Charlie Menefee

Education

BArch, Carnegie Mellon University, 1977

Biography

Charlie Menefee is Professor Emeritus.

My making is a continuum of efforts (now primarily drawings) spent querying what might best be built that meaningfully and responsibly connects revelatory and relevant instants across long periods of time. At one end of the time scale, I am particularly fond of foundations – the first instructive elements to connect idea/intention to a context and usually are the last to slip into memory. At the other end, I endeavor to observe [and eventually shape] instants such as the moment sunlight turns a corner and rakes a surface to expose the order of material and hand of its shaper to the observant. The collection of such instants becomes memory, the foundation of human culture.

As to my hand, underlying my lines, instructions, and questions is the simple emphatic reminder to attend. Attend to what surrounds me – contexts defined in a myriad of ways that challengingly change in scale from instants to eras. Attend to what I am making – how and with what resources. Attend to choices – mine and others – regarding responsibilities, accommodation, and desires. Attend to choosing to build the minimum with grace. I have found that if this awareness informs my practice, something can be gleaned from each attempt at making and I learn.