Portugal

Spent about a week in Lisbon area over the summer, soaking up Portuguese wine and sun. I also did quite of bit of prep work for a batch of paintings that are now in a solo show in Erie.

 The piece above is contrived of elements of architecture seen around town...Torre de Belem, the Monastery of Sao Jeronimo, the Igrejo do Carmo, etc.and some tile patterns from Lisbon facades. The rest of the paintings are some little snapshots of things seen while out and about. Lisbon was worth the effort. Go.

Hopefully a More Popular Wall

I got a commission for a piece of public art of the stone variety from the Sisters of St. Joseph. I began work on it last Fall, delivering stone to the site, but bad weather halted the project at that point and I resumed in the Spring.

 I had a substantial amount of money available and in the end there was at least 60 tons of stone involved. The original plan was altered several times for a variety of reasons and this is what I ended up with.

 Two walls running parallel to a walkway that splits the property. The first three pictures show the smaller wall which undulates from the corner of the lot, around a tree and then connects to a big pier of masonry that was on the property

 The second wall is about the same length but much thicker and higher. It goes around a stand of birches and the western part is pretty much at the same level and serves as a bench that faces a concrete pad that will serve as an area where performances can occur. The eastern part is twice the height and is thicker and curls off at the north entrance to the lot.

 It was a lot of fun and I had some help from some soccer players on a couple of days, but mostly it was a solo job requiring some sweat and smashed fingers. I liked working with this type of stone, Laurel Mountain blend it was called. In each palette there was quite a bit of junk stone, but I was able to incorporate it without too much trouble.

 The neighborhood people who passed and took the time to talk a bit were all very positive and a couple of them stopped by on more than one occasion so it was clear that people appreciated what the sisters were doing.

One more load to deliver and then some tidying up and that will be that. It is on 19th Street, behind the Erie Cemetery, just over from Chestnut.

Still Here

Another big piece I worked on in the Spring. Exhibited at Brown's Farm at a show with a nature theme. It is a tree on the edge of the bluff  just above the way down to the beach. Along the bottom are some assorted bones I've found on the beach with some interesting forms. I'm going to submit it to the Biennial in October along with the previous piece. Lots of stuff going on right now, but I will catch up at some point.

A Moment

It has been a while, but I haven't been able to come up for air often. I'll try to get a few posts in the next week to catch up. The summer has just been a fecking free for all, out of control, downhill sprint. Here's how bad it is. I'm down to 160 pounds...I think I weighed that much in ninth grade...I can't drink enough beer to keep the weight on.

Here is a big piece from June. A reworking of the Roman architecture piece from a while back. In the same vein as the painting posted a while back of Ghent and the one from Lhasa. I like the feel of these works.

Another Year in the Mines

Been a busy year so far, so just a quick art update. Here is the piece from January. Inspired by architectural elements in Ghent, Belgium. Took a couple of trips there in the last couple of years and finally got around to doing a little architectural piece. Turned out OK.

I have been cutting apart some old paintings and putting them back together and mounting them on pine board. They are roughly 7" by 11" and here I have photographed nine of them in random order. I think I will have about 15 by the time I am done.

So now that initial post is out of the way, I'll try to be more diligent in recording things.