Queens Chronicle article

"Woodhaven Native Captures L.I.C. On Canvas"

Photograph, working on new LIC painting


I was delighted to get an email from a friend this afternoon letting me know that an article about my work had appeared in The Queens Chronicle, a community based newspaper. Always nice to get some publicity. A young freelance writer contacted me several weeks ago about doing a story after she had found some samples of my work on the internet. The power of the web never ceases to amaze.

The lure of the internet, and Apple products in general (I'm a long time MAC person), found me waiting on line with 2 friends yesterday at the Apple Store in Tribeca, hoping to get a new iPhone. After waiting for 3 hours, I was escorted upstairs where I was given a shiny new phone - well, it's waaaaay more than a phone, that's for sure. There was a glitch with receiving incoming calls, but I resolved that this morning after a visit to my local AT&T store. So, I'm now the proud owner of an iPhone, and with my friend Sandy's invaluable help, I'm learning just what this little dynamo can do.

To read the full story click here

Brooks in LIC

Quiet afternoon in the neighborhood

"Waiting at Brooks"
Oil on canvas
10 x 8 inches

I've been busy working on my new series of Long Island City-inspired paintings for an upcoming show this December and January at Art-O-Mat in LIC and I'm having a great time. Keep finding more and more paintings that I want to do, but I know I'll only complete a fraction of them in time for the show. Have a nice group done so far and look forward to sharing some of them with you on this blog. Today's painting is a recent one and very "Hopperesque" in feel - I just saw the light hitting the side of this old restaurant in the neighborhood with a lone figure and I quickly took a few photos in hopes of doing a painting. Loved the light and shadow and the quiet feeling of the street on a late week-end afternoon.

Pepsi Sign in LIC

The sign is moving???

"LIC/Pepsi"
Oil on canvas
12 x 9 inches

Today I read online that the Pepsi sign, a well-known landmark on the LIC waterfront, will be moved, due to the new and never-ending development in the area. They're moving the sign, what next? I did this painting of the sign with the NY skyline in 1986 - back when the waterfront was undeveloped and the views of the skyline were unobstructed. So many of the buildings and scenes in my paintings have changed and continue to change, and this is just one more for the list.


Pepsi Sign in LIC
Photograph

Last week my cousin Joni and her co-worker Paola were visiting NYC on business and they made a studio visit. After showing them my paintings and around the studio we had dinner in the neighborhood and then strolled down to the waterfront to enjoy the beautiful skyline views as the sun was setting. I pointed out the Pepsi sign and took this photo, thinking I might do a painting of it. Well, I'm glad to know that the sign will remain, even if it won't be in it's original spot! And so it goes...

Members show at Flushing Town Hall

Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts exhibit

"Taxi Reflections"
Oil on canvas
30 x 24 inches
Sold

Hot, steamy, sticky summer's day in NYC found me schlepping a painting on the #7 train to the last stop in Flushing. I will be exhibiting a piece in the annual members show and today was the day to get the work to the gallery. After getting off the train on Main Street I walked several blocks to the Flushing Town Hall, an historic building, nicely restored and now the home of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts. Several years before its current state it housed a dinner theater and I attended a Peter, Paul and Mary concert there. The performers kept asking the audience, "how could anyone live in a place called Flushing?" Well, I did for several years and I found myself thinking "you can't go home again" really was true as I walked the streets of my old neighborhood. I had lived in Flushing in the 70's and early 80's and there was very little left of the neighborhood that I had known. Today, the area is a bustling, primarily Asian neighborhood, with signage, crowds, stores and buildings attesting to that fact. A lot of energy on the streets, the weather non-withstanding. Another trip down memory lane today.

The Members' Art Exhibition runs from July 17 - August 31, with an opening reception on Wednesday, July 16, 6-8pm. For more info click here

Flags for the Fourth

Another glorious 4th of July

"Scouts and Flags"
Oil on canvas
10 x 8 inches

I wanted to post something in honor of the upcoming 4th of July holiday and came across two paintings that fit the bill. Amid the marching bands and floats in this 9th Avenue parade several years ago, a group of scouts hoisting the red, white and blue were marching proudly through the streets of New York.



"Flag"
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 inches

After I found the scouts painting, I came across another piece featuring the flag, and thought, why not post this one as well. Loved painting the brickwork on this building's facade and the red geranium in the window played off of the red stripes in the flag nicely. Wishing you all a safe and happy 4th of July holiday!