It Was a Playful Afternoon—Early 1920s

I can just imagine the sun glinting off the Sound, a light Summer breeze, blueberries being tossed at each other. This couple, friends of my grandmother's and caught in a playful moment, make me smile at the "realness" of the moment. This photograph could have been taken at almost any time right on up to present day. I have it hanging in our laundry room, right over the washing machines, to give our "chore" room a bit of fun. "Playful Afternoon," paint, paper and polyurethane on two antique chestnut floorboards, approximately 19" x 36".

There's Got to be a Morning After . . .

The morning after the Hurricane of '38 in Stony Creek, Connecticut. The storm hit late afternoon, and raged for hours into the evening of September 21st, a Wednesday to be exact. You can almost smell the humidity steaming up from the wet landscape as the bright morning sun streams down from the east. The people out surveying the damage, walking their dog, just look so real to me—they almost start moving the longer you stare at it, the people on the right moving towards the camera, the guy in the middle walking away. . . Click to see larger.

The Photographer Photographed

The woman behind the lens of many of the vintage photographs I use in my work, my grandmother, 1922.

C O L L E C T I O N — Meet my grandmother, the woman behind the lens of many of my pieces of art. This photograph of her was taken at the Indian Point House Hotel in Stony Creek, in the early 1920s, the setting of several of the portraits she shot. I find it interesting that I have this image of HER, taken with someone else's camera, but I have yet to discover the similar photograph that my grandmother was shooting at the time. I have no idea who took this photo, but I continue to search for clues. I also have only found this print, whereas I have my grandmother's negatives. As much as I enjoy working on art, I also am endlessly fascinated with the stories behind these images. As they were taken so many years ago, and none of the subjects (or my grandmother) are alive, I'm not sure I'll ever really know the full truth. I plan on writing about all that I've uncovered at some point though.

Good Morning, 1923

O N  W O O D — Though I have no way of knowing what time of day this portrait was taken, it says 'Good Morning' to me. This is one of my grandmother's early 1920s portraits, taken at the Indian Point House in Stony Creek, CT, ca 1923. I've found literally hundreds of negatives of her work, tucked away in candy boxes and envelopes at the bottom of boxes or old drawers. I'm scanning them and finding absolute treasures of the period.  She took photos only as a hobby, and as far as I can tell, rarely printed the negatives. Such a shame, because she had a real way of bringing out the emotion of a scene. The details picked up from her relatively crude box camera are amazing too.

This piece, 23 x 32 inches on plywood, is one of a series of six I did a few years ago. I printed the portraits out 6-8 different ways, and then cut them all up and reassembled them on the wood backgrounds. Some have paint and/or a glaze finish. In this series, I wanted to preserve the original work while staying true to my sensibilities too. They all have at least 5 coats of polyurethane, sanded down between coats for a smooth finish. I also sand the pieces before adding the polyurethane, giving them a well-worn and warm patina-like appearance.