ArtWorks Gallery
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Black and White show
ArtWorks Gallery
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Hat wave
Disability Pride Month and the anniversary of the ADA reminded me of a project I did way back in the late Eighties for the Haymarket People's Fund in Boston. The assignment was a poster for a hat-themed event, and although the design document didn't say anything about including people with disabilities, I put in a guy in a wheelchair smiling and waving his hat in the air. This in turn sparked the idea of a variation on the familiar International Access Symbol with an exuberant hat waving figure, which I added at the bottom. At that time, the association of disability with positivity, joy, or fun was not a big part of the mainstream discourse, but it must have been bubbling up in the activist community in the runup to the passing of the ADA in 1990. After the poster came out, other advocacy groups latched onto my symbol design and used it for their communications.
Pen and ink, typography
Van Horn Park Backstop
I never seem to tire of sketching this backstop. The geometry and perspective are challenging and the play of light on the chain link is intriguing.
This is also a first time trying a new pigment, nickel azo yellow, py150. I've been searching for the ideal yellow for my tiny watercolor box, and am trying this one because it is truly transparent, unlike most of the others. I was always a bit freaked out by this pigment because out of the tube it looks like a particularly unappetizing dull greenish brown. But when you add water and mix it with other colors, it becomes a strong vibrant yellow, good for making natural greens.
Watercolor 4" x 6"
Monday, July 25, 2022
Apple trees on Mt Pollux
I started this one back in April 2019 and wasn't too thrilled with it at the time. I put it up on the studio wall along with its large family of unfinished siblings and just recently returned to it. I'm much happier with it now - I think I needed to acquire the vocabulary to express the way the scene felt to me.
Oil on linen panel 10" x 12"