalow was probably going to to for $5,000-7,000 less than I was hoping for. That’s a whole lotta cash in our little economy, and makes finding a suitable replacement for our Siloam Springs’ home more challenging — even in less expensive Nebraska. According to the real estate agent, the disparity comes as a result of foreclosures entering the market, foreclosures which are selling for less than other properties and thereby dragging the value of other houses down with them. Curse the greedy New York bankers, and the gullible Americans they suckered into bloated mortgages too!
Not surprisingly, we’re a bit worn out on the whole mess.
House for sale in Siloam Springs, Arkansas 24 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Northwest Arkansas, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.add a comment
Even though we plan to employ a realtor to help us sell our little bungalow — we don’t have the time to do it ourselves — I’ve established a website (using WordPress) featuring the Hygge and Fika. I’m adding photos as I go, but there’s enough there already to give you a decent idea of the house already posted.
Visit House for Sale Siloam Springs Arkansas for the details, and share it with anyone you know who might be interested in a great little bungalow in Northwest Arkansas!
In a pickle 21 May 2009
Posted by pcNielsen in Design, Personal reflection, Siloam Springs.8 comments
I haven’t mentioned the whole moving scenario in a while. After not being comfortable, so to speak, with Enid real estate I decided to pursue a job at John Brown University, more specifically their Soderquist Center for Business and Ethics. A friend had recommended me for the position, a part-time design job which would allow me to continue working for M-DAT through the end of the year as I hope to do.
It seemed like I had a good shot at getting the position. I was qualified — based on the draft of a job description I was sent — and my own design aesthetic fit well with the Center’s intentions. Further, despite figuring there would be competition in an economy like this, it didn’t seem like there were many other candidates. If any. And of course my friend, a JBU professor who helped create the position, gave them my name. Regardless, I learned yesterday afternoon that I was “not selected for this position.”
Upon reading the rejection in my inbox yesterday afternoon, my gut conjured up one of those sinking sensations. Thankfully it didn’t last long, but to say the near future looks comfortable would be quite absurd. A year ago we would have been more comfortable in this kind of situation, but a slew of unexpected expenses over the past six months or so have damaged the savings account.
My wife and I really don’t know where to go from here (although we have some ideas). Two quite promising part-time jobs have not panned out in the past four months, a building we hoped to turn into living/retail seems out of range financially (thanks to mandatory fire sprinklers) and the doors to Enid, Oklahoma — where the in-laws live — seem to have all closed. In all likelihood we’ll have to put the house on the market and hope it sells very quickly.
I’ll conclude this little rant by posting links to my portfolio and resume. While I may not be featured in PRINT magazine any time soon (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), I am a good designer with a fairly broad level of experience in print media, and a good knowledge of the internet even though I’m not a programmer.
Adding: I’ve published the portfolio and resume. When I posted this entry they were not yet public.
