Pornographic is a big word. I can see fleshly with the units composed of foam rubber with a skin surface, pink or darker highlights and strategic sprinklings of hair. There was a time twenty five or thirty years ago when I did some work like that and it made ME shudder.

I actually did shudder at your tangle. The symbols have long been a part of my milieu and placed in this configuration (or something like it) they feel claustrophobic.

Maybe they are pornographic? Certainly the tangle denies the graphic design quality that the original symbols carried. Although I suspect your punnish mind jumped instantly into some tangle of graphic art and off you go to porn and tangles.

But seriously, the tangle makes me shudder. Which might be a useful response for you to consider.

I believe that is true. And what might Jer’s story be?

Now did you really shudder at my tangle? Gender is a rich vein to mine, but I can also go with buyer/seller relationships, the intergenerational, predator and prey etc.

As is sometimes the case, I have trouble following your ideas. But your art is clear enough, even when it’s tangled. And I’ll admit to shuddering at the tangle. It seems preposterous to me that gender relationships should still be as knotted and unhelpful as you depict them — after all, I’ve been untangling my own all these years. But of course, Jer may have a different story.

The lathe is lithe and winsome. Bringing it out and painting its face may result in it becoming tangled in its own way. Pick-up sticks, indeed.

You see, you bring out the absurd in me.

An expression to be remembered.

I’m tempted to make up a tall tale about the selection of wood, but it was simply a matter of what filled the bill.

The criss cross patterns that come up with the scissor jack motif keep me moving around as well. I simply lined the planks up and made some rudimentary decisions about what would cross what. Call it plandipitous or maybe serenplanitous.

I haven’t come up with any specs for the individual symbols. Something with well developed edges that can be cut out on a scroll saw would work best.

What a challenge to think up my own symbol.

The lath piece does funny things to my eyes. They keep moving around, trying to find a place to rest but then tempted to circle again. Is this serendipitous or did you plan it that way?