The Leaper

The Leaper

5" x 8.75" x 3.25"

oil on mdo plywood

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This is from a newspaper file photo of a riot in Richmond, Virginia in 1974. Dubbed the Rock and Roll Riot, the clipping reads: "Richmond, Va. April 27-- The Leaper-- Top of unmarked city vehicle gradually gives way under the onslaught of feet. Other cars were burned and over turned by mobs of rock music fans who rioted in Richmond City Stadium Saturday after drug arrests were made.

richmondmagazine.com/news/rock-and-roll-riot-03-30-2011/ 

It is painted on a stack of MDO style plywood. 

Young Girl In Texas

Young Girl In Texas

7.75" x 7.75" x 3"

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This painting was made using a "found photograph" as a reference. It is from a photo series commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency to document American life in the 1970s as part of the Documerica project. Photographers traveled to Texas to document the water and air pollution crisis, but also captured life in small towns and local ranches. It is painted on a stack of MDO style plywood. 

Stilts - Hot Mama Long Legs

Stilts - Hot Mama Long Legs

5" x 9.75" x 2.25"

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This painting was made using a "found photograph" as a reference. It is from a early 1960s fashion photo from artist Hurst P. Hurst. It is painted on MDO style plywood, which just means it has a paper face on it. I designed the piece with the wave patterns in the leg area just to have some fun. 

Two Chicks, Two Smokes, Four Skates

Two Chicks, Two Smokes, Four Skates

5" x 7" x 1.25"

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This painting was made using a "found photograph" as a reference. It is of two young ladies taking a smoke break after some roller skating and generally being fabulous. I designed the wood form that it is painted on to enhance the feeling of maybe looking through a fashion magazine and spying these two ladies. They are twins but they are not. The each occupy their own "page" or panel but are very similar otherwise. 

The Empty Lot

The Empty Lot

5" x 11.25" x 2" 

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An empty lot next door to Lo And Behold Records in Hamtramck. I guess the guy walking is a local character recognized in this painting by his paunch. The figure is cut out and suspended in front of the painting as I tend to do. This image would really benefit from being on a curved panel.

Shelby

Shelby

Oil on Chinese food take-out container, 2012, 10.5"x 10.5"x 3"

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This painting of a friend I made on a Chinese food take out container. I consider these as "ready made" forms to paint on. You can unfold them and then refold them into any shape you want. Here I just made a simple bowl shape which distorts the face in a crazy way. I've been concentrating on portraiture as of late, just to try and get a handle on it. There are endless possibilities for shapes when using these containers. I made a series using this format of still images from the original movie of King Kong. Every still in that movie is beautiful like a gorgeous painting with a violent but innocent ape as the subject. I also did a few skateboarder ones based on the photos of Glen E. Friedman of skateboarding legends Tony Alva and others in the 1970's skating empty pools in California. Here is a link, http://www.andrewkrieger.net/chinese-food.html.

Untitled Guy

Untitled Guy

Oil on Birch form, 2012, 4.75" x 3.75" x 2.5"

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Todays painting is of a guy on the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit. These paintings are a lot cooler in person, the effect of the face on the corner of the painting really brings these people to life.

Culkowski

Culkowski

Oil on Birch form, 2012, 4.75" x 3.75" x 2.5"

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Todays painting is of my friend Jake Culkowski, I've done a few paintings of Jake already, but on a larger scale. He is a local musician and plays in various bands around town. Hanging around Jake is like hanging around a time machine, because he seems to have stepped right out of the 1970's. It reminds me of that movie with Brendan Fraser (Encino Man) when he was a recently thawed caveman hanging around some high school kids teaching each other life lessons. Actually I never saw that movie and I'm totally guessing at the plot. 

Figures On A Beach

Figures On A Beach

Oil on Birch form, 4.75"x 3.75"x 2.5"

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Todays painting is from my found photo series, it's of some friends together on the beach. I had drawn the image for this quite a while ago and set it aside, but after a recent bout with the winter blues (I'm tired of being cold) it started telling me to finish it, so I listened and I do feel better. Summer is coming! The title is an insider reference to a Detroit band from the early to mid 1980's. Thanks for the title guys and cheers to you! here is their song Swimming.

Picking Teams, Summer

Picking Teams, Summer

Oil On Birch panel, 2012, 4.75"x 3.75"x 2.5"

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On a day like today where it feels like spring and the sun is shining, although it is still winter, I should feel warm and have a brighter outlook. I don't. So, I thought I'd cheer myself up with a summer painting. I play softball in the summer with a bunch of great characters and people. The first thing that happens besides opening a beer is to pick the teams. We usually play two games, and in this painting the sun is getting low in the sky as the second game is about to be sorted out. I painted this on one of my right angle panels. I enjoy painting on these sculptural forms.

Lady Bug Girl

Lady Bug Girl

Oil on right angle panel, 2011, 4.5"x 4.5"x 2.5"

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This painting is from a found photo. Looks to me like it is from the 1940's, of a skating costume party. It seems like a bit of that wholesome fun our parents and grandparents talk about and think fondly of. To me, I simply wonder about the girl. What happened to her? Was her heart broken, or did she have a load of kids and is still partying down somewhere?

New York Girl

New York Girl

Oil on Birch right angle panel, 2011, 4.5"x 4.5"x 2.5"

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Hi! I haven't posted in a very long time. The pressure was a bit much trying to finish a painting every day, when I wasn't even sure what it was I was interested in painting. So I hid in the studio for a while and developed some paintings for a few shows, one in April at Paint Creek Center for The Arts, and the other show is up right now at Center Galleries on the campus of College For Creative Studies (CCS) near the art museum. It closes on October 8th. Its a 3 person show with myself Clinton Snider and Michael McGillis.

This is a painting I did for the Paint Creek show, and it is the inspiration for a lot of my work at the Center Gallery show. I built a small right angled panel, and wanted to paint an image that depicted one point perspective. So that the vanishing point is actually at the physically closest point to the viewer. The girl (here in a found photo from a thrift store) is also on the leading edge of the painting. What happens visually to me is very exciting. The girl seems to animate in a way, when you move about the room. Because she is at the right angle edge, no matter where you stand, she doesn't distort very much but the background does very much. This distortion is what drives a whole series of paintings I will be featuring on the blog. There is one "sweet spot" where everything looks normal and the moment you move out of it everything changes. What this does for me is it brings the girl and the painting to life, if only for a moment. I like the fact this is a found photo too, giving the girl depicted (showing off her new Easter dress I imagine), another chance at life after being discarded.

Two Tracks

Two Tracks

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

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Todays painting is a 3-D construction from an image taken by O. Winston Link who shot the last years of steam powered trains especially those used in the eastern part of the U.S. This is from 1955 in North Carolina, the Abington line. This was a black and white photo that I re-imagined in color.

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Riot Squad! #2

Riot Squad #2

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

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

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Diving Pelican/ Waters Edge

Diving Pelican

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

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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.

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Skateboarder

Skateboarder

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

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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.

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The Old Country

The Old Country

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

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Todays painting is another 3-D construction. I like to employ my friend, one point perspective in cases like these. My thought is to try and make the image look as if it disappears into the distance but have it physically be the closest thing to the tip of your nose as you are looking at it. I've done a couple of these little expieriments and am doing larger versions of ones I like. So far there are really two different ways to approach this problem. You can lay the image over the construction, as I did here, and it will look compressed as you look straight at it, it will always look slightly wrong. Or you can paint it so that as you look straight at it, it looks fine or normal, but the moment you move it distorts. I've done it both ways and they are a lot of fun to make and look at. The image here is of a street in the old country as my mother used to call it, and I imagined it as a place where Grandpa might of first caught a glimpse of Grandma.

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The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye

Oil on birch panel, 2010, 4"x 5.5"

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Todays painting is a 3-D construction, consisting of a flat street scene behind two panels that come together in the middle forming a triangle. Parts of the two panels are cut out to help form the windows and people from the point of view from inside a car, and also offering a glimpse of the street scene behind. These kinds of constructions are meant to be looked at and explored from all angles and they offer all kinds of problems when it comes time to photograph them. Anyway, my thoughts on putting this together are, first I thought of the triangular configuration then had the idea that wouldn't it be nice if two figures were looking at each other through the painting, giving them a special kind of connection.

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