A BUTCHER’S hook/look (Cockney rhyming slang)
urban growth
Some trees in our neighborhood stand alone and appear to be pretty happy where they are. I caught this illuminated example glowing in its very urban setting on Stanton St in 2011. At first I thought it was growing in the dumpster but it’s actually behind it, on the other side of the fence.
A few years later I saw that it was still there and had grown a fair bit. Then again, 10 years later - it’s full on. These growth updates are from 2015 and last week when I had to be a lot further away to even fit it in the frame.
depth perception
After a break from painting, I took a studio in 2018 and got to work. To get back into things, I began with a series of paintings based on postcard collages I had made. I had bisected postcards of roads and paired them in combinations to disrupt the viewer’s sense of depth, collapsing perspective and re-imagining space. It was a way of both unsettling and re-orienting the familiar.
To shake things up, I decided to try a completely different palette and use colors I rarely ever used - just to see how it turned out. I also altered my painting method. This was an early stage of one, where I had intended to continue, but I decided to stop. The series is ‘bidirectional’ in two senses - there’s the image content of the painting itself and also that they can be hung either way up, offering a different perspective and view. Try it - it’s just messing with you.
up there
I only found out about the themed gardens on the rooftop levels of the Rockefeller Center when I found these postcards - an informative discovery. Some of the oldest rooftop gardens in the city, they were part of architect Raymond Hood's original 1930 plans. The intention was to have gardens on the roofs of all buildings with connecting bridges between the rooftops. However, feeling the crash, timing was off and roof top gardens were included only on four buildings.
The Rock gardening
They still exist - some pretty interesting contemporary pics here They’re a bit more formal and apparently only open to those ‘connected’ but they are there.
deep in the woods
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a great bonsai collection - some are hundreds of years old with one over 500 years old. This Bonsai Redwood ‘forest’ is about 24” tall and just fantastic. You can get lost in there….
Let me know if you’re enjoying A BUTCHER’S - I’d be curious to get some feedback. You’re welcome to comment on the whole package or particular items.
room with a view
Be fair. I want to see "Be there" turned. I tried ; failed. "Landscape"? There's cohesion, it's eerie connected by green. willow shades. the painting that looks like the blue & yellow want to mix it up 'get outta town', the rock block dizzying Camera where? eyebrow comb bonsai leaves 'Who goes there?' the last rite of cellar tenant desolate shore makes lookout blind. Long Good Tidy ever S