THE DOLLHOUSE GOES DOWN!

I found a large dollhouse tossed out on the street, in fairly good shape except for its collapsed tower. In a perverse twist, rather than repair it, I took it down through the stages of so many abandoned properties I drive by on Fillmore Avenue.  Step one was breaking out most of the windows. Step two was boarding up the lower windows with ‘chipboard’ and marking it with city codes like “gas off.” Step three was painting miniature graffiti and then attempting to cover some of it with mismatched color blocks.  Step four was setting the second story on fire. This led to a big pile of burned trash on one side of the house. By now, ‘509’ was looking really bad and also very familiar. Not even my little collection of superheroes can save it now! Time for the toy wrecking ball and dump truck? Wow, that was fun!

If you visit my studio at the TriMain Center, you can play too!

REMEMBERING THE ORPHANS OF DODGE STREET

On Dodge Street in Buffalo, sat the decaying remains of the German Roman Catholic Orphanage. Founded in 1874 by the sisters of St. Francis, the orphanage first housed 47 children.  During the 82 years of its existence, it survived fire, grew into a large complex of dormitories and classrooms and cared for more than 15,000 children.  When I first came upon it, the orphanage had been closed for 56 years. Although in deplorable shape, the architecture of the buildings was still impressive. And inside the chapel stood an organ, too heavy to move when the place was shuttered.

But over the pass few years, this particular ruin has been saved. Thanks to major grants to the Community Action Organization of Erie County, it has been rehabilitated into ‘St. Martin Village’, providing 60 units of affordable housing for low-income families.  A mix of renovation and new construction honors the history of the children who passed through these walls while giving a chance for new life.

In this ‘discarded ancestor’ collage, I’ve combined a found photograph of a young boy with my photo of the chapel plus the graffiti and debris in the area. It’s my attempt to capture a layer of time.

‘ADOPT AN ANCESTOR’ – AT 464 GALLERY

I found photo albums 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 discarded ancestors were. The photos were so precious that I wanted to preserve them in some form. To me, they represented all the millions of people who have passed through this city. Each picture is unique and yet so universal that it could be from almost anyone’s family. They look like my ancestors and perhaps like some of yours as well. I took a group of the photos out of the albums and surrounded them with bits and pieces of abandoned Buffalo – graffiti, empty houses and decaying landscapes. They are framed in recycled wood with its own story to tell. It is my attempt to put the past and present together and to honor these unknown people. I hope their spirits are happy being part of this art and not just discarded as trash.

A selection of these collages is available at 464 Gallery on Amherst Street in Buffalo. Don’t miss the opening of “GIFTED” this Friday, December 6 from 6-11 PM. Owner, Marcus Wise, is putting together Buffalo’s most exciting holiday art market.