THE STORY OF MAIE

I met Maie last summer and was struck by the deep wisdom in her face. After taking her photograph, I created this portrait with spray paint and acrylic and framed it with recycled wood.  To me, she represented so many of the immigrants who have passed through the Rust Belt. Maie’s daughter, Eva Ruutopold told me a bit of her mother’s history:

"Maie’s world was turned upside down when WWII came into her fishing village on an island in the Baltic Sea. She was only thirteen-years-old when she left her home with her parents and siblings. Huddling together in a small boat, their only thought was to escape the brutal fighting that was taking over their country. Maie spent the next 6 years as a refugee in Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany. Even when the war ended, their country’s border was closed. They could not return to their home. In 1949, she was given the opportunity to immigrate to the United States. American companies were offering jobs to many of the displaced persons. She landed first in New Jersey, then in 1954 she moved to Buffalo. She lived on Maryland Street as a young bride and then as a young mother. She did not make it back to visit that small fishing village until 1990 when Estonia finally gained its independence again. Western New York was her home until 2011".

Maie’s portrait is part of the Buffalo Society of Artists Exhibition opening on March 28 in the Buffalo Arts Studio. The opening, part of the M&T Fourth Friday series, will be from 5 to 8 pm. Buffalo Arts Studio is located on the fifth floor of the TriMain Center at 2495 Main Street in Buffalo. Parking and admission are always free.  Come visit Maie and see the work of over 30 other artists.

A “COMMUNITY IN A GALLERY” – MERIDIAN WEST

The Meridian West Gallery opened in November, 2012, with a special mission. As co-owner, Nancy Clarke Mariani, expressed it, “collecting art is an investment, and Buffalo is filled with so many talented artists…it’s incredible how fortunate we are to live here amongst them. Normally a gallery is located in a community – here at Meridian we have a community in a gallery.” This beautiful, multi-use space, will host the EYE SYMPHONY Exhibition, with an opening on Saturday night, March 22 from 6 – 9 pm. Meridian Gallery is located at 1209 Hertel Avenue in Buffalo, New York.

Three of my “Discarded Ancestors” collages will be part of EYE SYMPHONY. These pieces began after 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. 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.

‘DISCARDED ANCESTORS’ AT THE BUFFALO ARTS STUDIO

‘DISCARDED ANCESTORS’ AT THE BUFFALO ARTS STUDIO

Tonight is the opening of the Buffalo Arts Studio Members Exhibition. Three of my collage pieces are in the show. They are based on old photographs I found discarded on the eastside of Buffalo combined with my photographs of buildings and graffiti in the area. I made the frames from parts of a door found at Buffalo ReUse, then sanded to reveal all the layers of paint and time.

Tonight’s opening, part of the M&T Fourth Friday series, is from 5 to 8 pm. Buffalo Arts Studio is located on the fifth floor of the TriMain Center at 2495 Main Street in Buffalo. Parking and admission are always free.  If you come by to enjoy all the activities at the Buffalo Arts Studio, stop right next door at my studio (509) for refreshments and to see more work created out of the Rust Belt.

The exhibit will be on view until March 22, 2014. 

IT TAKES A TEAM TO GET TO ALASKA

Three artworks from my “Troubled Waters” series were chosen for the GYRE International Exhibition at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska. Since these works are large, delicate pastels, they presented a challenge. On the advice of the Albright Knox Art Gallery, I contacted Dennis Wisniewski and his crew at Avenue Art & Frame to handle the special framing it required. Then Dennis introduced me to Robert Scalise of the UB Anderson Gallery who built the crate to send everything up in perfect shape. So glad that Robert had time for this freelance project! The Anchorage Museum used FedEx as their carrier.  I’m including all these details for artist friends who might be in a similar situation.

The GYRE show will be on view until September 6, 2014. Then it will become a Smithsonian traveling exhibition. I hope many people will see GYRE in one place or another. It aims to show how the throwaway products of our consumption are affecting oceans and connecting us globally through our trash. Hopefully scientists and artists can help raise awareness of this enormous environmental problem. 

THE VIEW FROM DETROIT

Bankrupt Detroit reveals the darkest side of American capitalism. And in the middle of the city is ground zero of urban decay, the “sprawling corpse” of the Packard plant. Abandoned since 1956, it’s 3.5 million square feet have contained every possible activity including urban explorers, scrap thieves, arsonists and the homeless.

In 2010, Banksy tagged a wall but unlike all the other graffiti covering every surface, his wall was quickly cut out and saved by the local 555 Gallery.  This past Christmas Eve, Photographers exploring the plant found a dead body frozen to the ground. It turned out to be a murdered young black man, Marko Davis.

I explored the plant last fall (in the daylight and not alone) and was amazed by the space.  Not only is it fascinating for the crumbling architecture of the auto industry, but for the layers and layers of graffiti. Some of it is fast and crude but other walls are well designed and took a great deal of time. You can feel the flow of humanity that has passed through the space and marked it in some way. Seeing bits of furniture here and there, you can imagine people camping out in some of the spaces.  I saw a graffiti-covered couch and was inspired to paint this study in markings.

But things are about to change. Where others see 40 acres of devastation, Fernando Palazuelo of Lima, Peru, apparently sees charisma, architectural challenge — and a bargain. He paid $405,000 in a tax- foreclosure sale to obtain the industrial wreck by 2014. He plans to make it a vibrant hub of automotive suppliers, offices, shops, lofts and maybe even a go-kart track. Can it happen?

SCAJAQUADA BABY

Now at the Buffalo History Museum is an exhibit of photos of Scajaquada Creek. This once pristine stream, meandering through Cheektowaga and Buffalo, has been diverted, damned, fought over and polluted, but is gaining new respect. The exhibit at the History Museum was organized by the Grant-Amherst Business Association from their Black Rock Historic Photo Collection. 

  

The Buffalo/Niagara Riverkeepers have organized community cleanups each year, pulling out shopping carts, tires, plastics and other typical debris. I volunteered for one Riverkeepers cleanup and was presented with a doll dragged out of the murky waters. “Scajaquada Baby” became the centerpiece for this assemblage. In the background is my photo of the creek as seen under an ancient bridge along the bike path. A map of the creek is painted on the left inside wall of the box. The outside panel is painted with miniature graffiti based on the walls of a nearby abandoned factory. Altogether, it’s a “neighborhood in a box” and my little bit of Scajaquada history. 

The exhibit at the History Museum continues through March 23.

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!