I’ve written here before about the work of David Levine, the late artist best known for his wonderful caricatures of public figures and politicos that graced many magazines for several decades, writing once about a caricature of composer Richard Wagner and another time about a painting of a pig’s head . Despite his fame as a pen-and-ink caricaturist, Levine [...]
Archive for the ‘Biographical’ Category
The Coney Island Coaster of David Levine
Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Influences, tagged Coney Island, David Levine on January 23, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Bookshelf Porn
Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, tagged Bookshelf Porn on January 17, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Some might think a website called Bookshelf Porn is something other than what it really is. But if you’re like me, you probably understood at once what the name implied. It’s the thrill of a bookcase filled with multi-colored tomes, their spines tantalizing and promising unknown pleasures if you would only take them from the [...]
Early Piece, Early Voice
Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, Influences, Technique/History, tagged Early Paintings on January 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I think I’ve mentioned here that there is some of my early work where my documentation is a bit sketchy. There is a handful of pieces of which I have no images, which bothers me a bit now. The rest of the work from that time is from iffy slides, photos and simple photocopies where the work [...]
Prophet Royal Robertson
Posted in Biographical, Neat Stuff, tagged Prophet Royal Robertson on November 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve written here about a number of self-taught artists who create their work from some hidden inner core that demands expression. Some have suffered through forms of mental illness en route to their creations but perhaps none show the depth of their illness so readily as Royal Robertson, shown here in front of his home [...]
In the Blood
Posted in Biographical, Recent Paintings, tagged Chemung Valley History Museum, Recent Paintings on November 21, 2011 | 4 Comments »
This is a very small painting, just a 3″ by 5″ canvas, that I call In the Blood. The title may in some way relate to the subject of yesterday’s post where I discussed why someone stays in their hometown even though its flaws and inadequacies become more and more evident, more glaring in the [...]
Hitching with Kerouac
Posted in Biographical, Influences, Quote, tagged Jack Kerouac on November 2, 2011 | 10 Comments »
“I’d go out to my snowfield and dig out my jar of purple Jello and look at the white moon through it. I could feel the world rolling toward the moon.” -Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums ****************************************** This line from the Jack Kerouac novel was sent to me yesterday by my friend Miescha who had [...]
Hidden Pasts
Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Personal Mythology, tagged Wellsboro Agitator on October 24, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I’ve written here before about the joys of digging through one’s genealogy and finding little bits about your family that have been hidden for generations. Before I started, I knew next to nothing about my family’s history. There had been practically nothing handed down and there seemed to be little interest in its past. For [...]
Place and Memory
Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Quote, tagged Forestport NY on September 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image. –Joan Didion *********** My friend Linda from Texas one day in her blog brought this quote from Joan Didion to my attention [...]
Before…
Posted in Biographical, Early Paintings, tagged 9/11, Principle Gallery on September 11, 2011 | 6 Comments »
Back home, safe and sound. Sweet. First, many,many thanks to everyone who came out to the Gallery Talk at the Principle Gallery yesterday. You were a great group and made my time in front of you very easy and enjoyable. I hope I was able to pass on somethings you might not have known or answered [...]
Another Labor Day
Posted in Biographical, Influences, Opinion, tagged Labor Day on September 5, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Just another Labor Day, the annual holiday here that marks the end of the summer. Most of us don’t even think for a moment about what the name of this holiday anymore, don’t realize that this holiday was meant to honor the trade and labor unions that have been so demonized in recent years. I [...]
