Fire Hydrants

 

Back to the blogosphere, for better or for worse.  Today, I am working on the second of these two images.  The theme shared by the two is "fire hydrants".  The above drawing was sold to someone along the way.  I continue to be inspired by fire hydrants due to their form, function, ubiquity, variety, color, texture, and symbolic value.  The second image is a painting that I am calling "Palimpsest".  This image originated as a collage of failed peices, that I then refined into a chaotic colorful mishmosh, and then painted a fire hydrant on top, leaving only the texture of the collage remaining.  I did not consider this a successful piece, and this morning, I awoke with the inspiration to sand it down, and trying to replicate the surfaces and textures I observe all over the city.  Last night, on the Lower East Side, I felt warm and fuzzy looking at the brick walls covered with layer after layer of graffiti, each layer eroded down to a partial clean slate for the next.  Posters, once wheat pasted to the avenue corners and dumpsters, now torn away by forces of wind rain and humanity. 

Its in the Morning

I drink coffee and contemplate the day ahead. I am having a wave of excitement knowing that the bulk of the weekend lays ahead, and that i will see some good friends, and be out in the world enjoying the pre-autumnal weather, with its bright sunlight and incipient crisp breezes.

On the way home from work yesterday (after exiting the gates with my usual Friday fervor) I stopped at Amish Market, the best little market ever, just to see if they may have the elusive ham bone of my dreams, which I have been seeking for months now for my split pea soup. The elfin man behind the meat counter, after my asking, faltered, and then reluctantly produced a big honkin bone for me repleat with pink meat, explaining that they use them for their own split pea soup, but he was giving it to me. Success! I went home and made, I have to admit, an admirable pot of soup.

Afterward, I was having an urge to take a walk and photograph the grafitti along South 5th that I see each morning that I ride my bike across the Williamsburg bridge. I was just going to text El to see if she may be available to join me, and was delighted to see that she had reached out just a few minutes before just to see what i was up to. So we set out along the bridge. Our travels took us to a sweet little park on the waterfront. The weather was perfect and the bench we sat on was rickety, making for adventurous sitting. We discussed the intricacies of bike-riding in NYC, and I am afraid its time for me to buy a helmet.

Something I finished today...

This is a footstool that I made at NEW (Non traditional Employment for Women) and a pic of me graduating. I spent the last six weeks going through this program with the expectation that they will help me get a job as an Ornamental Ironworker. That means joining a union, and what I've learned is that the union aspect is just as important as the Ironworker aspect. Now its a waiting game. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this program. I would love to tell you about it.

The stool is a gift for my sister's kiddies so they can brush their teeth so their little teeth don't rot out of their heads. I painted it and covered it in polyesther resin and now it so FUCKING SHINY, I want to lick it (but won't do so until its dry). God Bless the wet look.

Work in Progress

Hello! So this is one of the paintings I am working on now. I am going in an entirely different direction. It is something that I had to get out of my system. Afterall, it is hard to not be influenced by the amazing grafitti that is all over
Brooklyn. It is my hope with this piece to capture the texture and vibrancy that makes me love grafitti. I know grafitti is really trendy now, but just so you know, I thought of it first.

Work in Progress

This is a peice that I can barely tear myself away from. I am incorporating collage and oil painting.

As Hackett puts it, "Art is hard". Nobody wants caricatures these days and i am running out of money. i have this idea. I will let you know how it goes. Sometimes in life, you have to begin sentences with "Sometimes in life". Here's a pic of me at my stand. I look happy, but believe me--I am miserable.

New Illos

I just am currently working on an illustration for Barringer's Dead Bug Funeral Kit(see top left). I am glad to be working on this because it gives me a chance to tackling something important--how to draw ghosts. I started off covering the page in powdered graphite, the same stuff you would use for locks. Pure carbon. Then I erased sections and started drawing. I also experimented a lot with my wacom tablet on this one.
Below is a drawing created for my good friend Ramy Ramjet's Hair Salon, "Hair on Broadway". While i was drawing it, she kept saying "Make me prettier! Make me prettier!" I have a strong inclination to draw people ugly. Not sure why. Eventually, i did get the drawing to look just like her--prettiness and all.