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Another Good Reason For Travel:

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In this industry, if that's indeed the proper terminology, there are tons of highs and lows. There's your first art sale; there's your first show rejection. There's your first international art exhibition; there's that first time someone steals your concept, then excepts your admiration. Then there's that first invitation. Whatever your take, I'm sure most can see ways to relate the arts to the Rockies: vast, beautiful, treacherous and oftentimes overwhelming. We're talking mountains here.

So why be part a part of this mountainous machine some call the art world? When considering this question personally, two things come to mind: What the h___ else would I do? ...and... The moments; those golden moments that can only be achieved by following one's soul are often worth it.


Pause:
Officially, consider this a two part blog-post as I thought I'd be jotting "Detroit this, shipping container Detroit that by now." In all honesty though, I'm still reflecting on that part of our adventure. Therefore, we'll fast forward to Chicago, which happened to be the second leg of our Shipping Container Research Adventure ...and oh, the traffic ...and oh the "liquor-zombies" trapped roaming the streets trying to recover from their good times at Lollapalooza (sorry no pics of that).

Un-Pause..

As we arrived at Advantage Structures, the midwest's premier shipping container modification company, it was clear we had found the right place. The bad news that greeted us was that our contact had to run off on an emergency just prior. Still, as our main purpose of the visit was to drop off a repurposed fire door from Building Value and check out the 8+ acre facility of our builder, our spirits remained high.


As Sam toured us around, we realized she wasn't any ordinary tour guide. She thoroughly explained the company's capabilities. Using examples, she gave us ideas which will ultimately make our construction plans much easier to develop alongside Advantage Structures. She even highlighted a fairly exclusive "moving truck" that had just finished loading one of their many 40' containers. "That one's filled with edited for protection and off to the movie set of sorry can't tell," she noted before we returned to the work area.


There, currently under construction, we found a number of shipping containers enjoying the addition of windows, doors, extra supports, skylights and much much more. Teams installed interior walls while others manned torches and professional-grade fabrication equipment. We dipped, doddled, poked and poddled, all while being consumed by yet another high moment. This was it, we had found the group we'd been searching for. Another bright spot in the struggles of an "art life" was born.


SOooo, why all this mention of shipping containers? If unaware, you can click HERE to learn more about the project we're currently crowd-funding, Makers Mobile. Or if you're already interested in this notion and/or already ready to make your donation dollars double, with Power2Give and our genourous support from Artworks Cincinnati and The Johnson Foundation, link to and share http://bit.ly/mamo2013 ...to get that warm fuzzy feeling inside.

#MakersMobile 2013 - by PAR-Projects

Also:
Find Advantage Structures online at: http://www.advantagestructuresllc.com/


Thanks again for tuning in,
Jonathan

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