3. Sebastiao Salgado's picture of the brazilian gold mine
4. Salvador Dali Atomicus.
First I asked him if he was on crack. After he assured me was not, I said I thought 2 of his suggestions wouldn't lend themselves to 3 dimensional expression on a guitar body. But the moon landing and Iwo Jima themes had promise. We did the
Moon landing then moved on to Iwo Jima.
I used the oil painting version of the famous WWII flag raising as a model. I reversed the image for better composition and framed it with an archway. I suggested the Marine "Anchor & Globe" insignia with a brass plate to replace the original Gibson switch plate. Dave suggested adding the 101st Airborne insignia between the pickups.
Being the first Les Paul I've ever carved, I didn't realize the body is chambered... or semi hollow. When I started to cut into what I thought was a solid body, I found air in unexpected places. My solution was to do the marine and flag images in shallow relief, add mahogany filler around the perimeter of the arch and use the back of the guitar as a background, airbrushed as a cloud filled blue sky. Turned out (after 7 attempts) to be a very cool and unique look. The completion date was, unexpectedly, February 23, 2009. The 64th anniversary of the actual flag raising.
Dave bought this all mahogany Les Paul Studio Model on line in the U.S. and had it shipped to me, sight unseen. He did likewise with a Telecaster for his
Lunacaster instrument.
