River Canal

River Canal

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 4.625"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is of one of the often unnoticed canals on Detroits east side. These canals extend into a few neighborhoods replacing what would be an alley. Some have no development on them at all. It was on these my friends and I (in our youth) would go for a swim after the bars closed.

#36

Southbound Lodge

Southbound Lodge

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 4.625"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is of the Lodge freeway in Detroit just south of 7 mile. I like this part of the freeway with its high walls, it has the feeling of a river canyon out west. I was trying to capture some motion and feeling of speed.

#35

Night Street

Night Street

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is another looking at the effects of light, this time at night with a black sky. This is on Caniff in Hamtramck right outside the Public Pool art gallery looking west.

#34

Riot Squad! #2

Riot Squad #2

oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"x 4"

sold

Another re-make, re-model, I added a protester to the events depicted here.

#33

Diving Pelican/ Waters Edge

Diving Pelican

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"x 4"

sold

Todays painting is a re-make, re-model. I took a previous painting Waters Edge and added a pelican diving toward a fish in the water.

#32

Street Lights

Street Lights

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 4.625"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is another in the study of light. This time artifical light and the late dusk sky, which I always think is one of the most beautiful colors of sky. Its a view out of the Royal Kabob in Hamtramck. Good food.

#31

Buddies

Buddies

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 5"

sold

Todays painting is a couple of dudes back when they were just young dudes. Everyone one has a photo like this, either of your father and you're shocked at how young he looks or of yourself and again shock at the picture of youth. Why these guys are trying to shine up an already sun bleached car is anyones guess, love combined with youthful exuberence probably. This is another found photo, a friend has posted an album of these on facebook and they are endlessly inspiring.

#30

Pretty Girl

Pretty Girl

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 5"

sold

Todays painting is another found photo, a black and white, date unknown. In these instances I feel sometimes like a fashion designer coming up with colors that this person might wear and look good in. I also wanted to paint her so that if you are a guy looking at the painting you would fall in love with her. Thats all, two simple things in this painting. I reinterpreted what the colors on that day might have been, and I'm trying to have someone fall in love with an inanimate object, can't be too hard can it?

#29

A Side View

A Side View

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is a view of the sunset in my side view mirror on my car as I was coming home the other day. I wanted to treat the image as a whole with a very graphic design sensibility, just basic shapes coming together to give an impression of roadway and shape of the mirror and door of the car. The image in the mirror I was trying to make seem as something very real. The mirror is just a reflection of reality, but here I am trying to make it more real, the most real, the mostest real thing in the painting. I consiously built up the paint thickness in the clouds so they would have more weight to them to contrast with the thinner treatment of the pavement and door. Anyway, I hope you like it, and have a good weekend!

#28

Yellow Trees

Yellow Trees

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is of some trees (branches really) in the neighborhood. I was thinking about abstact paintings and natural forms and I thought I would try a cheap version of a "Jackson Pollock type" abstract expressionist painting but using real, natural forms. Now let me be clear, I'm not kidding myself thinking I can compare this 5 x 7 inch painting to one of the greatest painters of the 20th century. I'm just saying my first impression of staring up into some tree branches and cropping it just so, you could make an abstract painting, one reminiscent of Pollocks style. Anyway, I was playing around a little with color too, trying to make the sky and leaves vibrate a bit, using complimentary colors. Sometimes I feel like a DJ, because I felt I should show something today that was a little calmer and more reflective than the craziness of the past few days, you know, bring the crowd down a little with a mellow jam. I hope you like it.

#27

Skateboarder

Skateboarder

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"x 4"

sold

Todays painting is another 3-D construction, this is the kind of thing I do most of the time I suppose. I try to pull elements of a picture out and animate them then reincorporate them back into the painting. So this guy is forever animated in the air, extending what for me would be a thrill, I guess half a thrill really, part of it is landing safely so you can do it again. With him pulled out of the picture, I think its easier to imagine the guy landing and then rolling out of the picture to get a burger somewhere with his buddies. Why its important to imagine him eating a burger, I don't know.

The skateboarding craze really took off in southern California in the mid seventies when there was a long drought and people had to leave their pools empty to conserve water. This is taken from a photo of Lance Mountain.

#26

Tony Alva - Chinese food

Ya so, I'm not a professional photographer, who coulda guessed? It took me 5 photos from yesterdays post and I still don't think I got it right. So I shot a quick video to show how the take out container is constucted. Please forgive the soundtrack, although it IS very appropriate for the subject matter. Ctm (chuckling to myself). Apparently I don't know how to focus either.

Tony Alva

Tony Alva

Oil on Chinese food take out container, 2010, 8"x 9.5"x 4.5"

sold

Todays painting is another that I've done on Chinese food take out containers, I started doing them a few years ago, after laboring in my studio on a cardboard dodecahedron, I came inside for lunch and finished off some leftovers. When I started unfolding the container to recycle it, I realized it was almost a readymade version of what I just spent a couple hours trying to fold together. The image is of skateboard pioneer Tony Alva, one of my heroes from childhood. A friend had a subscription to Skateboarder magazine (which later became Thrasher) and we would stare and dream of the cool stuff for sale and the incredible pictures by photographer Glen E. Friedman (who not only was there, at the start of the skateboarding craze of the mid-seventies but also at the beginings of the Los Angeles hardcore punk scene). I, of course became a skate punk, as soon as I understood what that was, but could never quite get the actual skateboarding part of it.

The skater is cut out from the bottom closing flap of the container, it is just folded up and stapled. The hanger is the metal handle from the container.

#25

New York Central

New York Central

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

sold

Todays painting comes after a few days off. Trains, I like, model trains, real trains. I think it goes back to childhood and the early male psyche. When my son was born it was trucks first, then a years long fascination with trains, he was just attracted to it. We didn't really do any thing to encourage it at first, then we fed his appetite for it, I was pretty gung ho after awhile with the train part of my brain waking up after a long slumber. There is a spot in Cleveland Ohio where you can stand in between the rapid transit tracks and the freight tracks and when trains are on both rails and passing by on either side of you at a pretty fast clip its really an intense experience.

#24

Red Trees

Red Trees

Oil onbirch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

sold

Todays painting is of a group of trees on my block. I walk the dog usually around sunset and these trees always light up, and I love them.

#23

Waters Edge

Waters Edge

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 5"x 7"

Ok, painting water is really hard, but fun. The problem is, its completly abstract and yet entirely recognizable. It is an insane jumble of color on top of a reflective form, but it all makes sense. I can't really paint abstractly, I think I'm too self concious, but this is pretty close. This is the first painting in a series that I'm going to do where nature makes its own abstract painting.

#22