• POKING FUN AT POKEMONSPosted on December 1, 2016

    POKING FUN AT POKEMONS

    BUFFALO POLICE ARREST 12 POKEMONS
    for crimes ranging from trespassing to assault and battery to drunk and disorderly.
    Their mug shots are on view at 716-GAL-LERY in Hydraulic Hearth in Larkinville! 

    With all the upheaval in the world today, it was a fun break to create these little paintings on beer coasters.  It's part of a fundraiser going on the the phone booth gallery at Larkinville to benefit Harvest House. Harvest House is a wonderful organization supporting families on the East side of Buffalo for job training, healthcare, children and more.

  • BETHLEHEM BURNSPosted on November 16, 2016

    BETHLEHEM BURNS

    It was a dark week. Trump was elected. A huge fire raged through Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna. I drove down to the old steel plant on Sunday, pass an anti-Trump demonstration in Niagara Square, to see what was left of the site. Streets were blocked off and firemen were still working on the smoldering hot spots. Huge cranes moved piles of twisted metal. My photography could not capture the sheer vastness of the place (one million square feet - six city blocks) but I took this Instagram of some fencing and ran it through a Prisma filter. "Yellow tape...like sinews stretching in loss of muscle mass".  After hanging around for an hour, I had to get away from the toxic atmosphere.  The evacuation order has been lifted but the local residents must wonder about long-term health effects. 

  • FACING THE DARKNESSPosted on October 31, 2016

    FACING THE DARKNESS

    A couple of weeks ago, I encountered a bat in my bedroom.  It escaped before I could catch it so now as a precaution, I am going through a series of rabies shots at ECMC. A bat flying into your life can signify a transformation – “the end of a way of life and the start of another...facing the darkness before you will help you find the light.”  Sounds good! Perhaps I’ll get some super powers too, like increased night vision and sonar sensitivity.
    I did this sketch of bats a while ago. Happy Halloween!

  • DEEPWATER HORIZONPosted on October 26, 2016

    DEEPWATER HORIZON

    Now playing in area theaters is the stunning film “Deepwater Horizon.” It’s an intense dramatization of the April 2010 disaster when an offshore drilling rig exploded and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Although it concentrates on the exciting action aboard the rig and not the devastation to the Gulf of Mexico, the film makes its point. Oil drilling is a dangerous enterprise that can be driven by corporate greed and ignorance, capable of destroying our irreplaceable environment.

    When my snowbird parents were still living outside of Tampa, I visited the area many times. After the shock of the disaster in the Gulf, I made this 40”x 58” pastel drawing, “The Ocean is Burning.” A drawing can only be cathartic for myself and the limited number of people who see it. But Hollywood has the power to create a message of enormous power and get it out to millions of people. The film has terrific acting (I especially enjoyed John Malkovich as the corporate official from British Petroleum) and incredible fiery effects of the catastrophic blowout.

    With our lives so based on fossil-fuel-based energy, this movie gives us reason to pause and think. The story goes continues on today with the current North Dakota pipeline protests. 

  • MIXING FLESH TONES – WITH THANKS TO HONGNIAN ZHANGPosted on October 19, 2016

    MIXING FLESH TONES – WITH THANKS TO HONGNIAN ZHANG

    MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different color palette. This week’s challenge is dark-skinned Keisha, being mysterious. I am using the complementary system described in “The Yin/Yang of Painting” by Chinese Artist, Hongnian Zhang. Last week’s portrait was of a fair-skinned blond, but the same paints can work just as well with other skin tones.

    Keisha is painted with the GREEN/RED complementary palette. It includes a wide range of paints from SAP GREEN, VIRIDIAN and RAW UMBER on the Green side to MAGENTA, CADMIUM RED and BURNT SIENNA on the RED side, plus WHITE and BLACK. The little abstract on the right side shows some of the colors in their pure form.

     

  • MIXING FLESH TONES – ANOTHER WAYPosted on October 12, 2016

    MIXING FLESH TONES – ANOTHER WAY

    MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different color palette. Here is ash blond Sara. This time, instead of a triad of colors, I used the complementary system described in “The Yin/Yang of Painting” by Chinese Artist, Hongnian Zhang. (Partners In Art Studio at 83 Webster Street in North Tonawanda, NY sells a handy and easy to use guide sheet that lays out all the possible complementary paints.

    Sara is painted with the GREEN/RED complementary palette. It includes a wide range of paints from SAP GREEN, VIRIDIAN and RAW UMBER on the GREEN side to MAGENTA, CADMIUM RED and BURNT SIENNA on the RED side, plus WHITE and BLACK. The complements can enliven when side by side or soften when mixed. It really offers lots of choices yet keeps things together.

     

  • MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND NINEPosted on September 28, 2016

    MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND NINE

    MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - ROUND NINE - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. Here is delicate Amy.  She is painted with CADMIUM RED, RAW SIENNA and CERULEAN BLUE along with WHITE and a little BLACK. The raw paint became the abstract on the right.  
    For me, the purpose of this little exercise is to show how flesh tones can be created out of any number of limited palettes.  Really anything goes. I am in Chicago this week - visited EXPO Chicago and also Loyola University Art Gallery.  Inspiration everywhere I turn!

  • MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND EIGHTPosted on September 21, 2016

    MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND EIGHT

    MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - ROUND EIGHT - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. This handsome young man, Malcolm, let me snap his picture.  He is painted with VENETIAN RED, YELLOW OCHRE and SAP GREEN along with WHITE and a little BLACK. The raw paint became the abstract on the right.  
    For me, the purpose of this little exercise is to show how flesh tones can be created out of any number of limited palettes. Artist friends have been suggesting some of the "classic" palettes and I'll be posting some samples of those too. Thanks for all your feedback!

  • MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND SEVENPosted on September 14, 2016

    MIXING FLESH TONES - ROUND SEVEN

    MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - ROUND SEVEN - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. A friend handed me this week's challenge, a photo of Kyra, a girl from India standing in strong light and shade. She is painted with RAW UMBER, RAW SIENNA and CADMIUM RED along with WHITE and a little BLACK. The raw paint became the abstract on the right.  

  • 'DISCARDED ANCESTORS' SHOWING AT CANISIUS COLLEGEPosted on September 7, 2016

    'DISCARDED ANCESTORS' SHOWING AT CANISIUS COLLEGE

    "DISCARDED ANCESTORS' is a series of collages based on photos I discovered thrown out in front of a demolished house on Buffalo's East Side. I combined them with my present time photographs and framed them in recycled wood. The exhibition is in the Peter A. and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery at Bouwhuis Library at Canisius College. An opening reception with be held on Friday, September 9, 2016 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.


    WHY I DO THIS WORK
    After the birth of her third child in 1922, my grandmother, Katherine, fell into a deep postpartum depression. Her husband, Casper, unable to cope with her illness, committed her to the Foxboro Asylum in Massachusetts for the rest of her life.  This was the era before the development of psychotropic drugs.  Difficult family members could be confined in “Kirkbrand” style asylums and never seen again. Most of these places, located all over the Northeastern United States, are now closed and abandoned. 

    My sad family history rippled out in many destructive ways over the next generations. I only discovered our ‘dark, shameful’ secret by accident when I was 22 and Katherine had died.  Suddenly, so much of our uncomfortable family atmosphere made sense to me.

    Looking back, I realize why I am attracted to the discarded parts of society, whether it is a collection of old photos, an abandoned house or factory, a group of marginalized people or trash thrown out into our waterways. I see art as a way to shed light in neglected corners.