davidnittmann.com

History of a Spider Logo

Circa 1970 I worked as a Union carpenter around Denver, Colorado. Not fearing “high-wire” work, one of my jobs was to build scaffolding for the Ironworkers, most of whom were Chicanos. They would see me climbing around the works and called me Arana-the spider. In those days each workman had to supply their own hand-tools: hammers, square, tape measure, handsaw, peashooter, chalk line, plumb bob, et al. As a method of keeping track of one’s own tools, workers picked various colors of paint and put a small dot on each tool for personal identification. I, however, being “Arana”, drew a stylized spider on my tools for identification-two circles and eight lines. Today I sign off, as the last gesture, this logo on each piece of art work that I create.