36 Years
2018
*Three detail clips from the larger work (1:30)*
Duration of full video: 25 min.
Medium: Video
My father always described the act of refinishing floors as “grunt work.” There’s nothing glamorous about it—it makes your back ache, your arms limp, and—as my father continues to say—it makes you “choke up sawdust.” The level of care and tenderness at every stage of the process is rarely ever seen, and yet he’s devoted over 36 years of his life to this vocation.
In 2018, my father and I were hired to refinish the living room, dining area, kitchen and service porch of a home in the San Fernando Valley. With all the variables aligned and with approval of the client, I was able to document the sanding, scraping, buffing, cleaning, and coating of red oak flooring with my father—the carpenter.
