205 Water Street

2007-04-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

BOUND
Photo Collage

2007-04-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

A N
West Palm Beach Florida

2007-04-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

CONVERSATION
West Palm Beach, Florida

2007-04-04T15:34:00.000-04:00

FLEA MARKET MIRROR
Plantation Key, Florida

2007-01-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

BLUE NOTES

As technology advances our possessions are more and more eager to dialogue with us.
Computers have long had voice and are constantly chattering away. They also delight in throwing us cryptic text messages that would make the Delphic Oracle jealous.
The car, whether asked or not, breezily flashes red letter updates letting us know us how it is feeling every time it is started. Those with GPS are veritable back seat drivers telling us where to turn and the distance to the next Mc Donalds.
When cars first learned to speak, some did in rather caressing female voices - GM geishas murmuring about a door ajar or low windshield washer fluid. This caused a nervous reaction on the part of many insecure wives and lovers and was toned down by the manufacturers.
It goes without saying that the answering machine is tirelessly chatty. The clothes dryer, if advanced in years gives only a brief Bronx Cheer at end of cycle but like a proud maitre d’ the microwave jauntily texts “your food is ready”.
As life becomes more dehumanized it is comforting to know we are living intimately with increasingly sympathetic and caring micro processors.
“Lonely no more”.

2006-06-21T13:56:00.000-04:00

RISK TAKER
Los Angeles, California

It would seem Doctor Frankenstein has been reading Harlequin Romances.
True the head is more Emmet Kelly than Punchinello, but the good doctor did not get it quite right on the first try either.
Give him credit for being a risk taker.
Here in the Venice area of Los Angeles, this ingenious assemblage gives blessing to those below

2006-05-28T09:29:00.000-04:00

LIFE AND DEATH
Miami Beach, Florida

Technologically we advance at unprecedented speed. Ethically we are mired in the blood feuds of antiquity. Our barbarism is such that we still wage war on our fellow human beings using the perverted technology of our weapons of mass destruction.
Victor or vanquished we are all victims but none so much as those we see in this image. The soldiers shattered remains lie beneath the white crosses and the bodies of the children too often lie in mass graves. It is our mortal shame that we are still digging such graves and that we allow those that govern us to sit in conference rooms and talk of megadeaths.
There is still some hope for some in this image, for they are safe on the privileged sands of Miami Beach. The soldiers that these war protest crosses represent are truly dead but the children play in their private peace. Peace for the moment at least.

2006-05-03T10:57:00.000-04:00

BRIDGE ABUTMENTS
St John, New Brunswick

Of the large structures that humans impose on the landscape, bridges are usually most aesthetically fortunate. There is an intrinsic elegance of engineering that has to be expressed for the structure to carry its load over the span
Here the St John River makes a tight hairpin turn as it approaches the harbor and meets the incoming force of the Bay of Fundy tides, creating reversing falls
Here also a major highway and a railroad bridge above this powerful water drama.
The curve and lattice of the steel sections are a force vector diagram come to life. At this abutment the forces are transferred from the artful contrivance to the mass of exposed rocks of the earth’s mantle.
The sense of power at this junction is palpable and exciting.

2006-04-05T11:36:00.000-04:00

BOATING FUN
Miami Florida

Sometimes what you get is more than what you initially see. Here is a random snapshot of a boat show display, an image of boating fun printed on a scrim. Behind are other displays including a safety video of a fire.
The resultant mix, though accidental, has the look of a contrived photomontage.
There must be a story here – boating on the river Styx perhaps, drawing unaware ever closer to the dreaded fires of Hell.
The smiles would suggest that this couple were carnal lovers, fecklessly drifting to the eternal windswept damnation of unquenched desire of the second ring.
A stern moral lesson for the consumer bedazzled by the boating lifestyle.

2006-03-02T10:27:00.000-05:00

WAR PAINT
Miami Beach Florida

Man the warrior has always enhanced his power with the imagery of intimidation; a Pict’s blue body paint, Apache vivid face paint, African masks, Viking helmets and shields, Roman Imperial eagle staffs and European gilded armor.
Only recently has the military abandoned such display for the even more sinister subterfuge of camouflage.
But civilian supermasculine splendor lives on with the “he who dies with the most toys wins” set. Here glittering in the privileged sun is an elaborated decorated waterborne missile.
A catamaran ocean racing boat that sends strong messages of its owner’s power. His is a lifestyle to dazzle with its extravagance, waste and overkill.
It is the art of the macho death wish - for remember, in order to win you have to die!

2006-02-09T10:25:00.000-05:00

NIGHT VISION
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Night has always held the excitement of the known transformed into something unfamiliar: beautiful but also unsettling.
Before modern illumination people warily closed their doors and windows to the sinister darkness. It was a time for the tosspots, cut-purses and the supernatural.
From the plane landing at night, urban South Florida glows a glittering carpet for square miles. This is still the favorite time for the contemporary equivalent of the tosspots and cut-purses but the supernatural is only in the visual effects where the darkness meets artificial light. Here it romanticizes some rather prosaic trees in my front yard.

2006-02-05T09:25:00.000-05:00

PITCH
Miami Beach, Florida

The game is Petanque, a favorite game of Southern France, and the aim is to place the steel ball closest to a marker.
Here on the tourist dotted Miami Beach this serious player becomes her pitch, with mind and body in a flow of movements leading to the release of the ball and the recovery of equilibrium.
Though it may seem a casual gathering of friends, this is a serious tournament, many of the players have come long distances for the competition and the camaraderie.

2006-01-25T10:57:00.000-05:00

PAPER FOLDING
Eastport, Maine

I have a very academic Dutch book on paper folding as a generative process for architectural form. None of the precious delights of origami here – we are into serious form.
Emma was also very taken by this book so we have spent several work sessions of intense, non-representational paper folding.
We have also discussed drawing or photographing the paper forms thus going from two dimensions to three dimensions and then back to two dimensions.
In our enthusiasm we took some preliminary photos of some of Emma’s paper forms. Here is the rough beginning of another fun project.

2006-01-23T14:52:00.000-05:00

A FESTIVE OCCASION
Eastport, Maine

Here is the fun of context. Someone in Eastport would probably know what this is all about. Every element of the image would be logical to the situation.
Without the reference of place, person and event the observer has the freedom of taking the elements and making up the story to their own liking.
When we travel for pleasure we seldom see places and events as the residents see them. We are tainted by the conventions of our local media and overlay that with our personal myths and associations.
As exotics passing through we are subject to similar skewed assessments from the locals.
So who is that man and what is he doing?

2005-10-21T11:33:00.000-04:00

C3PO and Hula
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

I am a sucker for flea markets and yard sales. I am always on the lookout for such trivial icons as this. The hula’s can be set to wiggling in a mechanical pseudo-sensual fashion and C3PO’s limbs detach if you are in to such things.
Such objects as these are part of the rich thick scum that rises to the top of our lives of heedless materialism. We who are always seeking novelty and amusement while much of the world starves.

2005-10-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

TAKE
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

What some consider vandalism can also be appreciated as a thoughtful message rendered with a sure hand and a keen eye. Webster’s Unabridged has two pages of definition of this simple word. Here it brings all those meanings to an otherwise featureless trackside wall.

2005-10-04T10:23:00.000-04:00

PROMPT RESULTS
Erie, Pennsylvania

I am always looking for images or messages imbedded in the urban clutter. This head was looming over the parking lot of a modest restaurant advertising some rather ominous kind of medical treatment.
A disturbingly powerful 21st century urban voodoo image lording over the placid Chevrolets and Isuzus waiting below.

2005-09-29T13:34:00.000-04:00

SCHINDLER'S HOUSE
Los Angeles, California

Rudolph Schindler built this house in 1922 on a very modest budget.
Radical in it’s day when people aspired to own a Dutch Colonial it remains radical today when people still aspire to own a box with period decorations on the front.
Schindler is a brilliant example of thinking outside that box. Here we look from inside to one of the outdoor rooms, an enclosed space with it’s own fireplace. Everywhere is simplicity, exciting planning and use of simple materials and beautiful scale. It is an enclosed, humane, personal world.

2005-09-25T08:20:00.000-04:00

DUPPIES

I have photos of infra red security camera displays that I have been playing with. The camera is seeing heat, not light. The images remind me of wraiths or the duppies of Caribbean folklore. Here they are in photo collage.
In the islands duppies are said to live in silkwood trees – these duppies are more urban and living in an abandoned building.
The press is using the word "duppy" to represent “Depressed Urban Professionals”. Most likely these duppies are middle class ghosts who have fallen through the cracks in george bushes amerika.

2005-09-22T08:42:00.000-04:00

ROMANCE
Laguna Beach, California

The white stretch limo waits at the curb and the happy (for the moment) couple poses on the beach for the photographer who captures them in the grace of romance. All is beautiful (I wonder where they are now?).

2005-09-22T08:36:00.000-04:00

KAISER
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

1949 baroque, corporate heraldry (why the Buffalo?), a domed hood all shiny maroon reflects the scene like a Victorian gazing ball.

2005-09-19T10:28:00.000-04:00

COPPER TAILINGS
Clarkdale Arizona

This copper mine waste is viewed from Tuzigoot, an old pueblo of the Sinagua people.
Though technically “pollution” and shamelessly adjacent to a National Monument, it has a monumentality in itself.
It could be a ceremonial site of the ancients – copper colored fanning pools glittering under the Arizona sun to amuse forgotten deities.

2005-09-18T13:25:00.000-04:00

PIZZA

I am working on a collection of images from “away” in preparation for my return to Florida.
Far from the encouraging Eastport art scene, inspiration tends to wither This collection is an effort to keep creativity flowing.
Behind the smooth urban generic façade I seek the improvised and quirky down at the heels corners and backsides. This corner is in the Venice section of Los Angeles.

2005-09-16T08:42:00.000-04:00

DUNCAN

For many years I thought I did not like dogs – then Duncan came into my life and I was completely captivated. Here is his official portrait – not surprisingly, it was painted by Emma. Every spot is in just the right place.

2005-09-15T09:53:00.000-04:00

PROTO
CYCADS

On and off I have been drawing cycad like plants, printing them on transparent film and back painting them with acrylic. I am influenced by Oliver Sacks "The Island of the Colorblind" and the botanical drawings it contains. This project really has not found it's voice yet.

2005-09-14T09:31:00.000-04:00

POSTER GIRL

We have developed the portrait of Emma into a poster for the upcomming Cheri Walton & Elizabeth Ostrander show at the gallery. This image will also be used in T shirts.

2005-09-05T13:17:00.000-04:00

DEER ISLAND

My house looks out over the Western Passage to Deer Island New Brunswick. In the summer a ferry runs from Eastport to Deer Island point.
More and more, as my own country spins crazily out of control I look on Deer Island as a refuge. On the island I feel taken back to sounder gentler ways, a humane sensibility.
As we drove the narrow road to Lords Cove there were Eagles, sitting on the posts of an old weir waiting for the fog to lift. In the quiet of the cove small boats waited for their next tasks.
My sense of sanctuary was surely an illusion, but it was comforting none the less.

2005-09-01T12:26:00.000-04:00

ANOTHER VISION OF EMMA

A photo collage of woven image strips - an attempt to get a sense of the process of morphing, caught in mid process

2005-08-30T08:06:00.000-04:00

OVERUNNING CLUTCH

My father was a mechanical engineer; I have started scanning sketches of his.

They are aged and faded but working with them in Photoshop is producing nice images.

2005-08-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

EMMA

Painting of Emma by Elizabeth Ostrander

A part of " A Portrait Show" at the Eastport Gallery