FAMILY SECRETS

While thousands people are hitting the gym this January, artists are known to hit the open studio life drawing class. This is where we practice our drawing skills on that hardest of subject, the nude model. Not only is the subject itself difficult, with all those challenges of anatomy, lighting and skin tones, but the model may only be holding the pose for a few minutes, or typically twenty, or at best, an hour. 

Open studio life drawing sessions are usually available wherever there is a dedicated group to organize it on a regular basis. In Buffalo, they are at the University of Buffalo, Buffalo Arts Studio and many other locations around town. People show up with armed with every media, from a set of pencils, to a complete kit of watercolor or oil paints or even a block of clay.

Pastels are my tool of choice for their simplicity and immediacy. When you have only a few minutes to draw, you have to be armed and ready. I come in with toned pastel paper that has a bit of ‘tooth’. I organize a limited palette based on complementary colors. Complementary colors are the opposites on the color wheel.  Across from the red is green, across from the yellow is purple and across from the blue is orange.  Complements both enhance and neutralize each other. Here is an Green/Red palette.  Ranging from the darkest to the brightest to the lightest shade for each color. From this simple group I can create a wide range of skin tones in any sort of lighting. 

The best resources I have found for understanding color are ‘The Yin/Yang of Painting’ by Hongnian Zhang and ‘Imaginative Realism’ by James Gurney. These masters offer major inspiration. What works for you? You can send me a comment on my contact page. Thanks!

A few years ago I found a photo album thrown out to the curb in front of a demolished house. There was apparently no one left to care for all these mementos and no way of finding out who these people were. The photos were so precious that I wanted to preserve them in some form. I took some of the photos out of the album and surrounded them with bits and pieces of abandoned Buffalo – graffiti, empty houses and decaying landscapes. It was my attempt to pull the past and present together and to honor these unknown people.

More than 60 of the ‘Discarded Ancestors’ collages were sold – at 464 Gallery, the Buffalo History Museum and out of my studio. I recently had an exhibit of thirteen collages framed in recycled wood, at the Peter A. and Mary Lou Vogt Gallery at Bouwhuis Library at Canisius College. During the run of the show, two librarian/genealogists, Lisa Sullivan and Kathleen DeLaney, stepped forward and tracked down the owner of the album.

They discovered the name of the woman, ‘Eleanor’ on a photo envelope, as the person who owned the album. Tracking Eleanor’s surname, Weinzierl, Lisa located an obituary in the Buffalo News. Then, through “Find a Grave” she discovered the burial site in Mt. Calvary. It appears that Eleanor was born in 1927, the daughter of Frank and Crescentia. She was divorced, never remarried, but did have cousins at the time of her death.  Her obituary mentioned her great love of animals. Since she never had children, there was no one to keep the family photos. Eleanor died on January 11, 2011. Her house was torn down a couple of years later. Thank you to Lisa and Kathleen! And thank you to everyone who ‘adopted’ the friends and family members of this beautiful Buffalo woman and kept her spirit alive.

This week I had the honor (along with Barbara Rowe and Doreen Deboth) of being a judge in the Art as History Project sponsored by the Black Rock Historical Museum. This year’s theme was ‘Envisioning the Scajaquada’ for a better future. The timely subject gave students a chance to learn about the past and living history of all aspects of the Scajaquada, its creek, and environment. Kerry Chiado, the very dedicated and talented teacher at Riverside, inspired her students with ecology, art history, mythology and more. The results were truly colorful, unique and creative! It was a very tough choice to narrow it down to the top five prize winners. Here they are, standing shyly and a bit overwhelmed:

Doreen DeBoth, Coordinator of the Black Rock Historical Society, Delia DeLeone Olmo, 3rd placewinner, Tiara Pagan, 2nd place winner, Saw Freeman, 1st place winner, Kerry Chiado, Riverside ArtTeacher, Jazmin Mendez, Honorable Mention, Ella Dunne, Riverside Principal, and Bawi Kahn, Honorable Mention. All other students who completed the project received a Certificate of Community Service.

More about the project:

This year’s Art as History Project was funded by grants from the Ronald McDonald Foundation and the West Side Youth Development Coalition. Two Buffalo schools agreed to participate in the contest for the fall 2016 semester, Riverside High School and Our Lady of Black Rock. The Art teachers and Principals at both schools fully embraced the project and teachers diligently prepared courses allowing for over 200 students to participate. Of note is the significant diversity of the students who were engaged in the project. Students in grades 6^th-12 represented over a dozen countries. Allowing for limited language learners, a special curriculum was developed to ensure that all students had a chance to work on this project.

The Black Rock Historical Society goal for the student project includes fostering a better understanding about neighborhood history; taking pride in having student work displayed at a venue such as a museum, and resulting in pride in their community. Students participating will be a positive role model to their peers and have a much better understanding of their environment’s potential.

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.

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. 

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!

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. 

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.

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.

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!

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' 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. 

My personal color mixing exercise - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of paints. This week's model is Anna, a twelve-year-old girl from Albion, New York who loves to dress in camo. She is painted in CADMIUM RED, SAP GREEN and YELLOW OCHRE with WHITE. The raw paints became the abstract on the right. Anna's pale skin was a challenge since the changes in tone were so subtle. Unlike the deep grooves and wrinkles in an older person, a child's face has little contrast for a painter to hang on to. 

MY PERSONAL COLOR MIXING EXERCISE - ROUND FIVE - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. This week's model is Honey, the beautiful daughter of a recent immigrant to Buffalo. She is painted with MAGENTA, RAW SIENNA and COBALT BLUE along with WHITE and a little BLACK. The raw paint became the abstract on the right.  

My personal color mixing exercise - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. This week's model is little Ras from Rochester painted with BURNT SIENNA, RAW SIENNA and SAP GREEN along with WHITE. The leftover paint became the abstract on the right. 
I spotted the graffiti near an apartment I used to rent in Rochester.  

Here's Max!  I met Max when I illustrated "Max Meets the Mayor".  He is painted from ULTRAMARINE BLUE, ALIZARIN CRIMSON, RAW SIENNA and WHITE. For Max's graffiti background I had fun painting three Pokemon figures, Wartortle, Squirle and Blastoise. The leftover paint became the abstract on the right.

My personal color mixing exercise - sketching a little 9" x 11" oil portrait once a week with a different triad of colors. This week's model is grandson, Emmett, painted in NAPLES YELLOW, BURNT SIENNA and PERMANENT GREEN along with WHITE. Then the leftovers become an abstract on the right. 

Every color pigment has its own personality and some are harder to get along with than others. In fact, they seem to bully the other paints and take over my pallette.

I was relying too much on my old friend, BURNT SIENNA, to mix flesh tones and thought I should branch out. Here's a 9"x12" oil sketch of young artist, Rowan, painted with the triad of ULTRAMARINE, ALIZARIN CRIMSON, RAW SIENNA along with WHITE.  The leftover paint turned into a mini-abstract. 

Did I tame that Alizarin? Do you have colors that you have trouble dealing with? I'd love to know.

Two years ago I found an entire album of old family photographs thrown out with the trash. The discovery pushed me into an entire series of collages – discarded ancestors combined with some recent photos of buildings around Buffalo. It’s my attempt to capture layers of time. 

More in this series are on view at Meibohm Fine Arts at 578 Main Street in East Aurora. They are part of the Buffalo Society of Artists Thumb Box Exhibition - on view until July 28th.

Two years ago I found an entire album of old family photographs thrown out with the trash. The discovery pushed me into an entire series of collages – discarded ancestors combined with some recent photos of buildings around Buffalo. It’s my attempt to capture layers of time. 

Hiking on Ohio Street in Buffalo, where the train tracks, silos and canals all intersect, we found a campsite behind a bush growing out of the abandoned rails. Travelers had built a fire and drunk some beers. One of them had thrown out his toy collection. I am guessing it was a teenage boy by the amount of little trucks and cars, a boy who saved all his Happy Meal toys when he had the chance.  For some reason it was time to leave them behind. Deer scat by the charred wood gave evidence of other life passing through this trail as well. Nearby were live rails with graffiti-covered train cars leading towards the General Mills plant. I like to imagine these “wayward teenagers, adventure seekers and high school runaways”* having a good, safe stop in Buffalo before the next part of their journey. Did some of them go back home or keep crisscrossing the country?  I wish them well and thank that unknown boy for his toys.

The Kang piece became the center of this assemblage. Kang and Kodos, the alien figures from the animated Simpsons TV show, have landed in Buffalo close the campsite.  A sub-surfaced mounted photograph of the site framed with a discarded drawer keeps this world together. Graphics of the Simpsons and graffiti copied off one of the train cars are painted on the sidewalls. Altogether, it’s my version of landscape painting.  

“GYRE: The Plastic Ocean,” just finished showing in its last venue, the Natalie & James Thompson Gallery at San Jose State University in San Jose, California. This exhibit spotlighted an international group of artists focused on trash in the oceans. What’s happening in the Gyre is too far off shore for people to understand the destruction. Even seeing the spinoff masses of trash along beaches doesn’t give us the scope of the problem.

But like plastic floating along the currents, information follows currents too. “GYRE: The Plastic Ocean,” first opened at the Anchorage Museum in in Alaska, then with the aid of the Smithsonian, “GYRE” moved to the David J. Spencer CDC Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. After several months it traveled to the USC Fisher Museum in Los Angeles and finally to the gallery at San Jose University. 
But this won't be the end. Concerns over water continue to rise in importance. More to follow!

In a culture dependent upon the modern convenience of plastic, throwaway products of consumption are affecting oceans and shrinking our world as we all become connected through our trash. Organized and first exhibited in Anchorage, Alaska, “GYRE: The Plastic Ocean” combines art and science to bring the problem into perspective. Now, through the Smithsonian, “GYRE” is on display at the David J. Spencer CDC Museum in Atlanta, Georgia until June 19, 2015. This fall, “GYRE” will travel to the USC Fisher Museum of Art in Los Angeles and open on September 2, 2015.

Three of my works are included in “GYRE.” I illustrate what I see through my imagination to make these concerns real to others. “Plastic Reef” shows a diver encountering a reef of discarded plastic bottles. “Tires Underwater” lets a child swim in dangerously trashed waters. “Eve and the Apple” is my version of the Garden of Eden after climate change.

“GYRE: The Plastic Ocean” was also created as a compelling book by Julie Decker and the Anchorage Museum staff. It is now available on Amazon.com for those who want to find out more about how artists can add illumination this pressing environmental problem.