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.