Shoveling snow is definitely one of the things I don't miss about Canada. Here is my Dad, knee-deep in the white stuff, clearing a path, so the trash can be taken to the alley. I know this kind of cold day well, with the snow squeaking under foot as you make your way along. It doesn't do that in NYC! You get nothing but heavy wet slush. Keep up the good work Dad!

Just picked up Chris and Karolina up at JFK. A little peckish from their cross-country flight, I detoured to Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan off of Houston Street, wherein they devoured a mountain of pastrami, a couple of potato pancakes and two Brooklyn lagers to boot. They wanted an "authentic" NY experience. I can't think of a better or tastier one.

Val, Julia and I had our annual Boxing Day get together and many friends made the day. Randy gave us this illustration with a truly motley crew waiting to be picked up. As you can see it is on the corner of Kerr St. and Rex Blvd. Hidden in the crowd is my dad, mom, Joel Cohen, his wife Diane, along with the artist and his wife, Susann (with two "n"s.) Julia, Val and myself are situated in the front. Considering the entire segment could fit under an average thumb, Mr. Jones did quite a masterful job! Thanks to all who came out, it was fun.

Sunset in NYC, Christmas Day 2008.

On top of the building and took this shot of Shea at sunset. Looks like the lower deck is completely gone on the inside. Merry Christmas!

Julia's back home and we started her visit by decorating our Christmas tree. This year, Val and I went to the great backwoods of home depot and picked out a suitable evergreen. We both got a kick out of the fact that this particular tree was "Made in Canada" as pointed out by a prominent label attached to the trunk. To all who visit the blog, have a great holiday season!

Avast! Here be me contribution to the scurvy Inx package for this week. The head-wrap is the Somalian flag, the requisite reflection of a tanker appears in this fellow's cutlass. Will it appear in a newspaper near you? Stay tuned... In the mean time, shiver me timbers, pirates are fun to draw.

There is no mistaking it now, looks like the deconstruction of Shea has begun in ernest. If you look to the interior you can see the upper deck getting knocked down and the lights too. If this picture looks sharper, it is due to the tripod I put under the camera. I think it makes a real differance. If you look to the pier towards the bottom--in Flushing Bay--you'll see a couple of locals pondering the scene.

I'll escalate the frequency of the photos at this point. I figure it will come down pretty fast if this is but a days work, which it is.

Two Moon shots in one month? Well, this one is a little special. As it turns out, the Moon is at it's closest to earth today than it has been in about a decade. The term for it is called Lunar perigee. Tonight, the moon appears 14% larger than at it's apogee. It won't be this close in orbit until November of 2016, so I took a chance and snapped away. The moon doesn't often yield good photographs in it's full phase. The direct moonlight tends to wash out details on the surface. That fact didn't seem to make too much of an impact on this shot, I think it came out pretty well. Enjoy!

Latest illustration for a story in the National Law Journal about whales and other marine mammals and the awful effect military sonar has on them. The Supreme Court ruled on this recently, rejecting a lower court's ruling prohibiting the practice. The Navy's argument was that emergency readiness outweighed the need for a sonar-free ocean. My drawing shows a plaintive whale, assaulted by a sonic barrage. I converted his tale to a human ear with two ideas. one to demonstrate the problem, the other to reflect the deafness of the decision. I've also attempted to enhance the image by contrasting the quiet aquatic world of the whale, with it's streaming light, against the bands of sonar descending from above. In the end, the whale bends to the shape of this sonar, having to graphically accept his noisy fate. Poor leviathan.

Here is this month's first post. Yes, it is a moon photo, with a difference, in the technical sense. I finally put a tripod under my camera! The resulting photo seems to have turned out sharper. I took this shot with a adjusted ISO of 80 with an f-stop of 3.6 for a 125th of a second with my zoom and teleconverter combining to give me the equivalent of a 530mm telephoto lens. I'm kind of pleased with the picture, but I think it could have been better if the moon was higher in the sky than it was and if the atmosphere was a little less dense. I always find these shots a little hard to get, but fun and interesting. The Moon, it seems to me, is taken for granted. To the naked eye, it appears little more than a blotchy disk, so this wonder sits in the sky, ignored. Yet, with a little magnification, a whole new world comes into relief. The blotches become craters, mountains and vast basins. Not everyone is into this kind of thing, but I guess I'm just one of the nerds who is.

It is getting to the point that one has to wonder if they're ever going to take Shea down. Got up on the roof today and snapped this shot. The weather and lighting were horrible, and the wind was howling at 40 mph up there. You can see not much has gone on so far, at least from this angle. Stay tuned, I'm sure it will all come down soon.

My good friend, Randy Jones, had himself an exhibit of his work at the Brooklyn public library. It was nice to see Randy and various work he brought to show. Enjoy the photos.






Later, Randy had this interview. Here it is.

As a good friend pointed out recently, that the re-thug-licans are out for the foreseeable future or at least 4 years. True, but does it mean that I cannot poke a little graphic fun at them with Nast's embodiment of the GOP? I don't think so. So here we have the pachyderm, looking back, bindle in trunk and kicking a jam-can down the road. Between trunks, tails and general mass, I always get a kick out of drawing these anthropomorphic political symbols. Enjoy! Look for it in next week's INX package.

How did the heads get on Easter Island? Easy, A pony put them there!

I've got a bit to blog about, but nothing really too prepared yet. Got out tonight and noticed how clear the air was. Kind of a rarity for NYC, I took the opportunity to snap this shot of the moon. I'll get more entries in tomorrow.

Angela's frisky appaloosa has gotten really lost this time--in Antarctica! See if you can pick out the rascal whilst he cavorts with the penguins. He looks pretty happy, but why Antarctica? Maybe he didn't want to miss the formal occasion.

Took this photo on the roof of the building today. Too bad I don't have a view of the other side from here. the sign says "tadium" as crews have started to take the signs down. Still, it was a beautiful, brisk day and the view from the top of the building is one of the best in Queens. I'm keeping to a 3 day schedule now until greater structural bits begin to fall. Stay tuned.

Interesting weekend. Got off to Syracuse for a NASAD portfolio review. My partner for the trip was none other than painter extraordinaire, Ross Barbara. The journey to Syracuse is a long one from NYC, so Ross and I stopped along the way at his parent's home which happens to be farm located midway. As we stopped in to freshen up and look at some vintage Barbara(s) on the walls of his old family homestead, a bear with a odd sense of timing and a great sense of stealth, thought it was just the moment to relieve himself by the car. Closing up, and heading to the vehicle, I warned Ross off the mountain of ursine dung. Just staring and regarding the load in a rather pensive manner, Ross quipped, "Tom! What do you think the bear meant by that?" "We should leave." was my answer, which we did.

Here's Ross, just prior to learning the answer to the age-old mystery: Does a bear shit in the woods? We can now verify--it does.

Todays shot of Shea includes a Circle Line cruise ship making it's way through flushing Bay.

I was thinking about it, and we've really had a stretch of trouble-free weather while photographing Shea's demise. Today was no different, it is really a bright , sunny day, though brisk. Enjoy the photo.

Well, it is most likely dingos didn't get Angela's pony, but he did get to Ayer's Rock in Australia. Looks that this frisky appaloosa is out to see every continent before returning home. Just where will he go next?

Maybe it is the lighting, but looking at the full-resolution version of this picture, I could see that the light visible below the circular Parks Logo is from open entrances leading to the interior of the stadium. There have been interior lights before, but those were obviously electrical. Nice sunny day today, but windy.

The ongoing project of documenting the razing of Shea yeilded this photo of a gull. It was a windy day and the bird just opened his wings and hovered like this for a minute or two. Kind of a pretty shot.

I'll keep it brief. Not a lot of changes and the lighting was poor. Blaw. The specks in the sky are seagulls.

Here is Shea today. Shot a little later in the afternoon. Can you see any changes yet? I'm looking, but besides a few small details there isn't much to remark. I'm going to keep this going. It's a surly drama to be sure, but I think it's worth it.

Well, wouldn't you know it, that cheeky pony is at it again. I should have figured he'd end up doing the Great Wall of China. It's a natural that he'd go there though, after all, he was in Asia. I'm sure he stopped for some nice cantonese cooking along the way.

Today was overcast, but the two miles from the camera to Shea was pretty clear. Laguardia swings the aircraft around Shea on days like this (no wind). I guess the interior is mostly going down for now. Some of the fixtures in the stadium will be going to various parks and locations in NYC. You can see Citi-Field just to the left. Enjoy.

Time to take a break from the tearing down of Shea and follow the epic journey of Angela's pony. This month the little appaloosa found himself at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. It must be on his bucket (of oats) list.

Though the lighting is not as good (as I discovered today) here is a photo that follows, by three days the preceding one. Still not a lot of change, but I suspect when is starts coming down, it will do so rapidly insofar as structure is concerned. Enjoy!

Another day, another shot, but at least I got a pun in.

Well, not so many I guess. Here is today's shot of Shea.

The Vice Presidential debates are on tonight, but that doesn't interest me too much. Not a single piece of verbiage deviated a scintilla from what I expected. Yawn. Far more interesting is the deconstruction of Shea stadium, happening only 2 short miles away. From the top of the building, I get a real peach of a vantage point and took a picture of the tearing down of what once was a favorite NYC venue. Hopefully I'll be able to take a picture a day documenting the razing. So Here is day one. You can see in the photo that the scoreboard is gone and upon closer observation the seats in the upper deck have already been removed. Fast!

Here is my latest Illustration--done today--for the National Law Journal. The story is about how the Republicans seem to be able to hold onto at least two out of three branches of government at any given time. It was a chance to fire a broadside at the GOP and their Nast created symbol, the elephant. I really do like working with Nast's symbols. The elephant is fun, you can design the space with his trunk and he's got all those curves made from his head, tusks and ears. I'm pretty happy with how the finish came out and look forward to the next time I revisit Nast's bestiary.

Here is the thumbnail.

Got a neat story to illustrate today. It was about corrupt politicians, without whom, we editorial illustrators would quickly run out of subject matter to excoriate. I went with a classic theme of the watch dog and the fat cat. It is meant to appear as a spot in next Monday's Newsday on the OpEd page. I had quite a bit of fun on the cats face. The idea--compositionally--is to create tension between the Lilliputian watchdog and the Brobdingnagian cat.

Here is the SJU 2008-09 Academic Calendar in ics format.->2008 SJU Academic

In the tradition of those shock newspapers who publish every headline in alliterative form, I give you the most recent spotting of Angela's spotted pony, slowly making his way up to the top of the leaning tower of Piza. Was the steed there for the pasta, vino or simply the sights. I guess only he knows for sure. When asked, locals where astonished at the glib galloping of this gelding. "Mama mia!" was the comment of more than one Piza resident. What will become of Angela's pony? Will it go on with it's tour of Europe or is to Asia, where sights such as the forbidden city and great wall reside. Recently, a travel agent found hay, hoof-prints and oats in close proximity to a display about the Taj mahal.


Stay tuned as we follow the exploits of this little fella as he trots the globe.

Here is a shot of Rex the 7th. Rex is Julia's pet hamster and our charge, while she is away in Texas. Today was a beautiful day in NYC. Tropical storm Hanna swept through yesterday, leaving sunny skies and clear air in it's wake. Val & I decided to barbecue. Boiled corn was also on the menu. All hamsters are a little different, but without a doubt, they all love corn. Just as Rex finished his serving, he looked up, as if to say, "Is there any more?" There was.

Following his heart, Angela's little Appaloosa was last seen in London on the Waterloo Bridge, taking in the Houses of Parliament on the Thames. Photos also place him a short distance away from the great pyramids in Egypt. With such a pronounced wanderlust and, apparently, a digital camera. There is no telling which city or site we'll see him at next. Ponies are big fans of the theater. My guess is that our little fella is too, perhaps he went to London to see Equus.

Considering my August blog started and ended at the finish of the month, I've added this note to my September blog in case there was any confusion as to where the photos I posted might be. For those who want to download and even upload images from Andrea & Brendan's wedding, go -> Here

I've been keeping a photo gallery of relatives and family members past, on my Mom's side. It seemed as if everyone in the family had a great old photo or two of old relatives, the idea was to share some of these great old photos with other relatives via the internet. So far, the gallery is at 54 pictures and counting. I recently got a treasure trove of old shots from cousin Greg, so that number will go up. If you want to take a peek go-> Here. I wouldn't mind starting one for the Kerr side of the equation. Perhaps soon.

As I blogged last week, it was quite a month. We got Julia off to college, Mom and Dad visited and we all hauled down to Michigan for a wedding. Mom being a considerate grandma, thought to pick up a number of trinkets to bring back to the grandchildren in Calgary. When she asked Angela, she requested a pony. Undeterred, mom dutifully looked for a suitable steed. As it turns out, your standard issue Appaloosa has a bit of a time fitting in a piece of standard carry on luggage, so she opted for something a little smaller, and plastic. The night before, mom carefully packed her bag in anicipation of the return flight home. When she arrived, the pony was gone. Angela wasn't too heartbroken, but there was the question: What did happen to the pony?

After a thorough search of the internet, I came across this shot of the willful maverick making it's way in front of the Eiffel Tower. In the tradition of the traveling gnome I'm sure this pony is going to get around, but worry not, in the end it should find itself in the rightful hands of it's owner--Angela.

What a month. Julia is off to UTD, Mom & Dad came to visit, travel to MI and attend a wedding. Here are a few photos of the proceedings, starting with a BBQ at our place, followed by pictures of the Brendan and Adrea Kerr's wedding. To the left is Mom, myself, Val & Dad. I've loaded many of the images I took of the wedding in full size to my .mac site. For those who want to download and even upload images go -> Here




Here is the whole gang sitting down to Ron's BBQ'd steak.

Head salad & music maker was Joel, shown here, serenading everyone.

In MI, we stayed--as guests--of Tony and Lily on Torch Lake, a beautiful spot 5 hours north of Detroit. We couldn't have had a better time or company.



There are more photos to download at my .mac site. For those who want to download and even upload images go -> Here

Considering that some (who shall remain nameless) must live their gardening fantasies vicariously through this blog, I've opted to post a bunch of garden photos to fill the need.

It is halfway into July and I've yet to make an entry-so here goes. Every now and then, I hear a beating of the air outside and it is usually a good time to run out and get a peek at the Goodyear blimp. True to form it was making it's way against a stormy sky towards Yankee stadium where it will likely cover the all-star game. It must launch near by as we see it all the time.

My second shot for this post is of the garden. I took this snap from the bridge. If you look you can see Val's handiwork and gifts from friends. We did an informal survey and found that over half of our perennials are snips from friend's gardens. One of my favorites is the hydrangea.

On my own this weekend. Julia & her mom are off to University of Texas at Dallas for orientation. Last report they're doing alright in the heat. In the meantime I'm left to the domestic type duties, one of which is tending the garden. I took a snap of a bunch of tiger lilies growing against the side of the building. I'm not sure I "get" these plants. So beautiful, for only a day, then winding back, to a husk. The challenge is--I suppose--to appreciate them while they're blooming. So I've made a daily trip to the garden, if only to catch the show these flowers put on. The tiger lily is a pretty common flower for North America and is dubbed the "ditch" lily by some.I got up early on Thursday and discovered that it is possible to observe the petals of the flower unfurling. It is slow, but surprisingly fast for a plant. They stay that way until early evening. I can see why botanists are fascinated. The weather has been great for growing, with temps in the mid 70's and ample rain. A sharp contrast to my parents who are getting dealt a crummy batch of weather up north. Perhaps they can vicariously enjoy the virtual garden here.

Another of life's happy events occurred today. My daughter graduated high school! Soon she'll be off to university far away and it'll be empty nest central here. The grad ceremony was held at St. John's (can I ever get away from the campus) and was well planned, running an hour-ten from start to finish. Here is a shot from the rafters. Julia is in there, but it'll cost ya a couple of minutes to find her.

Here it is the 6th of June and I've yet to post one rumination to the blog. Tonight was seasonably warm so I trekked to the roof and got off a couple of sunset shots with the digital snappy. I especally like the jet contrail working its way like an abstract brush stroke against the sky. Constable used to keep sketch books full of studies of the sky and weather. I wonder if he'd go digital today? Conversely, are digital observations of any value comparatively? I'm thinking, if the sky is going to put on such a display, I'll record it one way or the other. Perhaps I'll try something out with watercolor, but at this time of night, I'll definitely need bug spray.

Here is a little piece I made for Newsday today. It is about the corrupt way the political parties in New York go about fund raising, making the argument that campaigns should be exclusively funded by the public. This would have the effect of leveling the financial playing field for new candidates and cut out the lobbies/special interests whose directives cost the state much more than financing the candidates ever could. I'm not sure I agree completely, but it gave me a chance to put an elephant and donkey to work, feeding from the public trough. Look for it this Monday, should you be in the NY metro region.

A classic Art in New York day today. We caught Hellenistic, Cypriote, Minoan and Roman sculpture. We also visited and analyzed the ritual art of Africa, South America and Australia. Checking in with a scholar on Aboriginal bark painting I got word that the figure in the example we examined was-likely-made from "power points" which are derivative of stars and--in fact--the bird/god is seen in x-ray. When such a creature vomits, a part of creation is made. Most strange, and surprising too. By the end of the day, we finally got to the Met's roof sculpture garden where they are presently cultivating a crop of Jeff Koons creations. Here's a shot of the gang giving a shout-out to the L-dawg, who couldn't be there as she found the depictions of Eve too offensive to revisit. Click on the photo to download the big-un. Word.

Finished the lawn work and took minute or two to smell the roses. Well, sketch them anyway. This tree seems to get green late in the season. I'm not sure what sort it is, but it gives edible berries.

The sketch is pretty quick and interrupted too. Just as I was getting into this, Julia threw the binders on as she needed to be dropped at one of her myriad end-of-year events. Sigh, the life of a parent. The tree is much taller than my pad and getting quite full with foliage. At this rate, the berries can't be far behind. I'm a big advocate of life studies, even if your end works have nothing to do with such efforts.

Tried some new-ish materials on this drawing. A plate finish Strathmore drawing pad along with a Pitt charcoal pencil (Medium). Normally, I use a toothier paper and general's charcoal pencils. Pitt's product seems a little stronger than General's, which helps me out a lot as I'm pretty heavy handed and tend to break pencils wholesale. Wouldn't mind giving this combination a spin at figure drawing.

Well, the spring has sprung, the grass has ris, and we wonder where the birdies is. Just a quick shot of Val working in the garden. This little area adjacent to the building has been given to us to do whatever we'd like to with it. We opted for a garden. Having spent all these years cooped up in NY apartments, it is nice to get out and enjoy some fresh air. We had coffee here this morning and tried to figure out what sort of flowers we'd like to grow. By the fence, we've planted Canna Lilies (not yet up) along with hydrangea, azalea and hosta. I put down the little pathway. Originally, I had placed the large red stones where I stepped from the center of the gate. being over 6'2" , I underestimated the length of Val's gait, so she had to bunny-hop from stone to stone. I put in a fix and placed a smaller brick between each of the larger stones. Hard to believe, last year this space was nothing but weeds and dirt. The large square shape by Val wasn't even visible. The barbecue is used pretty often over the summer, we intend to fire it up next weekend.

After the SJU student show on Friday, I had to run off and see my daughter's final performance with her high school chamber choir. Julia is in the back on the right. Don't they sound beau-t-ful? The tune is by Mozart and is: Requiem-Lacrimosa. I had posted three songs, but it took a year and a day to load, even with a cable modem. Enjoy!

Sorry for the long stretch without an update, but the end of the semester is always a bear. The St. John's student exhibition opened a couple of days ago and I was on hand to take a few photos of the proceedings. True to form, Parvez, the gallery director, got the show up in record time with the help of a few of the faculty and some of the student workers. I dropped in Thursday to give a hand, but most of the heavy lifting had already been done. I know it has been said every year, but objectively, these shows just continue to improve each year. I've posted a gallery with more images to my .mac account. You can visit by clicking on this link.

Here's another little sketchpad I'm trying to keep. I call it my "handbook." If it is not apparent the subject is--hands--one per page. The scale of the pad is unfavorable to the subject matter and the media, I thought with the texture of the paper, I try to build up a Seurat-like surface. I visited MOMA's recent exhibit of his work this year. I really liked his drawings. The problem is that the type of pencil I'm using is too soft the the effort gets mutilated when I work on other drawings. Blaw.

A simple sketch--from memory of a couple of trees that grow in our yard. For whatever reason, they've become entwined. I used mixed media on this one. The sanguine line is a pen brush. the white high-lights are chalk and the black shading is from a Derwent drawing pencil. The paper is like cardboard and toned like a grocery bag, giving the sketch all it's middle values. I cannot say I spent very much time on this, but you have to get your hands moving--so I did. Val & I have just started to work on the garden. Last year we took it from a patch of weeds to a place where you wouldn't mind sitting down to read a book. I have one to start too. So, when all the hash is settled with the planting, cutting and what-not. Val & I will have a nice little spot for Sunday coffee.

My Daughter had the honor of singing with her Chamber Choir for Pope Benedict Today. Here is a photo she took of the Pontiff with Vice President Cheney & his wife from her vantage point in the stands.

Took a number of shots from the roof at around sunset. What a beautiful day.

Here is a roundel from one of the windows at the Metropolitan Museum's Cloisters, up in Fort Tryron Park. This one depicts "tipping," a game played by folk passing time in the middle ages. The objective of the game is to stand on one foot and raise the other, pairing it, at waist level with your opponent's foot. The first to push the other over wins. In this instance the girl must be a beginner as she is conveniently seated on a basket to assist with her balance. The wily male figure seems to be a little more serious than the girl, and, perhaps, his motives are impure. Knowing the medieval mind, there is always a little more than meets the eye in artwork like this. The dog, in the back seems to be a direct counterpoint to the hand of male, perhaps guarding, if only in a graphical sense, the virtue of the girl. Dogs, in art from this period, were often symbols of loyalty and fidelity. Likewise, the lambs down below also turn towards the male tipper, blocking all, but the contact of his foot. They too have symbolic significance, that of innocence. Behind the scene is a tree. A stand in for the growth which held the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden? Will this fellow tip the girl to the ground, and perhaps try her virtue? I really get a kick out of medieval art. Images from the period often are--at once--a historic graphic chronicle of what people looked like & did, married to a not-so-subtle morality tale. All this in a six inch glass roundel, which, when looked at from the correct viewpoint ( I shot this image from below, so that the overcast sky would illuminate the glass), these two figures would be seen, with their transparent background, set against the landscape, as if, you spied this scene as it was happening.

I try to get a shot of the Moon every now and then. I used my Kodak P712 with manual controls set to f5.6 at 1/125th of a second using as digital equivalent of 64 ISO speed film. I also used a warming filter to heighten the contrast. I wasn't too fussy here, I didn't use a tripod and it was a bit hazy. If I were serious, a tripod would have been a must and would have shot it using jpeg raw format. i'll try one, shot properly, some clear night in the future. Perhaps there will be a difference. Still, the Moon is a beautiful night object. I think you get the best shots when the Moon is not completely full as the termination line (where the shadow goes from light to dark) often brings details into better relief. This picture-I shot tonight-shows nice detail towards the bottom. The large crater with the bright inner ridge is called Clavis. The bright crater just above and at 1 o'clock is Tyco. The large crater midway (in the grey) is called Copernicus. Just emerging, towards the top is Montes Jura, what remains of the crater ridge of Sinus Iridum, which is at the western edge of Mare Imbrium. Not bad detail, considering the equipment.

So, here I am, bloging with nothing to blog. It has been a busy week, I didn't get much drawing in. None at all. I'll try to remedy that next week. In place of something more personal, I give you a poem by Ogden Nash (1902-1971).

Celery raw,
Develops the jaw.
But celery, stewed
Is more easily chewed.

Thanks for dropping in.

This drawing is another oldie from one of my sketch pads. In New York, you see all types of people. Though it isn't the case now, in the 1980s', when this image was drawn, beggars were in great abundance. They could be found on street corners, subway stations and the trains themselves. Many of the beggars where homeless, mentally ill, others--drug junkies. I happened across one who was an amputee, panhandling in Penn Station while I was waiting for a train. He was missing his legs. People, who had thrown change, missed his coffee cup. To get the coins he'd scoot over on his backside, put the coins in a pocket and scoot back. I thought to make this drawing of a much more extreme case, where the beggar cannot collect the coins at all, but can only look longingly at them. I like the effect that the sepia and white ink have on the brown paper.

Took in the Dali show in Philadelphia a few years back. It was an interesting exhibit displaying a broad selection of works dating bake to his early years. It was said that upon seeing Dali and his entourage, Andy Warhol remarked that he wanted to have the same artisitc celebrity. This was one of those shows that tickets needed to be bought for and, in return I suppose, it was meant to reward the attendee with more Dali paintings than they could shake a stick at. It even included one of the first holograms ever made featuring a cross-legged Alice Cooper. I was fascinated by a painting that Dali found interesting and the curator too a little trouble to expand upon. It was a image that Dali, in fact, repainted, a spin on Millet's, The Angelus. The curator's notes pointed out that Dali was obsessed with the painting and projected much into it. Wrote a book on it. When Joel Cohen and I went to lunch we walked down the museum's front steps. Turning back you saw crazy old Dali staring back at you. I figured that when we came back for the afternoon (we closed the place), I'd cross the street and pick a conspicuous spot to stand, while Joel snapped a shot. In hind sight, I should have leaned over and twirled Salvador's mustache on the right side. Though I've seen other photos on the web with other visual punsters doing just that on these steps. Surreal!

Found this old pad with some drawings in it. One was from a trip I made to the Cloisters, years ago. A building can be seen across the Hudson River at that location. It is on part of the 700 acres that Rockefeller donated so that the view from this museum would remain unsullied. It is a pretty sight. The pad is small and an odd format as it is a section of a larger sketch pad I cut off with a shop knife. I think I used a white grease pencil with Prisma pencils for the color. As it turns out, I like this museum a lot. Last year, while on one of my visits, I got this shot with my snappy. It was taken about a quarter of a mile north and at a slightly higher elevation to where I made the sketch 17 years earlier.

It's been closed for a while now, but I happened across the storefront of the Gotham Book Mart. I had my digital snappy on me so I got this shot off. Kind of sad really. I don't know if I wandered down the street because I used to after working at the Times or by accident. I used to never walk on by. I'd always stop in and look over the books they had. I picked up a number of my favorite Ed Gory volumes at this place. From what I read in the news GBM owed a huge amount of back rent. As it turns out, the store and it's contents where put up for auction and the landlord snapped it all up for about $400,000 dollars. We'll not see it's like again I'm afraid.

Did this one for INX about "the delicate balancing act in Iraq. It'll be on the inxart website as part of this week's offerings. Years ago, one of my professors in grad school-Robert Weaver-brought in a "Uncle Sam" jacket and hat. They were ratty old things that looked as if he fished them out of the trash. Yet, if you made a careful drawing of them, the sketch made a statement. His point I suppose.

Just got Ulrich Merkl's new oversize print tribute to Winsor McCay, Dream Of The Rarebit Fiend. The Volume is large, to accommodate the scale of the original printed pages and includes every RB strip Winsor ever made. I'm not a collector of unusual or rare books, just an admirer of McCay's prolific genius. Sunday Press has put this out, backed, I think, by Merkl himself. 2 years ago Sunday Press also put out the astounding, So Many Splendid Sundays, a compendium of Little Nemo in Slumberland. As it turns out the word, "Rarebit" is actually a Welsh recipe for Rabbit, which is sautéed and served with melted or toasted cheese on a toasted bread. Once the unsuspecting protagonists begin to digest this repast overnight, their dreams become the stuff of the Andalusian Dog or--considering the date of RF's publication,--more likely, the other way around. RF dates to the turn of the last century. I'm not sure I'm onboard with all the design choices made in the volume, but to a pen & inker like myself, there is a wealth of work to see. Below is the very first strip McCay made. His nom-de-plume at the time was, Silas.

You catch photos like these sometimes. Recently, I had the distinct honor of curating Bill Ronald's Recent Works Show at the University Gallery. I had enough shots left in my camera (after taking video for podcast) to get a few pictures. I really like this one, as it captures what is really the best about being at St. John's, working in DoFA-the sense of community. Bill-I salute you! Despite Bill's protests regarding his appearance on video, most of his informative lecture was captured and is posted as a podcast at this link: DoFA PodcastIf it wasn't obvious, you will need iTunes to download and view the podcast.

A thanks to all who've taken time to visit the site and proffer suggestions for improvement or just send a compliment. I've down-sampled the images at the galleries to a more "dial-up friendly" size. and have attempted to prune the various errors throughout the site. My go-to contact on the gallery download time is David Milne, who has dial-up in the GWN (Great White North). If you're reading D., let me know if the download times are much better. This has been kind of fun. I've been given a reason to contact and hear from friends I have not been in touch with for a while. Cheers!

Went to the Brooklyn Museum's Luce collection, where they have a impressive range of early American naive art. I took a shot of this example they have of scrimshaw dated to about 1830. Scrimshaw is basically carving into the enamel of a whale's tooth or bone surface with a sharp object and rubbing in lamp black or tobacco juice to darken the lines. This one is on the tooth of a sperm whale. Something to put in your trivial facts file is, that the maker of a scrimshaw is called a scrimhander. I really liked this portrait (self?) of a young whaler out of America's northeast. It really has a power to it, possessing all that is needing to make a good portrait, including a frame. I like the sense of wind given by the ribbon on the hat. No, it's not a deep, physiological survey of the sitter, but there is a sweetness to it. On the opposite side, there is a portrait of a young woman, though it's impossible to see due to the way the tooth is mounted. Husband & wife? There was no indication that this was the case--romantics can speculate. The patterns are interesting too, very intricate, pyramids on the bottom with floral/leaf design up top. You won't see much scrimshaw made these days, with whales being endangered and all.I took this picture by placing my camera lens right against the glass so there was minimal shake and no reflection. Enjoy.

As it turns out, our home is near Laguardia. We're not so close that the planes fly right over head, but we can get an eyeful of them whenever we want. Here's a nice shot of one crossing the Moon. I've tried this a number of times and I just got a blur or nothing at all. This time I finally got the shot.

Welcome to my blog. I'll post images and other things I find interesting on these pages. I cannot promise to make any of this truly interesting, but that is the nature of blogs I guess-words by amateurs. I'm on break this week and finally got this site up. I've built a number of sites, yet just like the cobbler whose kids go without shoes, I haven't really had an update to my web presence in almost 12 years! This would explain the dated photograph I'm posting here. It's from Christo's "Gates installation from Central Park That is yours truly leaning against one of those structures. Somehow I thought the intention was to mount the Gates during the summer months. As you can see--in the photo--it was put up in early spring. I imagine the graphic impact would have been much better if the orange color of these gates been set off against summer foliage. I guess Christo was lucky to get them up at all. Though , generally, I'm not a fan of Christo's efforts, I must say this is the first time I can remember the activity of an artist getting onto the front page of the NY Times and getting people in the street talking about art. Like it or hate it, it got you thinking. After this sojourn through the park, Val and I went off to the Algonquin's Oak Room and hung out with a selection of INX artists and Jacek Malek (Director of the Triangle Gallery). All in all, a very full day. This nice photo is courtesy of Val.