"Mardi Gras Beads and Corks"

Oil on museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 5" x 7"

This is my submission to the 2nd challenge of the Calypso Moon Artist Movement. The challenge was to "take only two things that you collect and make an interesting painting that reflects your personality and/or history." This was not an easy task, as I collect lots of things. To the uninitiated I might even be considered a hoarder, which is neither true nor fair. Being an artist, I see the potential in things as possible grist for the creative mill. Corks, wine foils, beer caps, wishbones, cigar bands, hats, fortune cookie fortunes and Mardi Gras beads are but a small sampling of what is in the hundreds of boxes in the basement. I have been saving wishbones since I was 11 and have thousands. I have bushel baskets of wine corks which make great bulletin boards. With the advent of the Stelvin closure, a.k.a. the screw cap, corks are fast becoming a thing of the past (insert Boones Farm Strawberry Hill reference/joke here). I know screw caps are better at preserving wine but the theatrics and pageantry of the sommelier is diminished by a mere quick twist of the wrist. I wonder - if a bad bottle of wine is "corked" is a bad Stelvin capped bottle "screwed"?

The bead collection started years ago when I was down in New Orleans (duh!) for Mardi Gras. My wife and I were walking back to our hotel after the Orpheus Ball, dressed in black tie and gown and we happened on the tail end of a Mardi Gras parade. We later found out that you must get rid of all your throws before the end of the parade, so timing is everything. You want to have enough to last the whole parade but since they reuse the floats, you have to jettison everything in the last two blocks, which is where we were. The revelers were lobbing beads by the gross, still wrapped in their plastic bags. Armfuls of beads came raining down on us. I could barely carry my treasure back to the room. Needless to say I was hooked!

Alice wanted us to demonstrate our creative process, so here are some work in progress pics:


Here is a rare photo of one the larger cork boards I have made. Rare because it is not completely covered with stuff push pinned to it as it will be is a few months time, since we just moved in and I took the old detritus off during the move. Empty vertical surfaces are almost as much a clutter magnet to an artist (at least to this artist) as a horizontal one. Note the wishbone drying in the upper left corner.

" A glass of red wine"

Oil on cradled museum quality ampersand gessobord panel - 9" x 12"

"French Postcard, Cork, Art Glass Vase, and a Glass of Château d'Yquem Sauterne on a Damask Tablecloth"

Oil on museum quality, archival ampersand gessobord™ panel - 6” x 8”

Perhaps it was the recent Turner exhibition at the National gallery that compelled me to give my painting such a lengthy title.  I am trying to outdo "Steamboat off a harbor's mouth..." There are some reoccurring elements in this painting that I never tire of; nudes, corks, wine and intense red.  Puccini's - La Bohème  was playing on the stereo when I composed this painting so I guess you can say this piece is about wine, women and song.  The turquoise of the vase bridges and tones down the Christmas colors, although the Holly pattern of the Damask still makes me say "Ho, ho, ho!"

"Champagne cork reflections"

Oil on museum quality, archival 1/8" ampersand gessobord panel - 5" x 5"

I don't know why I love playing with this red tablecloth so much.  Perhaps I was a bull fighter in a past life.  It is fun to paint and it really gives some gravitas to such a tiny panel.  Corks from two of my favorite champagnes; Schramsberg and Mumm, reflecting off of a chrome wine bucket on a red tablecloth.  So simple yet so satisfying.  

Something a bit more complex tomorrow, I promise.

"Drink Naked"

Oil on archival, museum quality 1/8" ampersand gessobord panel - 6" x 6"

I seem to be bouncing back and forth between reflective chrome and fuzzy puppies. What can I say? I love painting diverse textures and want to keep it fresh. Next up – cold and slimy; by that I mean fish or oysters.

We went to visit the Naked Mountain Vineyards and Winery in Markham, Virginia last year. They make extremely good wine and we bought a case of their excellent Chardonnay. I might have gotten a case even if the wine was just so-so because of the corks. When you open the wine, the cork reads “Drink Naked”. That appeals to my decadent sensibilities. Indeed, I picked up a tee shirt at the winery with that slogan on it. I get a lot of smiles from people when I am wearing this shirt. Once, Forgetting I had it on, I went to take some mail to a friend in rehab. I got some real dirty looks from the counselors…oops, my bad?

These tools of the trade were fun to paint.

"Mark Spitz corkscrew"

Oil on archival museum quality 1/8" gessobord panel - 5" x 5"

This is the companion piece to the painting (Haut Medoc-1997) that I did in December. The ubiquitous Mark Spitz corkscrew has been around for quite a while. We all have one tucked away in a draw somewhere. Though not my favorite device for the extraction of a cork from a lovely bottle of Bordeaux, it is always there as a reliable backup when the Cépage Laguiole corkscrew goes missing, as it is wont to do, buried under the myriad of saved corks in the drawer where it resides. Why Mark Spitz you ask? Those of us old enough to remember Mark Spitz capturing a record seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics also remember just before we opened that bottle of Mateus Rosé or Lancers, we would hold the chrome corkscrew horizontally, pull in and out on the screw end, the levers swimming wildly through the air and ask with a giddy laugh “Hey guys, who’s this?" ...I guess you had to be there.

“What a difference a [frame] makes…”

Since I didn’t finish yesterday's painting for various reasons and excuses (and I know all of them), I thought I would show you how to elevate these little panels to small wonders. My last day job was back in 1974. I worked at the venerable Purnell Art Company as a framing craftsman and restorer. I have a lot of respect for the art of framing and it is an art. The reason we frame 2-dimensional works of art is because without containing the image, the lines and colors would visually drift off into space. Perhaps lattice strips would suffice, but a well made frame that complements the work adds to the charm and grace of the artwork. A case it point: The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to the Cone Collection, works by Picasso, Braque and that early 20th century gang of modern masters. The paintings were framed in the big Victorian frames popular in the day. When a new director of the BMA came onboard, she thought it would be a good idea to take off the grand Victorian frames put on by Gertrude Stein and the Cone sisters and put them into something that she thought would have pleased the modern artist’s sensibilities – little gold stripping. It was awful!! The hue and cry that followed the unveiling of the collection can still be heard. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. The old frames, mercifully, carefully retained, were restored and the director has moved on to ruin things elsewhere. I myself am a proclaimed frame fetishist and tend to over frame the work I live with. It is not uncommon for me to spend many times the value of the art on a great frame. Here in Baltimore we have the Fleckenstein Gallery. Terry really knows her stuff and offers some drop-dead gorgeous molding. Today’s painting which I posted in December demonstrates just how much a frame works to enhance a painting. The frame you see has a depth of an inch and a half with beautiful mahogany sides. Go ahead; spend the money on a good frame. You will thank me.

"Champagne corks with medallions"

Oil on panel - 5" x 7"

For the last 3 months I have embarked on an artistic journey of daily painting which has opened my eyes to a world which I thought was lost to me. Is there anything sadder than an artist who has lost his spark, his inspiration, that thing that drove him to create? After 40 years, I despaired that my muse was gone for good. I read all the self-help books on regaining your creative vision, studied the “Artist’s Way”, did my morning pages, etc., but nothing ignited the flame. I knew I could still paint and buoyed myself up by painting portraits, not that there is anything wrong with that, per se. But portraits are meant to please the sitter and the artist together. I wanted to paint for me and have others excited by my vision. Portraits, even good portraits are done one at a time. They move through the studio one or two at a time. Years have gone by since my last one man show. Friends stop asking what I was working on. Then one day while I was researching a painting on the internet, I stumbled upon “dailypainters.com.” I was transfixed by the variety of artists doing on a daily basis, what seemed impossible; to take mundane, everyday objects and compose them into little jewels. Art didn’t have to have an earth shaking message. It needn’t be this deep thing. It was enough to be well composed and executed. I loved that the hand of the artist, those mad brush strokes that no computer software program could create, were there for all to see. The clouds parted and I too, started seeing in paint again. The paintings in my last exhibition were all 40” x 60” and here I was doing these little tiny works and becoming more excited about them by the day. Friends dropped by the studio and were excited again. I started posting them on a blog and people would be upset if a day went by without a new piece. I hadn’t even figured out the ebay thing and yet most have been bought in what could be described as a feeding frenzy…”What do you mean the fish are gone?” Today I got word that I had been juried into that group of artists that had reignited my passion for this crazy artist’s life – http://www.dailypainters.com/. Of course, as fate would have it, I leave for Paris this weekend and will be disappointing those who like my stuff. Rest assured, it is only for a week and I hope to gather a lot of fresh ideas while there.
I have this thing for corks, as many of you know. These champagne corks reminded me of a pile of mushrooms. I thought it would be fun to inject a bit of color and shine with the medallions. Enjoy.