Photo of Paul Zdepski in the Frenchtown NJ Studio, x-acto knife in hand.
Here I am in the early 90s with a full beard, longer hair and a baggy sweater. I'm deep in the back of Hiroshi Murata's studio in Frenchtown. We were neck deep in wood veneers and X-acto blades. My brother James and I were experienced woodworkers, so Hiroshi felt that bidding a Marquetry mural project for the State Capitol building in Trenton New Jersey would be in our skill set... We had no idea what kind of hurtles we would have to jump to finish this peice... Problem number one: We didn't add time for the full size drawings... 8' by 64'! Ooops.
We made up for that once we hit our stride, and had the project done within the timeline window. Our second issue was delivering all of the panels to Trenton; off loading them into the capitol building and installing them with FIVE different unions running around the building site. The Iron Workers wanted to carry them in because they had steel frame work. The Carpenters Union wanted to carry them in because they were made of wood. Because they had a finish on them, the Painters Union wanted a piece of the job. The Masons union was griping because we commented about the inconsistencies in the floor and the need to adjust our leveling feet to the limit on some of the panels.... I don't know who else we pissed off, but by the time the shop stewards found the building supervisor to complain, we were cleaning up our tools and wiping down the surface. I've seen hyenas fighting over a carcas, and this was close. If you're in Trenton, NJ and taking the Capitol tour, be sure to see the Legislative Services Building connected to the Rotunda, and the Majority Senate Meeting room... The mural runs on both of the long walls.