I recently completed a custom furniture project, building several pieces for a condo in Las Vegas. This project produced some of the coolest pieces I have designed and built to date. One piece was a custom king-size headboard with integrated nightstands. The headboard needed to go up an elevator to get into the condo, so I had to build it in pieces and assemble it on site. This was a great opportunity to spend an extra day in Vegas being a tourist after completing the work.
At first, when my clients told me they were moving to Las Vegas, I didn’t understand the attraction. Yes, it seems like a great place to see some cool shows and have fun gambling, but to live there? In the hot desert? Well, yes, it was hot, and more on that later. But all in all, it was a nice city.
When I arrived, I needed to buy supplies to help assemble the furniture and do some additional work I had offered to do for the interior designer in charge of the project while I was there. So I spent some time driving around town to find a Home Depot and a Harbor Freight. It was cheaper to buy some stuff in Vegas rather than ship it back and forth from my Denver, Colorado, Furniture Shop. While driving around, the first thing I noticed was far less traffic than in Denver, and the city felt cleaner, even in the impoverished neighborhoods. One downside was that the city was a case study for the haves and have-nots.
The view from the client’s condo was great. I bet the sunset over the mountains is beautiful.
However, the view from my hotel room was much more representative of the stereotypical lights, glitz, and glam that you think of when talking about Vegas.
That night after work, I drove down to the strip and parked at the Cosmopolitan. It was a small fortune to park and a maze to get in and out of. This was one drawback of Vegas: if you wanted to get to the other side of the strip, it was a long walk or pay another overpriced parking fee. I think Vegas can learn something from the city of Springdale, outside of Zion National Park. When I visited there, they had a free shuttle that you could ride up and down the main city center and into the Park. We used that shuttle to explore the shit out of the Springdale strip.
Anyhow, as I navigated my way out of the parking garage and through the Cosmopolitan. I came across this cool bronze sculpture called The Travelers Have Arrived, by the Australian artist duo Gillie and Marc. You’ll find it on Level 2 of the Chelsea Tower inside The Cosmopolitan, and it’s worth hunting down. The two figures riding the donkey are their signature characters, Rabbitwoman and Dogman, who show up in public art installations all over the world as a symbol of love, diversity, and the idea that we’re never really alone on life’s journey. In most of their other installations around the globe, these two are fully clothed, having coffee, riding bikes, doing everyday things. But in Vegas, they’re buck naked. This was Rabbitwoman and Dogman’s nod to the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” And these two have seen some action while in Vegas. The majority of the sculpture has aged and developed that classic patina. However, their private parts have been fondled so many times by various guests that they are shiny and polished from all the inappropriate touching. These polished private parts are a common occurrence with bronze statues around the world. It gives true meaning to the saying and act of getting your knob polished.
The next day, I decided to save the parking fee and walk from the hotel to the strip. It was only a couple of miles, and I could use the exercise. This sounded like a good idea, but I quickly realized the cool morning desert air turns into an inferno from hell, and by the time I got to the strip, I was dehydrated even though I brought a bottle of water with me.
After spending some time in a local Ice Cream shop, which is a tradition my Aunt Dana got me into when traveling. I was rehydrated and cooled off, ready to explore the strip. I found gambling to be somewhat boring. The first slot machine I walked up to only took credit cards. Call me old-fashioned, but swiping a card instead of dropping in a coin seemed overly commercialized and less Vegas fun. Dropping real coins, as you see in the movies, seemed classic Vegas to me and was the experience I was looking for. Also being an artist, not swiping my card seemed like a middle finger to private equity and a passive way of saying Fuck Capitalism.
Being the nerd and art lover that I am, I forgoed the gambling, and sought out art galleries and immersive exhibits such as the ARTE MUSEUM Las Vegas. If you have ever been to any of the Van Gogh immersive exhibits that are traveling around the country, where they project an animated version of Van Gogh’s work on the walls, floor, ceiling, and mirrors. This exhibit is very much the same idea, but with otherworldly objects and places. One room really stood out, the “Star Raindrops” room. It was a maze of mirrors and lanterns hanging at all different heights, which would change colors as you walked around the room. It had a real surreal feeling to it, like I was in a sci-fi movie exploring another world, experiencing its beauty for the first time. I spent quite a lot of time wandering around in the room, letting myself lose focus on where the mirrored walls started and stopped. If you let yourself dissociate and your eyes blur slightly, it seemed that there was no end to the lanterns and they went on forever. At the entrance of the room, there was a sign that said: “Don’t touch the lanterns.” But as a maker who wants to know how things are made and experience everything to its fullest, I gently caressed one of the lanterns. It felt like they were made of a thick paper, but still thin enough to allow light to pass through and reflect off of. Just know that if you ever hang out with me in an art gallery, your number one job is to distract the staff so I can fondle all the art to see how it was made. That may also include polishing a brass knob or two.
I’m the owner of Benham Design Concepts, a Colorado-based Custom Furniture design and fabrication studio. I design and build custom furniture that resembles works of art, using materials such as wood, glass, stone, and metals. The furniture I produce serves not only as practical items but also as works of art, infusing character and style into any space.
