Ready For The Holidays!

I'm happy to announce that the first edition of 'Buffalo Snow' sold out last year. It's just been reprinted in time for this winter. I'll be doing more book signings around Western New York and I hope I run into you!  For my out of town friends, it's available on the Barnes and Noble website. (bn.com)

Hope is Alive

What a thrill to see the joy around the world over Obama's victory. We're headed into change!

Cold winds blowing in

The Tifft Nature Preserve on Lake Erie was once a dairy farm. It then became the Buffalo city dump. Only later was it converted into a nature preserve. All the layers of history in the land are still there to be seen. It is a great place to hike and feel the changing weather blowing in over the Lake.  It's a place I always get ideas for environmental drawings.

A rainy season

Is it our imagination or were the leaves especially large and the grasses extremely tall this year? 

Recently completed

A drive by the Niagara Gorge inspired this image. The power towers and electrical lines cover the landscape and we all must adapt to them.

Back in Boston

We went back to Boston in October. Here's my oldest, dearest high school friend, Sandra Steriti Donahue, whipping up a magnificent Italian meal.  

THE BOY IN THE BAG

This is a recent 30" x 54" drawing on kraft paper. Every year around 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide. They require 300 years to photodegrade in a landfill. They are everywhere, drifting around and showing up in unexpected places. This image floated up and out of my mind.

THE DEPARTURE

Here's my pastel painting, The Departure, now showing at the members exhibit at the Carnegie Art Center. It's based on a dream image of a train leaving a station. The colors totally flipped around as I posted this but the effect is interesting!  

ROAD TRIP

I headed out to the countryside this week with three fellow artists - Dotty Fitzgerald, Jane Kaskie and Dana Jenkins.  It was time to forget about the gas prices, the financial crisis and the political races and just enjoy the beautiful land along Route 104. We found wonderful people with special talents and stocked up on flowers, pumpkins and gourds. We are ready for the season.

The Ancestral Acres

Here's Martha's Dried Flower Farm on Route 104 just east of Lockport in the little town of Hartland. 

Martha's Barn

There is nothing like the sweet earthy smell of flowers drying in the barn. A great antidote to city living.

Beautiful Upstate New York

Here's Dotty, Jane and Dana with Todd Belfield of Jeddo Mills. Todd has an exceptional eye and finds the most remarkable treasures. A great destination!

EVE IN TIJUANA

My daughter, Eve, just returned from Tijuana, Mexico. She's been down there several times working with the children who live near (and work with their parents in) the Tijuana dump. She helps them tell their stories and map their environment with photography, filmmaking and art projects. This will become part of a larger 'KidsMap' project she is creating. Go Eve!

KIDS MAP IN ACTION - TIJUANA

Here the kid's are painting a map of their environment.

EVERYTHING WENT WILD THIS SUMMER!

I'm posting this mess o'weeds for all my Garden Walk friends with beautifully groomed yards. This is what happens when you let everything run wild.  I was busy working on a series of large drawings this summer and decided I didn't have time to pull even one weed. The invasives (you know which ones they are) choked out all the delicate beauties. Darwin's survival of the fittest in action.

SLIGHTLY NEW STUDIO ADDRESS

Last month I moved my studio at the TriMain from 547 to 543. Now I am happily sharing space with Dorothy Fitzgerald and Jane Kaskie. It's a huge room and my studio mates are great. Please stop by and visit!

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF LOVE CANAL

This is strange. I couple of months ago I visited Love Canal and was struck by its eerie atmosphere - the chain link fence without public entrance, the pipes and mysterious measuring equipment, all in an almost park-like setting. I felt compelled to make this drawing. (The ball is a take-off on the hazard symbol used by first responders.)  As I was finishing it, I was surprised to find out that August was the 30th Anniversary of the Love Canal Disaster and Lois Gibbs was in town. Synchronicity? 

THE UNDERGROUND RIVER

Here are a few images from the 'Underground River' show first hung at the C.G. Jung Center in Buffalo, NY this year.

The unconscious mind, moving like water, swirls, flows, boils and churns, tiding in and out, pulled back and forth by the moon.

It flows everywhere and into everything, composing every cell of the body, filling up and flowing out of us again. 

Sometimes we can peer into that mind, that underground river, and see things moving in the water - all manner of objects and creatures and try to catch them with our nets. But they can never be fully known and are always changing.

'Swimming in Murky Waters'

25" x 31"

Pastel on paper

'From The Aquarium'

66" x 30"

Pastel on paper

'At The Edge'

26" x 32"

Pastel on paper

'Scream'

25" x 31"

'Net Fishing'

41" x 57"

Pastel on paper

Austin

If you have ever been to Austin Texas, you probably know about millions of bats that live under the bridge downtown and swarm out at night.  They left an impression on me and came out in this drawing.

The Hoop

Now at the Collector's Gallery at the Albright/Knox

Little Devil

Now in the Collector's Gallery at the Albright/Knox

Pastel on seven feet of brown kraft paper

'The Tide is Rising' now showing at Hallwalls Members' show

Now showing around Buffalo

Have patience please while I learn to Blog. 

First, I've moved my studio from Suite 547 at the TriMain to 543. (Now sharing space with Dotty Fitzgerald.) I'm trying to post a few works that are currently showing at different venues around town.