Sunday, September 27, 2020

A Chill in the Air - Fall Greetings

I've been busy creating new greeting cards for the upcoming fall season. Here are some of my latest fall and Halloween handmade greeting card selections made for the shop this year. They range from the creepy carvings on old tombstones, to some of the storied haunts of New Orleans, and to the colorful harvest at a local farmer's market. 

A face from the beyond carved into an old tombstone. Photographed in an old cemetery in New York.
Bewitched - handmade greeting card
A tombstone with skeleton carving photographed in an old cemetery in New York.
Eternal Rest - Box of 10 greeting cards
A photography test with neon items and blacklight.
Neon Skull - handmade greeting card
A group of small orange pumpkins photographed during an autumn visit to a local New Jersey farm.
Pumpkin Harvest - handmade greeting card
A closeup of a plant with black leaves and bright berries that beckon one to eat them like a poison apple.
Wicked Berries - handmade greeting card
A meander through the famous Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District of New Orleans.
Cemetery Gates, New Orleans - handmade greeting card



Friday, September 11, 2020

9/11 in Works of Art

These paintings were created in the days following 9/11 in NYC. Having just moved to Greenpoint (Brooklyn) from lower Manhattan where my apartment was located just under the shadow of the World Trade Center, I was extremely fortunate to now be living out of that immediate area. Even so, everything about this catastrophic event permeated every corner of the city; the feeling of helplessness and loss, bewilderment and fear; and the acrid smell in the air that lingered for weeks. Below, is my painting, Unfinished Business to relay the feelings of disorder and confusion in a new world as a population that was under attack, and this was far from over. America had finally woke from its sleepy oblivion.

I created this piece above, Talk of Towers, after seeing the fire in the South Tower on my way to work in Chelsea that perfect September morning, and subsequently witnessing the fall of both. I often use paper ephemera as a background before I start painting. In this case, I used subway maps with some routes and stations that would be forever changed. The WTC was marked with a red dot which can be seen through certain areas of translucence in the paint. With my usual cell “language” I have developed throughout my recent work, I modified it with a star to mark some of the central nuclei to convey the rise in patriotism felt everywhere. When you look at the piece as a whole, you can make out the faint division of three columns; on either end, the two Towers, and the ghost-like negative space centered in between.