WATERS OF THE WORLD

The Black Sea. Was the water really black or was that just some name everybody agreed to before I was born? And what about the Red Sea... well, you get it. These were the conundrums of my 9 year-old mind. I figured that someday the only way I'd know for sure was to see for myself. And if it really was black I'd get a sample and start a collection of waters of the world. From all kinds of exotic places. The Nile. The Amazon.That sounded good to me at the time and then I forgot about it for fifty years or so.

I should mention that in one of those years I actually did get to the Black Sea. It seemed dark but not black, and I briefly remembered my childhood plan. Very briefly.

Everything changed when I was working in my garage one day in 2007. I was listening to the radio when  'Surfin' USA' by the Beach Boys came on. I must have heard the song thousands of times (even hearing it when it was a new release), but then the lyrics came to:

Haggerties and Swamies

Pacific Palisades

San Onofre and Sunset

Redondo Beach L.A.
All over La Jolla
At Waimea Bay...

Redondo Beach! I could start my water 'collection' right here in this 'exotic' place. Yes. And even better, I could make a small surfboard with the waters from all the sites mentioned in the song. So I did.

SURFIN' USA

My friend Eric and I even went around to the local sites mentioned and collected water samples but later
we figured it would be better if who ever wound up with this would have to fill 'em themselves. 

I also built a blue board:

And then I thought it would be great to have small individual boards for water from famous surf breaks from all over the world:

Malibu

                                                                          Zombies

                                                                         Manhattan

Narabeen

Teahupo'o

Haggerties

Redondo Beach

                                                                        Waikiki

These were harder mainly because the wood 'rings' that held the tubes had to be from the same plank as the board so they aligned visually.

By this time it made no sense to leave out a set for the oceans of the world:

And they're great for a reason: The Great Lakes:

And finally, the water that I always wanted to personally collect:

     LOCH NESS

                                                                

                                                                EPILOGUE


Maybe some people are disappointed that there is no water from Loch Ness in my piece. Well, I guess I am too. When I made this work many years ago I imagined myself on the foggy bank of that fabled loch with my test tube in hand smiling from ear to ear. But as happens with many plans, life got in the way. I got a lot older, my health isn’t what it used to be, this pandemic isn’t helping any and frankly other things became more important.

So while it might not be me who fills up this tube, whoever acquires this piece is getting more than a little box. It’s a challenge. And in an age where many people spend their lives staring at screens, a trip to the Scottish highlands will be worth its weight in gold.

 

There’s more of my work here:

INSTAGRAM:  StanRes
WEBSITE: www.stanresnicoff.com
BLOG: www.PleaseStanBy.blogspot.com
FACEBOOK: Stan Resnicoff

E-Mail: SResnicoff@aol.com

STANLEY, THE SEAL OF APPROVAL

Originally published as a paperback by Random House, Eric and I made this flash movie which, among other things, was selected to be shown at Pratt's Alumni Day last year. 

The book is still available at Amazon at: 
https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Seal-Approval-Stan-Resnicoff-ebook/dp/B011ZCU93Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479671362&sr=8-3&keywords=STan+Resnicoff

       MY TO-DO LIST

Copyright © 1997  Stan Resnicoff All Rights Reserved

I’ve got a big agenda,
Of the things I wanna do
And I know I won’t be able
To see all of them through
So listen very carefully
To everything I say
‘Cause here is my list of the things
I wanna do today

I’ll have a conversation
With the dolphins in the sea
I’ll tell them everything I know
They’ll do the same for me
And I’ll learn all their secrets
And find out just what’s true
And the day after today maybe
I’ll tell it all to you

I’ll photograph the wildlife
In the Amazonian Basin
Then round-up all my good friends
For a little NASCAR racin’
I’ll sharpen all my pencils
And e-mail every pal
Then go out for a little swim
Thru the Panama Canal

Then I wanna chase a rainbow
And find out where it ends
And throw a giant party 
For my very special friends
And learn to speak a language
That I never spoke before 
And hit a grand-slam homer 
And win the final score

I want to ride a raging river
Shoot the rapids, that’d be fun
Then I want to give a hundred dollars out
To each and every one
I want to carve my initials in the clouds
And paint the entire sky
I might not get to all these things
But at least I’m gonna try

I’ll climb a giant mountain
In the Himalayan Range
Then toss around some papers
At the New York Stock Exchange
I’ll clean up all the rivers
And straighten my sock drawer
And with the time that I’ve got left
I know what I’ll use that for

I wanna feed the hungry
With turkey and desert
And take away all of their pain
And take away what hurts
And turn their heads up to the sun
And set everyone free
And win the Nobel Prize today for 
Peace and Poetry.

THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM PRE-VISIT KITS  1976

The Archeology Backpack

Here's what my exhibit looked like in Moscow in 1992. It was in the Designers Union Building which was right on famous Pushkin Square. This was still before capitalism had completely taken over their economic system and soon the biggest MacDonald's in the world would be built across the street.

All my English descriptions were translated into Russian

Before the internet, this was the first glimpse of American design for some . Admittedly it's not any representative 
cross-section, still it's the eclectic work of one first-generation American with a Russian surname...and somehow it represents the freedoms we enjoy.


My museum projects as well as toy and art ideas were included.

Yuri Skokov, head of the Designer's Union explains my work

The BarBEARian

The Brooklyn Museum Archeology Backpack was a big hit.

'Purposeful Writing' Game from the Hawaii Curriculum Center

Me with 'Leon Neon'

The BarBEARian with Hussein Abbo's wonderful drawings

The show was written up in their Design Magazine