Location: United States
Born in New York City in the 1950's I lived in a world designed by John Sloan, Edward Hopper, Robert Henri and John Baeder. When I first saw 'Early Sunday Morning' as a teenager at the Whitney, I wanted it so bad I bought the earliest incarnation of acrylic paints called 'Hyplar' and set about making myself a copy. Since then, as NYC went from a big grimy hard working industrial town, to a slick glittering pile of deceit and money ruled over by implausible human garbage like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, and Art itself went from a craftsman's trade to a high-stakes con-game of drip and splatter nonsense with longwinded bullshit stories underneath, hung up by knaves to lay a trap for fools. Ive done art for over 40 years, and been paid for what I have done. I have never participated in a gallery show because the degree of prostitution necessary disgusts me to this day. There is an art site online in NY today called '60 Inches", I told its management there was a time when 10 would get you a show in any gallery in the city. I paint pictures of the landscape around me. I make stained glass windows professionally. I carve stone and wood and like making monuments. I do art, because I was born an artist. Not to become a 'star'.
For over 40 years I have been a working artist. When you are producing art as a product for sale, it has to be good enough to please your client when you are done. This necessarily focuses attention on the art, and not on whether you have on a pork-pie hat, all black clothes, have a weirdly spelled name with umlauts and accents grave over several letters, are of an obscure or well known ethnic group, or are a transsexual or of a controversial sexual orientation.
The general public must be able to look at what you have done and say 'that's neat', whether in a real or figurative sense. Without the services of a con-artist gallery owner as your representative, aided by many gallons of Carlo Rossi Red in plastic cups, the likelihood that you are going to pass off the top of your work table as a masterpiece, and sell it an oil shiek for thousands diminish exponentially. My favorite criteria for whether art is bullshit or not is to ask, "If I left that out at the curb, would it be thrown into the back of the garbage truck, or would someone pick it up and take it home".
This is done in opalescent stained glass tesserae and found beach glass. It was commissioned by a lady from the Hamptons whose family owned a major farm implement company. When she lost $3 million dollars to Bernie Madoff, she was heard in my presence instructing her house manager to attempt to recoup a portion of her losses by 'squeezing' the illegal mexican cleaning lady's salary. She actually looked at me, as she was about to PAY me our pre-arranged fee for this piece, and seemed to be contemplating an attempt at 'squeezing' myself as well. By the simple expedient of staring at her with a look that indicated I might 'squeeze' her NECK, she thought better of it, and wrote out my check. She still sends me an xmas card each year with a picture of herself and her 3 dogs on it
Sheridan Square is at the top of Christopher Street, which along with Castro Street was the Main Street of gay America in the 70s/80s. The Stonewall Inn was just behind the viewer.
This is a sign I did with the intention of turning my RV into an impromptu hot dog stand, should the unlikely event occur that I needed to pick up some emergency cash for gas money.
This is a gravestone I did for my best friend from childhood who past away far too early. He was a master union carpenter, so I put his hammer down on the base, as if he had just knocked off work, and cracked open the first of MANY Budwiesers we would have that evening. He was a VERY funny man, someone who from a lifetime of hard knocks had a marvelously cynical view of the hypocrisy and unfairness of american modern life.
This is a poster-type painting of one of my favorite sayings, done as a commission for a friend, featuring his wife Cecilia.
Handpainted table with cherry legs 2013
Volunteering your artistic skills to help your community is a good way to stimulate return and repeat business. I got to put these artworks, (because that is what they are) on posts next to the roads leading into these towns. Most other pieces of art never get nearly that degree of exposure. Each of them came back to help me over and over.
“Painting of a Train ”
“Mosaic Tabletop”
“Sheridan Square 1979”
“Night Dog”
“Bob's Stone”
“Revenge 2”
“table”
“Large carved signs”
