street drawing in chalk

I delivered art into NYC today and took a few minutes to draw out some sidewalk sketches..Not sure if they work, if you don't try you will never grow. No one even stopped to look, new yorkers are very busy even on saturday.

7/7/07

Today is considering the luckiest day of the century by many chinese. I will be here finishing staten island. I do have to head into NYC to drop off art work for a client whose parent's anniversary is Sunday.

Albrecht Durer

This is for Bev.

watercolor by Albrecht Durer.

New Frame

I just had one of my pieces framed by a great framer in Long Island. This piece is the portrait of the artist Julian Schnabel I drew in NYC. This piece was featured in Page Six of the post. I drew this at the spotted pig in the west village. If anyone is seriously interested in this piece please email me. This was a great framing job and I am very happy with it. it was framed by Cherie from Ripe art in Greenlawn NY.


almost done painting staten island and will be back soon!

me painting

"Growing Up"

folded in your fleshy purse
i am floating once again
while the muted sounds are pumping rhythm
all the walls close in on me
pressure's building wave on wave
'til the water breaks - and outside i go, oh

one dot, that's on or off, defines what is and what is not, one dot
two dot, a pair of eyes, a voice, a touch, complete surprise, two dot

growing up, growing up,
looking for a place to live
growing up, growing up
looking for a place to live
growing up, growing up,
looking for a place to live

my ghost likes to travel so far in the unknown
my ghost likes to travel so deep into your space

three dot, a trinity, a way to map the universe,
three dot
four dot, is what will make a square, a bed to build on, it's all there,
four dot

my ghost likes to travel so far in the unknown
my ghost likes to travel so deep into your space

all the slow clouds pass us by
make the Empire State look high
as you take me in your sea-stained sweetness
it spills, it tingles and it stings
all the pleasure that it brings
'til the door has let the outside inside here

well on the floor there's a long wooden table
on the table there's an open book
on the page there's a detailed drawing
and on the drawing is the name i took

my ghost likes to travel so far in the unknown
my ghost likes to travel so deep into your space

growing up, growing up,
looking for a place to live
growing up, growing up
looking for a place to live
growing up, growing up,
looking for a place to live
growing up, growing up,
looking for a place to live

my ghost likes to travel
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside of your space
my ghost likes to travel
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside of your space
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside of your space
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside
my ghost likes to travel
moving inside of your space

the breathing stops, i don't know when
in transition once again
such a struggle getting through these changes
and it all seems so absurd
to be flying like a bird


peter gabriel

in Progress painting

I am working on a book cover...almost coming together...Always a battle.

staten island book cover (commission)

oil on canvas (old school)

Friend's photo

A friend took this photo of me painting (staten Island book cover) I like this photo. I only have about 4 close friends, as I am a serious recluse. It is best for an artist to be lonely and paint without distraction.

hello

I am busy working on Staten Island book cover painting...making progress...I will post the painting when finished and then start putting new work up.

Happy Fourth!

I will be painting Staten Island today, I hope everyone has a great fourth!



drawing age 6 (not for sale)

Great art boards

I put this piece back up because I wanted to share a great company with everyone. This panel was painted on an wood panel by "Art Boards." They are a company in Brooklyn not far from my glass studio. These boards are a great surface to paint on so anyone who wants to send me a gift can send me a nice maple cradled board!


https://shop.art-boards.com/splashPage.hg

Mural Painting

I worked on this as part of a mural series I made for someone years ago. The designer decided to go with etched glass instead so I was able to keep this piece. It is about 3' x 4'. If anyone wants it I will finish the faces, etc. I will sell it for $500.00 as I don't have enough room for it anymore.

oil on canvas.

Dobbs Ferry---nocturne

I painted this in Dobbs Ferry, New York. I lived there for a year in isolation on the hudson river in a converted horse- barn. It is great little town and I have always meant to return to visit. This is a small 8 x10 oil study. I never meant to show or sell these, they are just visual notes I kept over time.


$100.00

study for a painting--woman with horseshoe crab

Here is a large study for a painting I never painted. Here is a woman with a horseshoe crab. I may yet get around to painting this...


12" x 24" pencil on paper.

50.00

5:00 AM tuesday

I am up and ready to start making donuts. On the fence about going into brooklyn studio today. If I do not go into brooklyn I will post work and paint all day. First is my morning big gulp of pepsi. Pepsi should sponsor me at this point.

Hemingway Coincidence

My friend mary noted that I posted that hemingway post on the eve of his death by his own hand. I had no idea. I guess coincidence is the word some people would use.

Good Morning

We will be working today...loading up art and a little packing as well. I will also start back into staten island cover later.

Hemingway's son

I have always been a big fan of ernest hemingway.His courage always kept me going through the hard times and he was one of my favorite writers. I have a book called Papa (by his son) that I always loved. I liked it because you get a rare glimpse into the mind of E. H. I decided to google his son "gregory hemingway" today to see what became of him and I found this awful story.

Gregory Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's youngest son, dies in jail cell at 69

ASSOCIATED PRESS October 4, 2001

MIAMI - Novelist Ernest Hemingway's troubled youngest son died of natural causes in a jail cell. He was 69.

Gregory Hemingway, a former doctor also known as Gloria Hemingway, was found dead at 5:45 a.m. Monday, said Janelle Hall, a spokeswoman for the county corrections department. He had been arrested last week, at least his third arrest in the county.

He often dressed as a woman, and Hall said jail officials had classified him as a woman and believe he had undergone a sex change operation. He died in the women's section of the jail.

Police said family members, whose names they did not make public, confirmed the deceased was Ernest Hemingway's son.

The elder Hemingway killed himself in 1961. A book Gregory Hemingway wrote about his father, "Papa: A Personal Memoir," was published in 1976. It had a preface by Norman Mailer.

In 1997, Hemingway joined with his brothers, Jack and Patrick, in battling the organizers of the sometimes rowdy Hemingway Days celebration in Key West. They said they wanted a more dignified gathering and royalty payments. The celebration was canceled but then revived. Jack Hemingway, who also wrote a memoir of his father, died last year.

Gregory Hemingway's daughter is Lorian Hemingway, author of such books as "Walk on Water: A Memoir."

But alcohol and other problems stalked his life.

"My mother suffered severe brain damage as a result of a car accident directly related to her addiction," Lorian Hemingway has written. "My father lost his medical license for the same reason." Gregory Hemingway had been arrested last week on Key Biscayne, charged with indecent exposure and resisting arrest without violence after a park ranger reported a pedestrian with no clothes on.

He appeared to be drunk or otherwise impaired, said the arresting officer, Nelia Real. "He had no shoes and he had a dress and high heels in his hands," Real said.

"I feel really bad that that happened. He was a very nice guy."

Homicide detectives ruled the death was due to natural causes. The autopsy report listed hypertension and cardiovascular disease, officials said according to Miami-Dade police spokesman Juan DelCastillo. Miami-Dade court records show that he had been arrested in 1996 on an aggravated assault charge and in 1995 on a charge of battery on an officer. The outcome of those cases was not immediately available.

Hemingway, son of the author and his second wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, was born in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 12, 1931.

In 1999, Hemingway spoke at the dedication of the Hemingway-Pfeiffer museum in Piggott, Ark., in what had been the Pfeiffer family home. He remarked that his father "is quite fortunate in having just about every place he ever lived in immortalized."

Quote of the day

"you make your own luck."----ernest hemingway

My Bookshelf

So far I have shown my kitchen cabinet, my mail box, and my drawing table. Here is a shelf from which I draw much inspiration, my bookshelf--The things I do to avoid painting Staten Island.

Bar Napkin---Vonnegut

I drew this at a bar in NYC...I wasn't thinking about anything when I drew it. Not sure why I drew it. I have sold some of my bar napkins, if anyone wants this I may sell it. R.I.P. Mr. Vonnegut, a great writer he was/is. In this drawing he is still young and has some optimism left which later fizzled. On a side note--- his mother committed suicide when he was young and that probably shaped his world-view.

NEw YORKS FINEST ART

My wonderful mom helped go through some of my old stuff and found this picture of me with the NYPD. I painted this painting in Tompkin Square Park over the course of a long day. By chance there turned out to be some techno festival that same day so the whole park turned into some strange carnival. The cops seemed to really like the painting so we took some photos. I had thought this photo was lost to the ages. That painting hangs over my bed as a memory of my east village days.

stolen!

Someone stole my horseshoe crab from the back of my pick up truck! I keep it back there for good luck and because women like guys with horseshoe crabs in back of their pickups. They didn't steal my tool box full of tools that I dont know how to use (minus hammer and screwdriver which I can use) If anyone finds a good specimen of Horseshoe crab I will trade art for it...Hoping my luck holds out.

alex

Homage to Dali

When I get ready to make a new painting I start out with dozens of loose sketches until I feel there is something worth expanding. Very Often the finished painting has little to do with the first studies except for a certain "energy." It is hard to keep the spontaneity of the initial sketches as you sit down to make a painting, it is easy to "freeze up" a bit...This is a germ of a sketch I made for a Dali homage...not sure i will work this one further--yet.

I found this

I found an entire scrapbook in NYC (it was being thrown out in a file cabinet) It was a book kept by a stamp collector and has dozens of letters and awards...no stamps..It seems the person was obsessed with the penny black stamp---I will eventually research that stamp and find out what I can about it. Anyone know anything about the penny black stamp? here is a ribbon and award from a 1939 stamp exhibition...

Sunday Morning

I will try to do some updates etc. Today I am under a deadline to paint a staten Island cover so I dont have much free time.

alex