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Chaise Lounge

fiddle back eucalyptus, ebony, nu buck leather, 74 x 27 x 36.

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Chaise Lounge inspiration is jazz music and in part art deco era.  Chaise Lounge is a cornerstone of my thesis work at RIT, title “Jazz as Inspiration”.  The main premise was to select a jazz tune in this case I chose “Black and Blue” by Louis Armstrong and design a piece of furniture from the jazz tune itself.  I chose John Beck, the head of percussion at the time at the famous Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY to be on my thesis committee.   Other examples of my thesis work; https://www.cosmobarbaro.com/product/jazz-inspired-original-unique-handmade-lamps/

https://www.cosmobarbaro.com/product/top-hat-cabinet/

Since my father was a doctor of percussion at Edinboro University.  I always grew up around all types of world music.  Jazz was one of his favorite types of music and of course is one of Americas major accomplishments in the performing arts realm.  When it became time in my graduate studies to select a thesis, I wanted to be different from the other thesis papers.

I chose a topic that was not common like architectural influences or artist-based papers.  My influence I chose was jazz music.  The idea is to select a jazz tune and analyze the musical elements and transform them to furniture forms.  We would meet as much as possible to figure out my game plan and then it was up to me to execute the designs.  The culmination of years of work would result in a final thesis show.

Wikipedia defines Jazz music as the following; “Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime.[1][2][3][4] Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals.[5][6]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz

Fiddle back eucalyptus and ebony make up the body of the lounge. The frame is a large bent lamination.  the s join together on a curve miter joint.  The corner of the custom lounge has ebony inlay.  Equally important is the beautiful suede nu buck leather upholstery arms and seat deck. A high-density foam shape creates the cushion on the plywood seat deck.

Originally the design had the back being upholstery but after I laid up the veneer on the back lamination.    A re-evaluation of the piece determine that the lounge would be better off without upholstery on the back.  This combination creates a very comfortable seating experience.  This lounge expresses the impressiveness of the fiddle back figure  that displays openly in front of the viewer.

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