YESTERDAY'S NEWS (What is Black and White and Red all over?)

 I was born in the dawn of HiFi sound. Somewhere in-between there were Quadraphonic speakers and Walkmans. Now I download my music digitally. I remember a portable stereo with wired speakers, carouseling turntable and the stylus resting in a grove playing Simon and Garfunkel’s “So Long Frank Lloyd Wright”. 

Frank Lloyd Wright was a man who’s life mimicked mine. I am not suggesting in any way that I am in the same creative realm, I am merely bringing to mind that we were both born on a similar cusps of history, Flowing though eras, nearly 100 years apart. His time saw a Victorian era give way to prairie style, which in turn was traded up for the Bauhaus.

The pieces and artifacts produced in this series are intrinsically autobiographical. The silent valet and the telephone table have a redundancy about them, as do the Elizabethan ruff, and the bloomers. 

The newspaper in which these pieces are made go more and more out of date the further we get from that point. The Boston Marathon Bombing was on the front page the day I bought the paper, and though the event had changed the lives of those closely involved forever, for the rest of the world it has become a low distant din.   

Even the physical paper itself has becoming extraneous in the digital age. No longer does the joke “What is Black and White and Red all over?” apply because print and paper are themselves becoming passé.  Finally, much of the knowledge that I have obtained though out my years has become insignificant, though it is not without it’s charm.  Who doesn’t love a knicker, an ascot or a milking stool. I would have not made this things 30 years ago, nor been able to. But, just because the parasol was put out of commission, all thanks to sunblock, it doesn’t make it less beautiful. 

REFORMATION

This piece works is under the same principles as the framed photograph of the scarves and the aprons (A PORTRAIT OF A PORTRAIT ) . The one key difference is that the objects that are behind the images are not the ones represented in the photograph. This work also uses the idea of The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe]) by Rene Magritte. The 3 photographs are the byproduct of the earlier piece. A piece which soured for me. In these new pieces, I have placed objects that are weighted and dear to me. It is in this way that, when I look at the photographs, I am no longer looking at the images of the aprons, but, at the things behind them. The things that bring me a quiet and curtain joy. I am hoping that in time, just like Pavlov's dog, I will once again salivate at the sound of the bell, and the aprons will become beautiful again.  


  

REDTHREADFROMMYBEDTOTHEBUSSTOP

  

This piece records a moment in time. A walk from my bed to the bus stop. It is a portrait of a menial task, something which I do nearly every day. The original idea was created around 1977, in high school. I used to roam the school halls and imagine a red thread attached to my ankle. It followed me through out the building in long, yet invisible red loops that would cross, and tangle with other students red threads during the bell, then back to my single red thread, as I was constantly maneuvering hallways, instead of attending classes. Initially, the idea of the conceptual red thread started from the moment I walked into the building. In time, I would back up to the place of origin to the morning walk from my house. Then, farther back to the house I lived in before that house. Further and further back in time, until ultimately, from my mothers womb.

By beading the thread I am exhaling the task, and that moment in time to it's most poetic level. The thread is a simple poly blend and the beads are made of glass, pearls, sequins and some plastic. It was made in only two places; the bus, and on my bed. Though it appears precious, light, and easy, the work was tedious and grueling. The Tupperware bowl in which the beads were kept were refilled 5 different times, giving the strand a subtle variation throughout, as if I had given the strand it's own time line, a life line of it's own. 

MARDI GRAS BEADS

The third work of the Pearl and Plastic collection are these Mardi Gras beads. The objective of these beads is taken from the phrase. "Cast your pearls before swine". Using my "Mathematical equation" that the Plastic has equal value, (thus, the same equal right) to the pearl. Therefore, the swine has equal value to everything else. These things are made up of pretty much the same atoms, protons and neutrons, the same stardust. So, why shouldn't they be thought of as equal.

It was a beautiful and difficult task to make these beads look cheap,  and feel like Mardi Gras beads… I had to start with the cheapest beads, disguise the pearls and glue the bead in the same separate way that real Mardi Gras beads come from the manufacturer. 

PEARL NECKLACE #2

Through out my life I have made my Cousin necklaces. The last set was made from old jade beads and others, found in our Grandmothers home. Though I had taken a lot of time and care in making seven necklaces for her, they were not worth much. One day, there was a break in at her house and the necklaces were stolen, among other things. This is a new necklace for her. It is made with some left over beads of our grandmothers, some of my own, including my fresh water pearls. It is a necklace that I disguised as a rosary so that the thief will not be able to steal the necklace out of moral fortitude.

PLASTIC AND PEARLS

PLASTIC ROSARY

PEARL NECKLACE

A simple piece of a jewelry. A necklace that is altered and adorned. First, there is a rosary made of plastic beads. Then, real pearls are threaded on. This makes it worth more. The pearls add an air of wealth and luxury. But now the numbers are off and the rosary doesn't work. 

BICYCLE POSTCARD

I bought a beautiful cruiser bicycle and put a wicker basket on it, only to find that each time I rode it, I felt underdressed. The bicycle had issued its own demand of style. I found myself dressing into characters when I would ride it. I was the actor and  the pavement was my stage. The travelers in cars, and on foot were the audience. This is not a long play mind you, not one that would fill a manuscript, but an ephemeral one, one that could be written on back of a postcard. One might read a postcard, flip it over, and then place it on the table next to a pile of newspapers and bills, until eventually, it finds it's way into the bottom of a drawer. So goes my quick play, and my characters pedaling by: The Brigadier, The Rich Golfer, Bill Cunningham w/ Cardboard Camera,War and Peace, The Austrian Extra from The Sound of Music, and Fake Messenger with the Fake Doll Bomb.