Times Square Peep Show and Donuts

My husband and I started our Times Square book project in 1997, we went to the square over 250 times in one year. The square was changing every minute. For instance, this painting shows one of the last peep shows, and the little donut shop two doors down was total time travel even then. It was more of a hallway than a full on restaurant. If we went to the square late enough and stopped for coffee, the guy working at the shop would send us home with all the free donuts we wanted.

Times Square Raining Day Folks Exiting the Subway

This is another from my 1997 Times Square series. The first painting I sold in NYC was from this group, and another in the group got me into my first group show at The New Yorker Magazine Gallery.

Times Square North Tower Coca-Cola

The two add towers, north and south, could fill a year all on their own. Here is the coca-cola straight on. The sing behind the coca-cola bottle would switch from diet coke to regular.

Times Square 3-D Coca-Cola from the Side

Did you ever get to see the huge coca-cola bottle in Times Square? The top opened and a straw came up and drank it down. It's gone now, replaced by a newer coca-cola sign. I thought it would be there forever. It seemed so modern then, and now it seems as old fashioned as they get.

Times Square No. 47 Facing South After a Storm

I've been amazed lately how people are now able find my art, art from 2006 that I'm not actively marketing, via the internet. I have so many paintings in storage, never before published on the internet, only in one show or another over the years.

So, I've decided that when I don't have time to paint, I'm going to post some of my older work. My blog will then also serve as a more complete archive of my life as an artist, which by the way did not begin in 2006, when this blog began. It began in 1989 with my first pointalism project done in high school, under the watchful eye of Ms. Mota-Costa, a RISD grad, and genius high school art teacher, at my not so great public school of West Warwick High. I followed every dot, used a grid, and still my piece was not precise, but everyone, including my parents loved it. To this day, that sums up my style of painting: Me, working tirelessly to paint exactly what I see, and somehow walking away with my own interpretation. Completing that project was the first thing in life, other than sports, that I could work on for hours and never notice the time.

Today's blog piece was completed in 1997, my now husband and I, spent one year documenting all the changes in Times Square, (the last days with peep shows and cheap coffee) he with text, me with paint and charcoal. This is number 47 of one of over 250 paintings. One in the series got me into my first show in NYC at The New Yorker Gallery.

New Doll Christmas Morning

This is the first collage I did in 1991. I found it today in the garage. It helped get me into Parsons. It's so detailed that it makes me laugh about how much free time I used to have. I really enjoy the results of magazine collage. There is so much detail in each piece of cut paper.

Heirloom Tomatoes in November from our March Garden

Austin was so hot this summer that our tomato plants bore no fruit until Mid-September. Here are two of the little fruits hanging out with the paprika can my mother-in-law brought back as a lovely gift from eastern Europe. This still life was set up at last night's Jennifer Balkan studio class. It really is something to feel like I have time to paint. I only feel that way in class.

SciFi Loving Feminist

This painting is another from the Jennifer Balkan portrait class I took in the spring. The model spoke of her love of science fiction and feminism during the breaks. I start another one of her studio classes here in Austin this week.

Self Portrait

The self portrait — all artists must have one. Some folks have said this doesn't look like me. I thought it did, atleast a little. It's funny how one's face changes. I really notice it doing the occaisional self portrait. I used to have a round face, now it's much longer, I never planned on that. My nose is much longer too, it used to be this tiny little nose. :)

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

I painted this image for Brown over the summer. They chose another, so now it becomes a post. Brown has a very beautiful campus. This painting features Manning Chapel, University Hall, and Slater Hall at sunset. I haven't done much watercolor work, but I love it, watercolors have their own personality that they add to every painting.

'O' for Obama in '08

Eight LONG years of the letter 'W!'

I'm ready for a new letter, a more well rounded, centered letter, an all inclusive letter, a letter that says opportunity, others, and open minded politics.
'O!' Obama '08!