framework

Five small works of mine that someone had collected over the past few years- she asked if Jon could make a frame for them as a group- I think it looks quite nice, sets the little pieces apart from everything else where they might get lost, and I like how they look in relation to each other.

And these below don't have anything to do with the frame, just some favorites from a classic car show I attended recently in Geneva, NY with my family.
I've somewhat neglected my blog this July- but another month is only minutes away, so I'm sure I'll catch up before the wood-stackings start to fill up my time once more. I've been painting, and will be relieved to share- especially a large-ish (24"x48") oil landscape that occupied my energies for several weeks as I puzzled it out.

the booth is out there

This booth was in Garrison, and was likely the site of late-night cab calls, as it was (is? I haven't been back in a while, but I believe it remains) situated by the train station and a long-shuttered bar. Faded green and phoneless. Here it somehow became a sort of ghostly faded skeletal relic in a gray landscape. Oil on wood, 10"x14".

chalk to the nearest exit, or, the c train

For the 2014 Perry Chalk Art Festival, our 5'x10' chalky interpretation of the theme 'Transformations'. (Click here to see the one I did in 2012)

Jon and I, grubby and relieved at the end of 4-5 absorbed hours chalking in the sun

The MTA's Artificial Reef Project, begun in 2001, involved taking decommissioned New York City subway cars and deploying them to the ocean floor to create new habitats for marine life. These included the old 'Redbirds', which rode the rails from 1964-2003. The cars were stripped of doors & windows and any materials that might leach into the water. Within 3-5 years- usually sooner- the structures were covered with coral and algae, transforming into strange & beautiful places of refuge for fish and providing a feeding ground, increasing catches for fishermen, and enhancing the topography of the otherwise barren floor of the Mid-Atlantic.
(from my accompanying statement taped to the concrete.)

People feared this scheme was a thinly-veiled attempt to turn the ocean floor into a junkyard, but it seems that the cars, chosen for their durability, weight & roominess, show little to no damage or disintegration of materials. You never know the whole story of course, but it appeared to be a successful project, and the scuba diver's photos I'd found online are eerie and magical. A challenge to replicate in chalk, especially as I hadn't done it in two years and Jon never had, so we just dug into it. Somehow we snagged second place. By morning, just as when I chalked 2 years ago, the rain had all but washed it away, rendering the underwater portion even more realistic.

(painting) table-to-farm

More of the signs I've been painting for Fishkill Farms. See strawberries, a sweet memory now- but fortunately the farm produces an abundance of fruit throughout the summer, and I believe the idea is that the signs, once installed, will help guide wandering u-pickers to the correct fields. It's a lovely place to wander.
I have yet to find a perfectly clear exterior polyurethane varnish; it always yellows, and I wonder if it's inevitable. In this case at least, the antiqued look is okay. I do like using the oil-based One-Shot, it creates an easy precision with the lettering, while practically dictating my brushstrokes with its shiny, tacky stickiness when I paint the fruit.

marketing ploy

I've been selling my dummy light t-shirts for over 4 years, either at markets or pop-up shops or the gallery, through Etsy or on the fly. It's been fun, but this might be easier and was fun to set up- I just opened an online Spreadshirt shop, where people can order shirts (& now mugs) directly, choosing colors and sizes- so the inventory is always there. If it works out, I will offer more designs- if I can decide which paintings are ready to wear, or drink from, or spit up on.

resemblages

It's been a couple weeks since my last post and I have an odd but agreeable smattering of projects I did in that time:

I painted this box (which Jon made) as a wedding gift for two friends. I loved mixing these colors and alternating them with the natural wood. What if this was all I painted from now on- patterns and shapes? Between this and the Ellsworth Kelly lightbulb, I'm enjoying it. Paintings as an abstracted arrangement of forms to resemble reality, right? Thing is, I don't really believe it yet, for myself- there's got to be more to the story of a painting. I am thinking about those puzzle toys that look like random shapes until you sort them into a recognizable object of your design.

5"x5". This adorable and recognizable object was a commission. It looks a lot like an unbearably cute beagle. I started with the eyes and worked my way out, so I had only myself to blame for the feeling that the pup was waiting for me to finish painting it, as one might wait to be fed a treat.

Following up on the strawberries sign for the farm, blueberries was next. The large scale makes them resemble blue pomegranates, but the accompanying word should clear up any uncertainty.

A 5"x7" acrylic/collage on canvas, the collage part from a print of my ice machine watercolor.

A 7"x8.5" acrylic/collage on wood, also made from a print of a long-ago painting. This was an old pump I'd pass by for years, until one day, of course, it was gone.

ellsworth kelly lightbulb

I painted a 4-ft plywood lightbulb for the 2014 Newburgh Illuminated festival. The bulbs are being installed all over the city; mine will be at the Newburgh Urban Market on Sat June 14 & 21, and in front of Newburgh Art Supply the rest of the time.
From my post featuring last year's bulb, this was the organizer's vision for the project: 'Public art plays two roles in a community: It helps to create an authentic sense of place and serves as a tool for revitalization. The higher people rate the beauty of their community, the higher their overall level of community satisfaction. Human beings crave physical beauty. We look for it in so many of the things that surround us, and especially in the communities and places we live..'

As described on the website, the festival (with citywide events June 20-22) celebrates the 'rich history of the City as well as the great cultural diversity, to bring city residents together in celebration, to 'illuminate' and market the great assets of the City, to bring new people into the City thus resulting in increased tourism, new business and positive regional perception.
Newburgh holds a special place in American history as a city of innovation and invention. It was one of the earliest American cities to be electrified when Edison built its power plant and wired it up in 1884.'

My accompanying statement:
The artist Ellsworth Kelly was born in Newburgh in 1923.  His work, associated with Color Field and Minimalist painting throughout his long career, derives abstract form, contour, or color from observed reality. His use of shaped canvases translated flat brightly-colored forms into objects in themselves, creating an interaction between the pieces and the surrounding architecture. My lightbulb, with its irregular outline and hard-edged panels of color, and my effort to channel the process of composing a sequence of shapes, takes its inspiration from Kelly's work.