INSPIRED BY A DISCARDED PHOTO

The Eastside of Buffalo has been continuously inspiring. Last year I found an entire album of photographs thrown out with the trash on  Rodney Street. One of the photos was this beautiful young woman. I painted her as part of my ‘Rust-belt Workers’ series – she looked like she might have been a ‘Rosie the Riveter’  She is framed in recycled wood from Buffalo Re-Use.  Type runs along two sides with lyrics from the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ song: ‘Shes making history - working for victory”.

Rosie will be on view at the Buffalo Society of Artists 117^th Spring Exhibition. The show is being held in the beautiful Karpeles Manuscript Library at 453 Porter Avenue in Buffalo. Everyone is invited to the opening reception on Friday, March 29^th from 6 to 8 PM.

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.