As most locals and our wonderful followers are aware, a few weeks ago on Tuesday, April 24th the City of Gulf Breeze unveiled the first of a series of large outdoor sculptures for their Gulf Breeze Community Art project and Renaissance Man’s fabricated aluminum sculpture, “Fuego” was the inaugural sculpture.
Two days later Kevin Marchetti and Renaissance Man’s towering sculpture was featured on the front page of both the Gulf Breeze News and Pensacola News Journal so we wanted to feature the articles on the blog.
Aluminum Sculpture on front page of Gulf Breeze News
PNJ Aluminum Sculpture Cover Story
Beverly Zimmern, Steve Zieman and Susan Ozburn discuss sculpture unveiling
PNJ Sculpture Article Continued
PNJ Sculpture Article Continued with artist listing
A towering metal outdoor sculpture project of his design for permanent display in Gulf Breeze has been an ideal opportunity for Kevin Marchetti and the Renaissance Man studio to combine visionary, artistic and industrial talents. Our story begins with a … Continue reading →
It is with much appreciation and gratitude to The City of Gulf Breeze Community Art Project committee and Director, Dr. Steve Zieman and to donors Joann and Michael Price, we announce the date of the unveiling of our new public art commission. Kevin Marchetti and the Renaissance Man studio have been creating the inaugural sculpture for the City of Gulf Breeze Community Art Project. We are honored to be in the company of Peter King, Michael Boles, Lou Mitchell and Sam Nettles.
The seventeen-foot tall piece, composed primarily of 1/2″ aluminum plate represents a cooperative helix of various geometric entities in skyward ascension.
The sculpture will be illuminated by energy-efficient programmable LEDs using an astrological clock, from 1 hour before sunset until an hour following sunrise. Thematic lighting throughout the year will include Valentines Day, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, The 4th of July, Blue Angels, Christmas and New Years Eve.
Please join us for the unveiling this coming Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 7:30 pm at Wayside Park (at the foot of the Gulf Breeze side of 3 Mile Bridge).
Design by Kevin Marchetti
Construction by Frank Dungca, Jacob Rocereto, James Clark, Jon Proctor and Daniel Monie at Renaissance Man Inc
Bullseye Glass by Lyn Gentry of Hot Sands Glass
Structural Engineering assurance by Roger Craft
Made possible by Dr. Steve Zieman and the City of Gulf Breeze Community Art Project
Special Thanks to Lou Mitchell of Element Art Forms
From March 28th to April 1st, Roger Scott Tennis Center hosted the 9th Annual Pensacola Open Wheelchair Tennis Championship Tournament. Welcoming 140 competitors from 21 countries, it’s one of the largest tournaments in the US.
Great Britain competitor, Kevin Simpson ran into a bit of trouble before he even hit the courts on Thursday. The airlines had accidentally damaged his wheelchair in transit, so our friend Dave Henderson (a tourney volunteer) brought his Kevin to our Kevin for some help.
After some tinkering, swearing, adjusting, attaching, more swearing and a little more adjusting, Kevin 2 got Kevin 1 back in his wheelchair & ready to hit the courts!
Congrats on your performance Kevin, we hope to see you next year! (Kevin 1, that is. We see Kevin 2 enough as it is.)
Stacy & Les Norris, owners of Epic, Inc Salon at 210 E. Government Street, Pensacola recently came to us with a request for some metal signs for the inside of their new salon.
In order to enhance the contemporary feel of the salon, our team cut their existing Epic, Inc logo out of a sheet of aluminum to create a wrap for the reception desk. A hand grinder was then applied to the surface of the wrap to achieve the cool texture. They then cut out some groovy Peace Sign components to be added to the retail products area.
We may be biased, but we think these are a striking addition to an already fabulous salon.
Check out their website at www.epicdowntown.com And don’t forget to stop by the salon when you’re in the area.
Categorization! Is it a branch of philosophy ’cause it sure feels like it sometimes. If ever there was a Renaissance Man request that belonged in a miscellaneous category this has to be it: A Gondola Oar. Yes. Those boats you see the old men taking people around on in Venice. And of course Kevin has a friend who has one – and wouldn’t you know it – needed an oar made.
So Kevin – or more specifically Kevin, Daniel Money and Frank Dunca – became reméri for a day. Yes, reméri is the word for the makers of gondola oars. As opposed to squerarioli, which is the word for the makers of gondolas. Don’t ask how Kevin knows these things… or do.
But the point is, I’m charged with entering this item into the Renaissance Man Online Gallery of Metal Worked (Metal-workinged, metal-fabricated, ironed?) items and it seems to defy category. Do we add a category for oars? Seriously, how often is a gig like this gonna come along? Possibly a boat accessories category would be appropriate. They definitely end up doing some repairs and customization to the aluminum (Agh, see? Here we go again – the aluminum what? What is the catch-all term for the aluminum pipes that hold canvas and the like on the tops of boats? Thank goodness for search engines. There used to be a non-electronic way to find these things out. Encyclopedia? How do you look up “aluminum elements on top of boats” in a dictionary? Okay – googled “aluminum boat pipes”, and “rigging” seems to be the term, which apparently includes: Towers, Hard Tops, T-Tops, Radar Arches, Rod Racks – Custom & Bolt-On, Rod Racks – In-bed Truck Racks, Rod Holders, Leaning Posts, Outriggers, Bow Rails, Hand Rails, Aft Rails, Stern Rails, Electronics and United States Coast Guard Pilot House Sun Shades) rigging.
Most of you are familiar with the Renaissance Man Fish and Hands, and we are looking at other simple fun, creative projects we can get into to turn these tons of metal that accrue around the shop into little gift items and art objects.
Leigh is coming up with things like napkin holders, business card holders, wall hooks, paper towel holders, firewood caddies, candle sconces, coat racks, light fixtures, door knockers and mail boxes.
We’d love to hear what kind of items you would be interested in seeing from Renaissance Man. Please feel free to offer suggestions by commenting below. We’re also always happy to hear from you by email or on Facebook.
At the Renaissance Man office, we try to be mindful of our impact on the environment. It can be difficult for a small business to balance the desire to be “green” with the necessity of keeping operating costs as low as possible. While we adhere to the basic, common sense list of resource-saving activities (No disposable cups/plates/utensils, turn out lights, use a programable thermostat, recycle paper), we’ve implemented a few additional measures that we feel fit within both our business needs, and the wellbeing of our planet:
We use small tools that are rechargable to help eliminate the need to buy batteries.
We encourage e-mail communications rather than faxes and only print documents when absolutely necessary.
We recycle our office furniture rather than buying new.
We ask our suppliers to use the minimum amount of packaging possible, then reuse it in a variety of ways.
We use a permanent coffee filter in our office machine instead of paper filters. The used grounds can be saved for compost.
We request that all of our Trade Publication subscriptions be sent in digital format rather than hard-copy paper format.
We do as much of our banking and invoicing as possible online, and request E-bills from our vendors, utility providers and financial organizations.
Being environmentally kind while maintaining a healthy small business is a challenge, but small concessions can eventually reap big rewards for everyone involved.
When West Florida Tech High school asked me to bring design a mascot for them I knew right away stainless steel would be the way to go. It is a technology high school and nothing says technology like stainless. I began by studying the Jaguar, did you know the bones of a house cat have the exact same structure as all wild cats? I find cats to be fascinating and beautiful creatures. With long slinky bodies and graceful movements they are simply elegant. But elegance is not the main quantity you need in a mascot, you need strength and power, fortunately the Jaguar has these qualities as well. Now armed with these goals I do a few sketches till I am satisfied with the look. The next step is to scan the drawing and import it into Auto cad. I then broke down the components and illustrated it in 3-D.
The folks at the School loved it! After a bit if fund raising we were ready to go. I started by water jet cutting and shearing all of the components. Then forming and welding , the mouth was the trickiest part. But soon a Jaguar was born! It was a great project and I feel honored to be able to create something that will give the school a great sense of identity for years to come …
We were talking about adding some information about pricing to the website, and are still working on the best way to give customers a clear picture of the costs of what they might be looking for without offering any unrealistic expectations.
Kevin has been doing custom metal work for a long time around the Pensacola area and has had his share of interesting requests, questions, emergencies, exceptions, expectations and demands.
His mention of the inquiry, “I’m not really sure what I want, but can you tell me how much it costs?” prompted my first blog entry here, and Kevin says he gets that “all the time, bro.”
His response?
“Hey, if you come to me with a budget I can tell you what is possible. Or what’s better is if you come to me with exactly what you want and if it’s not within your budget, we can back it off a little bit.”
“I get that all the time, too.”
“But I always recommend spending a little more and get exactly what you want.
If you really want a 47 inch TV and you get that 27 inch you’re gonna be sorry in the long run”, Marchetti continues. “If somebody has a vision it’s nice to have drawings or visions.”
Up here at her perch in the office, Leigh adds, “or a picture of something similar
in a magazine or at a friends house to convey the idea… to help inspire a Renaissance Man original design”
They both emphasize that “Nothing will be copied. Nothing will be duplicated. Everything is original.”
