ONE STAYS BEHIND - AT THE EVERSON

TONY: 2012 (The Other New York) came down this month. It was a great experience to be part of this huge regional art exhibition in Syracuse. Twelve venues, 63 artists, wonderful curators, special events and lots of fun! A piece of mine, based on a beautiful but abandoned house on Salina Street in Syracuse, gets to stay behind. It is now owned by the Everson Museum.

“Green Porch” includes 50 year-old newspaper clippings found in the collapsing cellar.  The lego and bird skull were found around the trash-filled yard. All came together in an old bureau drawer.

RODNEY STREET COMES DOWN

In September, Central New York magazine featured my work in an article about the TONY exhibit in Syracuse. The magazine’s photographer visited me in Buffalo and we went over to Rodney Street to shoot my assemblage with the reality right behind me. The other day as I drove down Rodney Street, I saw the bulldozers in action, quickly taking down three houses down in a row. I didn’t feel any sentiment for these places. The structures were so dangerous and such an attractive nuisance for the kids in the area. Better three lots of grass next spring. More hopeful for the neighborhood.

PIECES OF SYRACUSE

Walking down Lodi Street, I find the remains of an old Brewery. Beside it is a garage encrusted with textures and colors. Some graffiti artists have tagged the wall high above it. Today is trash day in Syracuse and a few toys are thrown away down the block. Wow! Now I have everything I need to make a “neighborhood in a box.” In the final assemblage, I play with the idea of the truck driving right out of town…thinking all the while of all thousands of jobs and people that have left this City.

‘LURE OF THE LOCAL’ at the Everson Museum in Syracuse

I’m really looking forward to being one of the speakers, this Thursday night, October 18th. The presentation and group discussion begins at 6:30 PM. As the Everson describes it, “Culture, nature, and history form our sense of place. TONY: 2012 artists from Syracuse and the surrounding region (re)interpret, (re)imagine and problematize this relationship. If you are in town that night, please join us!

THANKS TO CENTRAL NEW YORK MAGAZINE

So happy to be featured in the current issue of CNY magazine. Here’s one of their questions: Where did the idea for the work come from – your source of inspiration? The idea for this collection came out of traveling around the East side of Buffalo and old industrial areas. There are so many abandoned buildings with weeds and trees growing out of them. I’d stop and photograph the exterior of some of these places, but eventually I wanted to explore inside. I started to find objects that connected me to the stories of people who lived and worked there. What I saw made me wonder about human nature. Why do children’s objects end up in remote, decaying areas? What do we treasure and what do we discard?

LAYERS OF TIME - SYRACUSE

Armed with my camera, I walk around this historic city. Mingled in with the new growth are abandoned leftovers from wealthier times. In an antique shop near Wolf Street, I find charming old photos of past lives. Back in my studio, past and present comes together in these images.

A MID SUMMER NIGHT'S DRAW

Come on over to HALLWALLS Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo. This Wednesday evening, starting at 7 PM, you'll have the chance to watch 34 artists drawing live in two 45 minute sessions. The completed works will be silent-auctioned with an opening bid of $38 (in honor of Hallwalls years in operation). It's a great lineup of Buffalo artists giving their all for the cause. Just $5 to get in the door. Music and a cash bar. I've decided to keep to black, white and 50 shades of grey. Got my graphite tools all ready to go. See you there!

LUCKY 13

Opening on Friday, July 13th, is the always popular Hallwalls Members’ Exhibition. The party carries on from 7:00 - 10:00 pm and the exhibition runs until Friday, August 24th. My entry this year is a piece from my ‘Toyology’ series. It’s based on a Barbie doll I found on the Eastside and photos I took of Central Park Plaza. Barbie stands in her box with ‘Fashionista Ken’ at her side and the plaza wall and trash behind her. Graffiti seen on a nearby house is painted on an outside panel. Central Park Plaza is a 27-acre desolate eyesore close to Amherst Street. After sitting basically abandoned for years, the property was just purchased by the Strickler Development Group LLC. Louis Ciminelli plans to “environmentally remediate and secure the site” and then work with the community to come up with the best plan. The immediate neighborhood is one of the most degraded in the city. It’s great to hear any positive news coming out of this area. Maybe it just got lucky?

THE SIDEWALK WALKS

In 2010 the City of Buffalo notified us that the sidewalk in front of our rental property on Whitney Place needed to be replaced by concrete. The old sidewalk was composed of large slabs of magnificent Medina Sandstone, each one a unique shape, 3 to 6 inches thick, and uneven on the bottom. Since the house was built around 1875, the slabs must date at least that far back. The stones leaned against the house on Whitney for 2 years while we decided what to do with them. Then Hal had the brilliant idea to put them under the pergola he had built 10 years ago at our home in North Buffalo. He worked with a true artist, Scott Pedley of Restorff's Landscaping to change a mudhole into a real patio. Thank you City of Buffalo for not smashing it up the stones and letting them have a second life.

BUFFALO REUSE – ALWAYS INSPIRING

I stopped down to visit Buffalo ReUse this week to find some interesting old molding to turn into frames. Their new location is 296 East Ferry in Buffalo, one block east of Jefferson Avenue. Buffalo ReUse acquires materials through ‘green demolitions’ and donations from the community. Their aim is to “help you save money, protect the environment and serve the community.” The huge old building is a dynamic space, giving everyone a chance to see the past broken down into bits and pieces, ready for creative renewal.

SHE’S READY FOR THE WNYBAC MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION

The Fourth Annual Members’ Show opens this Friday night, June 22, at the Western New York Book Arts Collaborative. WNYBAC is located at 468 Washington Street in downtown Buffalo. If you have never been there, this could be the right moment. It is one of the most unique resources in Western New York. My inspiration for this painting was an old photo in an album thrown out on the Eastside. The picture was dated from the forties so I imagine that she might have worked for the war effort in Buffalo. Type on the side and top are lines from a song about Rosie the Riveter. I did her portrait in spray paint and acrylic. The wood for the frame came from Buffalo ReUse, always a great place to get inspired. Buffalo ReUse has a new and even better location at 296 East Ferry Street in Buffalo. Hope to see you Friday!

BUFFALO "SCULPTURES"

Exploring around the city it's common to find vast old hunks of metal. Perhaps they were too big to be easily hauled off to the scrapyard. Perhaps a property owner just didn't get around to it yet. Anyway, they often just sit in the sun like sculptures. Actually they are amazing sculptural forms - designed for some specific purpose no longer needed. I invite everyone to keep their eye out for other "sculptures" and perhaps post them on Facebook or otherwise bring them to public light. Perhaps there should be a Buffalo Sculpture Park where a whole group of these monsters are brought together and displayed as the great designs they are. I can imagine a group of them down by the the bikepath along the waterfront with little plagues telling tourists of their significance. Anyone else have ideas on this?

BETHLEHEM STEEL'S NORTH OFFICE - IT MATTERS

A great mixed group of committed preservationists are working hard to stop the scheduled demolition of this 111-year old Beaux Arts style building. As the organization Preservation Buffalo-Niagara declared in a statement, “Bethlehem Steel’s North Office represents the vital need for a strategic approach to dealing with our region's underutilized, irreplaceable historic assets.” Sounds like a great idea! Important places shouldn’t get to such a crisis point. It’s amazing that the company that purchased the property failed to maintain the building and apparently encouraged decay. And the city of Lackawanna allowed it. For more news on this situation, follow David Torke’s blog, http://fixbuffalo.blogspot.com/

DOES THIS PLACE MATTER?

The old Lenzner Bottling Factory at 630 Genesee Street is now on the city’s demolition list. It doesn’t have the architectural significance of other threatened buildings like Bethleham Steel’s North Office but personally I’ll miss it. Among all the interesting things inside were a truck, a piano and lots of little sprouts trying to reforest the space. It was the inspiration for my assemblage, Shreck. The back wall of the assemblage is a photo of the Lenzner interior showing its collapsed roof. The Shreck toy is a McDonald’s throwaway found in the neighborhood. Shreck’s little family is painted looking at him as if to say, “Did you do all this?” The outside of the box is painted with miniature graffiti. I based it on the giant tag on the Lenzner building by the ubiquitous Buffalo tagger, ATAK. I think of my assemblage as a little neighborhood in a box that will survive when the actual neighborhood is demolished.

FOR ALL MOTHERS PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

Enjoy your special day! Here's a mother & daughter in delicate balance from another time, in another world. (From my "Discarded Ancestors" collage series)

WHO WILL BUILD THE CITY UP EACH TIME?

The model for this painting of a worker is actually my father, Richard William MacLean. Richard is 94 years old, strong, full of life and still works fixing up old tools. The painting is framed using recycled wood from Buffalo ReUse. You can meet him at the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s Members Show. The opening is Friday, May 11, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

FIELD TRIP TO SYRACUSE

We traveled to Syracuse to explore more of the city, take photos and find discarded toys to complete my pieces for the T.O.N.Y. exhibition. On the high end, we saw the Robert Henri exhibition at the Everson Museum. Another find was Stella's Diner on Lodi Street with a huge crowd of locals eating HUGE platters of food. We also found "Skunk City," the nadir of the city's slums. It was so easy to find what I needed but also sad to see the ruins of former glory. Similar problems to Buffalo and yet unique.

INTERVIEW IN BUFFALO RISING

An online interview that explains what I am doing and why. Find me at Art Buff: Elizabeth Leader - Buffalo Rising Thanks to everyone who read it and sent notes!

TOY STORY

Exploring around Syracuse I found this broken little racecar on Lodi Street and thought it could be part of a ‘Toyology’ box. As usual I didn’t have a clue to its identity. Even the internet didn’t help. The experts at Clayton’s Gifts & Toys in Williamsville solved the mystery. It’s an electric Artin Slot Car Racer. I learned that slot cars fit in the ‘slots’ of special tracks and are powered by hand-held controllers. It’s apparently a sub-culture hobby and increases in seriousness all the way up to national competitions! Sounds like a great way for guys to get together in a man-cave, have a few beers and try to drive each other off the road. (See the set up in the second picture.) I am making a few more assemblages based on things seen and found in Syracuse. A good portion of the ‘Toyology’ series will be on view at the Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse, as part of THE OTHER NEW YORK 2012.

WHAT'S BECOME OF THOSE 3 SYRACUSE WOMEN

On March 4th, I posted 3 photos discovered at the Syracuse Antiques Exchange. These women are visible again as part of my "discarded ancestors" collage series. I've combined them with photos I took of abandoned places around Lodi and Salina Streets. Mixed in are bits and pieces of graffiti, old books and whatever. How things have changed.....

UNLUCKY ANGEL FROM SYRACUSE

I'm working on some new "Toyology" pieces...this time based on things I saw and found in Syracuse. Suffering from the same economic decline as other Upstate cities, Syracuse is filled with amazing abandoned houses.
I found this little broken angel in the backyard of a Lodi Street house. All the pieces are coming together in an assemblage that will be in the TONY (The Other New York) show in Syracuse. Lots more work coming. My pieces will be at the Community Folk Arts Center, opening August 18, 2012.