Reaching Into the Digital Archives . . .

Digital work of mine from the 2003–04 period, "Check Out" and "Hollywood Elite."  Make sure to click on these pieces to see in greater detail—there are lots of details!

Fabric and jewelry sculpture, "Self Portraits, et al"  from the same 2003–04 period.

Welcoming an Old Friend

This small purple Columbine, while new to my current garden, is a direct descendant of the ones in my family's gardens from many years ago.

G A R D E N I N G — Columbines first came into my awareness in the early 1970s. My mother, a visiting nurse in our town, was given several Columbine plants from a patient of hers. Everyone in town knew of my family's love of gardening, our yard was in bloom from March until November. We were often given plants by people thinning them out from their own yards, or given them as a thank you for something. Those Columbines begat many, many plants during the next 30 years the house was in our possession, and we gladly gave them to friends as well. While that house was sold several years ago, my former next door neighbor still lives there, and has given me plenty of great perennials in the seven years I've lived in this house. The Columbine shown here today, was transplanted from Mary's yard to mine last year, and is a direct descendant of those first Columbines given to my mother so many years ago. Welcome Back, old friend!

Thought for the Day

I hold the thought that each day is the only day I have.

I celebrate the night. I detest the morning. Afternoon is in my wheelhouse and it alone holds the promise for the day—will I find the answers or will I formulate the questions? The afternoon leads to dusk and doubts, and holes appear in the future. Night unfurls with the requisite cessation of superheated woes and wrinkles, and celebration ensues. I celebrate the night. I detest the morning. Rinse with salt. Repeat.

The Smaller Larger View

Snapshot of "the" bookcase today. Filtered with full equalization for a flat appearance. Every detail becomes part of the overall pattern with an easing of highlights and shadows. Click to see larger.

P.S. Image

First new piece to be finished this year, named Cheers.   This piece sitting on the floor, in the center, was begun in 2007 and revised in 2008. It sat 'curing' in the attic from that time until today—refusing to tell me what it needed to be finished until this morning… This photo is just before I sanded it all over, weakening the striping and last few layers of paint. This was in preparation for the final clearcoats which will include a subtle checkerboard pattern in an amber clearcoat. Then I finished the layering with a graphite grid in varying sizes throughout the entire piece. Click to see it in greater detail.

Newest Mystery in the Garden

Just as the daffodil 'mystery' has resolved itself, this newest mystery appears . . . In the newly-cleared backyard, these strange plants have appeared in the last 2 weeks. They sprouted up quite quickly, the tallest about 18 inches tall. I don't recognize them, and a cursory glance through a couple of my plant references hasn't given me an answer yet. I've thrown some old wood and bricks around them so the landscapers won't disturb them when work continues on the new lawn. Once they flower and have gone through a complete cycle, I'll move then into an established flower garden. Click to see larger and to, hopefully, help with my identification! : )

U P D A T E :  I have it on good authority from Mary, my genius-in-the-garden guru and floral designer to the stars, that this latest mystery plant is an old-fashioned perennial, a Solomon's Seal. It should leaf out and have hanging white flowers along it's length before too long, like a giant lily-of-the-valley. I can't wait! It has probably been blooming unseen for the last fifty years under the thicket and wild roses that formerly comprised the area. Clearing the back yard this spring, all the way down to the brook, has been a fascinating experience all the way around!

Happy Mother's Day 2010

The photo for this piece was inscribed, "Mother's Day 1922" and shows my mom and my grandmother enjoying a day outside. At this time, my grandmother was a single mom; her husband died shortly before my Mom was born. Antique cedar clapboards were used for "Mother's Day," along with paint, paper, polyurethane and silver foil, approximately 14 x 22 inches.

Sisters on the Go, 1945

Guilford Gals shows my Mom and her sister, my aunt Hoohoo, in the Leete's Island home 1945. Besides the prints, paint and polyurethane, I used strips of gold metallic fabric and silver foil to add a 'glam' touch, evocative of their sartorial splendor. 24 x 15 inches on plywood. Click to see larger. 

Just the Foliage, Ma'am, Just the Foliage

I love the foliage of my perennials as much as I love their flowers. Click each image to see larger.

G A R D E N I N G — Growing perennials is not quite the same as planting annuals in your garden. Besides the obvious fact they come up every year instead of needing to plant them anew each year, each perennial has a specific blooming period. Most are only 'out' for a few weeks per season. Annuals on the other hand, once you plant them, will have flowers for the rest of the season if you deadhead them regularly. Any 'great' garden will have a mix of annuals and perennials, the annuals 'filling in' with blooms while the various perennials rotate their flowering times.

As a result most perennial growers love the foliage of their plants as much as their flowers—after all it's what we see most of the time! I love the long slender leaves of day lilies, the tight whirls of Tiger lilies, the rounded groupings of sedum, the artistic lobed leaves of wild mustard, and the spiky leaves of my Iris as they all grow throughout the season.

I managed to sneak a few minutes in between the rain and thunder showers this morning to capture some of this great foliage—and the tiny raindrops sitting on them.

Indian Point House Hotel, Stony Creek, Connecticut, ca 1923

One of my grandmother's portraits from the early part of the twentieth century. Click twice to see larger.

O N   W O O D — This is one of the first pieces of art I did in my 'modern' period, when I started to take my art seriously. I have found hundreds of photographic negatives my grandmother shot in the early part of the twentieth century. I've never found any prints of these photos though. These negatives were found in old candy boxes and stuck in between the pages of old books. The moments in time that she captured in her archaic camera's lenses, is nothing short of amazing to me, and the fact they remained unseen for close to eighty years is amazing, and sad to tell you the truth.

In this series, I tried to remain as true to her work as I could. It's my concept of memories that shape this series. Some memories are sharp, some are blurred, some have faded to black and white, some are still vivid in "living" color. It's hard to explain how I felt doing this "collaboration" with my grandmother, or "Nanny" as I called her—she died in 1969 when I was 12. I know for a fact she was never recognized in the least for producing these absolutely stunning portraits of her friends and co-workers. I'm not sure she realized herself how amazing her photography was. 

I'm completely sure though, that she sees that now. My grandmother has been my guardian angel since she died, and I couldn't be more pleased to bring her work back to life.

The Only Type of Tea Party I Can Handle

Dated September 16, 1924, this vintage scene shows my Mom, center, and two "boyfriends" seated at an outdoor party.

C O L L E C T I O N — Truth be told, this photo seems to be a birthday party, not a Tea Party, but y'all know what I mean. I've recently found this old print, and have decided it will be one of next pieces on wood. I'll colorize it, and then print out several variations of it to then be "assembled" along with paint and polyurethane. This image is strong enough to not be included in one of my collages, but I might use some other smaller accent shots with it.

At this point, this is a completely raw scan. I haven't adjusted the contrast or tonality yet. I'll probably make a checkerboard pattern using a mix of black-and-white and colorized prints.

$1.19 Car of the Week #2-1966 Ford Fairlane

I was pretty stoked to find this '66 Fairlane Hot Wheels model for sale at my local grocery store last week.

C O L L E C T I O N — My parents had some pretty damn cool cars when I was growing up, and a bright red 1966 Ford Fairlane 500/XL two door hardtop was one of them. The color was just about a perfect red, about as close to the print-perfect 100M 100Y as you can get with pigment. The car was the top-of-the-line model, with the exception of the higher-powered GT model, but came with a much nicer interior than the performance-minded GT. Our 500/XL came with an elegant black leatherette bucket seat interior, contrasting beautifully with the red exterior. There was plenty of brushed aluminum trim on the dashboard, center console and door panels to brighten things up and add a touch of class. It had very intricate wheel covers, and it was my job to clean those every Saturday morning while my Dad washed the rest of the car. I learned every nook and cranny of those hubcaps, trust me!

I was quite surprised to find this VERY close facsimile of our old family car in my local Stop & Shop last Friday. It's the GT/427 model, and isn't quite the right shade of red, but it's damn close, and makes a fine addition to my collection. To find it for $1.19 was just icing on the cake!

I found a duplicate of our Ford for sale on eBay a few weeks ago (see link directly below). It is EXACTLY the same as our '66, with the exception of the aftermarket wheels and tires. Boy, did this bring back some good memories. It's times like this that I wish I was, well, you know, successful, so I could afford to buy this car. I can't even really imagine what it would be like to be able to look out in my driveway and see this car today. Of course I'd replace the wheels/tires with the proper wheelcovers and whitewall tires.

1966 Fairlane 500XL hardtop coupe

The only vintage photo of our red Fairlane 500/XL that I've been able to find so far. It's the car in the top right corner facing forward. I'm at the bottom left, staring up lovingly at our brand new car. Of course!

The Greatest Generation—Just Teenagers

One of my Dad's color slides dated 1945, aboard ship at, or near, the end of World War 2.

C O L L E C T I O N — My Dad took hundreds of color slides during World War 2. They are of his friends on ship, fellow young sailors, above deck and below, and various ports-of-call in Europe and the Middle East. I'll be working many of these into my art in my upcoming series. I've already used a couple of these great shots in pieces titled, What They Fought For, and Thinking of Home, both shown below.

In the delightful image above, two of my Dad's buddies are framed by a hatch on the deck of their ship. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure this was a destroyer named the USS Goodrich. This is the Greatest Generation—as coined by Tom Brokaw's beautifully written book of the same name—just being the playful young men they were. So many of my Dad's photos show how young these sailors were, literally teenagers in most cases. My dad was 20 at the start of the war.

What They Fought For. 27 x 17 inches on a hardwood panel.

Thinking of Home. 15 x 17 inches on hardwood.

Mystery in the Garden, Part 3. IT BLOOMS!

For the first time since I transplanted these plants from the woods three years ago, I have a full blossom—exactly one fully opened blossom. I'd say it's what's known as a "Double Daffodil" although the actual variety is unknown. Click to see in all of it's rare beauty!

G A R D E N I N G — I'm beyond thrilled! The Mystery in the Garden has finally bloomed three years after I transplanted them into one of my perennial gardens. I've found four more clumps of these plants growing in the woods around my home, but none of them have any flowers. All of them throw up buds, but every single bud turns into the dried-up, brown, empty buds shown below. I can't imagine how many decades these bulbs have been in the woods, probably at least fifty years since this property was fully cleared off, so this makes my bloom very rare indeed. I hope this means I've saved some of these old-stock Daffodils, as a healthy plant is a blooming plant—although I have to admit they must be a pretty damn strong stock to last as long as they have in the "wild!"

Mystery Part 1, Mystery Part 2

This is what every other plant of this type looks like right now, whether it's in my garden or in the woods where the originals still live. The plants send up quite a few buds per plant, but they never develop past that stage. They then dry out and turn brown, as these are all doing.

"You may go into the field or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden."

Recycled vintage cedar door is the gateway to the new vegetable garden.

G A R D E N I N G — The title of this entry is a quote by Beatrix Potter from her The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Peter's mother was warning Peter to stay away from Mr McGregor's garden. There are no such reasonable mother figures for the rabbits in the yard, so the new veggie garden has been fenced in. A recycled seven foot antique cedar door has been cut down to about five feet, with a great arched peak in the center of it. A Hummingbird silhouette is cut out in the center, and an additional cedar post is lodged along the bottom of the door to cover the gap so that even the smallest critters will be kept out. I'll probably do some decorative painting on it before I seal it with polyurethane, but I'm already totally enamored with the look of it. I think the entire garden has come out really well, with it's cedar posts and dark green coated wire fencing. I can't wait to see all the vegetable plants and cutting flowers flourishing in the rich, old farmyard soil. It will probably be the first time vegetables have been grown on the property in several generations.

Art of the Chop, Part II

Vintage Saab Sonett III in production form, below, and my proper notchback coupe version, above.

C H O P — The vintage burgundy Saab Sonett III above is one of my very simple chops, shown with the original press photo for comparison. In this rendering, I've left everything in the photo pretty much the same, with the exception of the car. I liked the background, and the '70s fashions on the couple, so I left them. You'll notice besides the roof, I've shortened the front overhang, pushing the front wheels forward about six inches in relation to the windshield. I've changed some of the trim slightly as well. The original is a fastback with a glass hatchback. I've made mine into a proper coupe, with a notchback roofline and a short trunklid, a bodystyle I prefer usually to hatches.

The second chop posted here, below, based on the new BMW 5 series GT hatchback, takes the chop a few steps further. I've made the chunky (fugly?) BMW into a svelte Buick sport sedan. Once again, I've kept the background the same, but have changed the car totally, including the lines, the color, the marque. I began publishing this blog with the Riviera chop, here, but now you can see the base photo I started with, Some of my chops go much further by changing the background etc, and I'll continue to post "The Art of the Chop" in future entries, but I think you can see the amount of Photoshop work that goes into these creations.

The BMW 5 GT, below, was changed into a mythical top-of-the-line Buick Riviera, above, in this chop. Click all images to enlarge

Postwar Peace and Quiet

My mom, on the right, and an unidentified friend, enjoy some peace and quiet on the Connecticut shoreline, 1947.

C O L L E C T I O N — This photo, from a color slide dated 1947, shows my Mom and a friend of hers, enjoying life after more than five years of the second World War. My Mom graduated from nursing school in 1940, and worked in a hospital in New Haven during the war, many times finding former classmates among her severely wounded patients. This early postwar period of calm, and optimism towards the future, was much needed after that horrendous war time period of loss and destruction.

Optimism towards the future—what a novel idea. We could sure use some of that today—don't hold your breath waiting.

You Don't See These Every Day

Jack-in-the-Pulpits—one of our wonderful native wildflowers. I've established approximately twenty of them in my shaded perennial garden.

G A R D E N I N G — I've always been fond of wildflowers, it was the way I was raised, lol. I grew up walking around the woods in Connecticut, with my Mom and aunt Hoohoo pointing out and identifying various indigenous wildflowers and plants. The woods around our homes were full of Columbine, Gentian, various ferns, Lady Slippers, Dutchman's Britches, Trout lilies etc. The one species that seemed 'rare' in our neck of the woods were Jack-in-the-Pulpits. We had a small area in Mulberry Point where there were a few, but they were always a very special sighting, and my mother never dared to try to establish them in our yard.

Fast forward to the present day, and the property around the house my apartment is in, is LOADED with Jacks. You can't go 2 feet in the shady, woodsy areas of the property without finding clumps of them. It's really incredible, there must be thousands. It's the first time I've realized there are at least two varieties also-the dark-striped variety I've posted photos of here, and a lighter pale green variety, which aren't blooming yet. I've successfully transplanted around 20 of them into my gardens where I can enjoy them and show them to friends. I think they're spectacular! Oddly enough, Jacks are just about the ONLY wildflowers I've found on this property. My mom would be so thrilled to see them!

In the fall, Jacks develop a seed pod, that looks for all the world like a small cluster of bright red grapes, adding a much-needed pop of color in the generally brown fall flower beds.

For more info on Jack-in-the-Pulpits, go here .

A great print from 1886 by Isaac Sprague showing the corm and the seed pod that develops by autumn.

Georgia O'Keefe immortalized Jacks in this ca 1930 painting. Photo found through Google Images.

My Two Lips

Rescued Tulips. This is probably the first time these bulbs have flowered in fifty years. I have no idea how they survived in the woods where I found them.

G A R D E N I N G — I found these Tulips in an old garden on the property 4-5 years ago. Well, I found the leaves of these plants 4-5 years ago. There is a large part of the property that has gone back to 'woods.' The last time the entire yard was cleared and allowed full sunlight was, most likely, at least fifty years ago. I recognized the tulip leaves and checked on them each spring, assuming that I had always missed the blooms. Under their canopy of trees however, I realized they never flowered. 

I have no idea how the bulbs survived so long in the ground without blooming. Tulips are not exactly the most hearty of perennials-in fact, I've found that between voles and chipmonks and our New England weather, most Tulips need to be replanted every couple of years go thrive. These bulbs must be a very sturdy old stock. I transplanted them last year, into my full-sun perennial garden, and voila! I have gorgeous Peppermint Tulips now. 

"Rescuing" plants is something I learned from my late mother. I can't tell you how many times we dug up fine old-stock perennials or rare wildflowers the night before bulldozers arrived to build new homes or stores. It almost became our trademark, with friends/neighbors actually telling us about old properties about to be razed and redeveloped so we could 'go in' and dig up the flowers first. Once they were established in our yard, we made a habit of dividing them and giving them to friends, to pay it forward, as it were.

Why Two Lips in the title? When I was a wee tyke, I thought these plants were called Two Lips, and I would STARE at the Tulips in our yard for hours on end, trying to see how anyone could see two lips on them, lol.

Mystery in the Garden, Part 2

This hanging "bloom" is the first time my 'fake' daffodils have progressed beyond the 'airbud' stage. Not sure how it will develop further, if it will at all. Click to see in detail.

G A R D E N I N G — A couple of weeks ago, I posted about some 'fake' daffodils I had found in the woods around my house, original post here. I transplanted about a dozen of them 3 years ago into one of my perennial gardens, but have never seen them bloom. They bud quite easily, and in great number—I have about 100 buds right now—but they never progress past the buds. I've planted some in the full sun, which has proven to be the wrong place for them-they don't even bud in the sun. The ones in my partial shade garden, like the area I found them in the woods, seems to be what they like. But the buds dry out and turn brown before they open, and then the leaves disappear later in the season like every other type of daffodil. I've found two more patches of them in the woods, and none of them seem to progress past the airbud stage either. I'm really perplexed, and excited at this point, to see that one bud has broken open and this hanging proto-flower has appeared. I've not found anything like these plants researching online. I'll keep y'all posted as to the next stage!

Is the World Ready for a Lincoln Hatchback?

Lincoln Cross Star—historical Lincoln styling trait, suicide doors, reinterpreted on a compact all-wheel drive hatchback. In 20 years, I think this might be considered a large car. Click to see larger.

C H O P — This small Lincoln's base photo was a Citroën concept car from this past show season. Just about the only part left from the original is the license plate though. I left the wider european plate as an indication perhaps of where this car could first be sold. The small rear doors, or access hatches as Saturn called those on it's Ion coupe, would only open if the front doors were opened first. 

This car could have use of Ford's smooth and powerful new Ecoboost engines, perhaps a 4 cylinder with approximately 225hp, and weight could be kept as low as possible with expensive carbon fibers and alloys, allowed at the price point a small Lincoln could be sold for. 

The "Cross" part of the name comes from a new lightweight crossover platform with all-wheel drive and a slightly raised driving position. This luxurious small car would be capable of 40 mpg, with perhaps a hybrid option for close to 50mpg city.

Some Photoshop Ditties from the Past, Destined to be Parts of the Future

Photoshop collages destined to be parts of my 'analog' collages on wood. Step-by-step, piece-by-piece, I gather materials for the next series. Click on each image to see in detail, and there are LOTS of details, lol.

D I G I T A L   W O R K — At night, I work on scanning personal photographs, negatives, printed pieces. I spend a lot of time going through my 'stuff' and finding suitable pieces for scanning. I play with the scans in photoshop, seeing which ones to combine, figuring out what I'm trying to 'say' with them. Many times I'll print them out, and then find a place for them in my pieces on wood, creating 'analog' collages from digital work.

These are a few of my older photoshopped pieces, some of which have been used on wood, and some of which WILL be used in my next series. Even though they are destined to be part of larger pieces, I think these photoshopped 'ditties' also stand on their own. I have approximately 500GB of artwork stored on hard drives, waiting to be used, and who-knows-how-much still to be scanned and played with. I may have spent the first 45 years of my life working on my education, my career in publishing, my nightclub/bar 'career' at night, and gathering the raw materials I use now, but for the past 6-7 years, I've been working on leaving behind a legacy of personal art—with whatever time I have left.

6:08 pm. Must be DISCO time!

Every afternoon for the past few weeks, between 5:45 and 6:15 pm, the vintage diamond and crystal necklaces and earrings I have hanging on my ceiling fan in the livingroom, spring to life when the sun enters the west window. Suddenly the room is filled with little floating dots of all colors, spinning and twisting, doing their best impression of a Disco Ball. I love it! I've been playing one old disco anthem each day, until the sun's angle is wrong, or the trees are in the way or whatever variable will get in the way. For a few minutes each afternoon this spring, I'm at Greg's Blue Dot or Probe or Studio One in Los Angeles, 12 West or Limelight or Pyramid or Mars Needs Men, or any number of Manhattan clubs I frequented back in the day. I'm missing my friends from those days, especially Andy. Who would have thought that I would be the one that made it through the plague-ridden 80s and 90s? It's not right.

The disco song of the day today is the still-sultry Runaway Love, by Linda Clifford—for everyone that isn't here to enjoy it today.

Depression-era Dreams

Depression-era charcoal drawing done on a brown paper bag, incorporated into piece, Hoohoo's Dream, 24 x 24 inches on plywood.

O N   W O O D — This piece utilizes one of my late aunt Hoohoo's drawings. It was charcoal on a brown paper bag-done during the early 30s, the worst of the Depression. Imagine a mother trying to encourage her young artist's talents, and having to cut up shopping bags for her to draw on. Hoohoo's Dream shows a colonial house on a pond, with a couple of boats floating on it, one full size and one 'lake sailer' toy boat—a large schooner just like the lake toy I found in the family's belongings decades later. Surrounded by pine trees and on a hill, it's very evocative of the Connecticut shoreline where I still live. I've also used a school photo of Hoohoo at around the same age as she was when she did this drawing. The paper bag was as brittle as the ash on the end of a cigarette, and would have turned to dust if I hadn't used it in this piece. I've also used dried leaves, just as brittle and fragile as the drawing itself, and something Hoohoo taught me to appreciate.

Orange-Glo You Won't See on an Infomercial

This gorgeous orange glass vase was given to me last week by Mary, one of my sisters in all but name. . . The sun was making it absolutely glow yesterday afternoon. Click twice for HD, lol.

Localcolour—Yard Close-ups

Snapshots taken yesterday walking around our new fenced-in veggie garden, The Ponderosa, lol. Click on each image to enlarge. Click again for HD : )