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On February  9th I held a Spring Trunk Show in my studio. A portion of the sales went to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation  to be used for their Sandy Relief efforts.

The following photos were taken just before the doors opened and are here primarily to show my work focusing on more recent pieces. We served pink proseco and biscotti  while guests looked at and purchased jewelry.

After the holidays were over I began to change my studio over to full time metal work. It’s been very hard to put the binding tools away or out of the way as that has been my main work for the past 35 years.

As a part of the new venture I am making a chased cuff  that will hopefully be able to be reproduced in numbers for a new company.  I came up with this griffin design and made a few drawings of what I thought the cuff should look like. Once the first drawing was done, I made a dummy cuff, traced the drawing and put it onto the cuff to see how it would be worn. I saw immediately that the composition had to be changed because the griffin’s head was wrapped around the side of the wrist even though I had centered the animal on the cuff itself. I redrew the griffin with a shortened body so that his head and torso were in the center. This left a lot of empty space in front of the griffin that should have some detail. Another stand of ferns and a sun were added for texture and a little drama. That drawing was traced and put onto the dummy cuff too. Presenting better this time, I went ahead to cut a stencil in order to transfer the drawing to the metal. The first photo shows the drawing series and the stencil attached to the metal with a tape hinge so that I could check and add to the scratched drawing as I worked the design into the format.

The metal was cut about a half inch larger all around than the finished cuff. Here, the design is being chased into the format. After the griffin was in, I made stencils for the sun and ferns and scratched them in adjusting the composition.

All the lines are chased in and I have begun to outline the background.  At this point I decided that the cuff should be worked in the round. Bending a sculptural, chased object would probably create a lot of problems. The copper was lifted from the pitch and annealed before I finished anymore on the outlining.

I shaped the metal on a sandbag and got out a few of my snarling irons and repoussè tols.

I used the snarling irons on the inside of the cuff to raise the animals face, beak, wings, claws and legs. I also raised  some of the minor foliage in the bottom of the drawing.

This was the first bit of repoussè  and was not to even or bold. I planned to do more after some chasing. At this point it also looked like I should trim the cuff to final size.  It had already been trimmed to about 4 mm from the final size but now it looked like that excess metal would get in the way of my working the rest of the cuff.

The shaped, trimmed cuff  is on a short length of closet pole, ready to be worked.

The closet pole is held in a vise so that it can be turned and adjusted as needed while I work on it, It can also be turned and held in the other end of the vise so that I have access to all lines and surfaces in 360 degrees.

These shots were taken after another annealing and some more repousse work.

In the first two sessions the cuff lifted off of the pitch completely as I worked around the design.  So, before I did the final work I soldered a length of copper across the gap to keep the cuff at a constant diameter and not lift from the pitch, it still lifted a little but not so much as to leave the metal unsupported  for working.

The chasing is finished and the cuff is ready for the polishing effects in the tumbler.

The cuff was  tumbled several hours with small mixed  stainless steel shot.  I took this photo before sending it off to Rhode Island.

Painting in oil on paper titled ‘Net’ under the show title in the Gallery.

These paintings are at the entrance to the gallery. The large painting is ‘A New World’ and the higher of the two small paintings is ‘Recent Wound’ and below is ‘Susanna’.

The wide view to the right side of the Gallery.

The left side of the gallery

Early graphite drawings circa 1980 and one of the  affinites (an oil sketch by John Frederik Kensett)from the museum’s collection over the guest book.

Al Mathes, a painter and one of his oldest friends, with Colman at the opening.

All old friends at the opening, Colman in blue and bow tie, his brother, Adi Rutkin, Al Mathes and Sage Reynolds (me).

Diane Matyas, Colman Rutkin and Renee at the refreshments table down stairs at the Staten island Museum.

Amy Trautwein, Gopi, Sandeep Shrikumar and Jenny Tango

Tim Moran, Robert Brown and Marc Zimmetbaum

Gail Middleton, Sarah Yuster and Irma Bohorquez-Geisler

Kristi Pfister and Laura Jean Waters

Denise Mumm talking with Jenny Tango

Susan Grabel and Bill Murphy

Colman Rutkin and John Quinn

Colman Rutkin and part of his immediate family in front of the Staten Island Museum after the opening.

This will be mostly photos of some recent watercolor sketches I have done from my favorite Instagram photos. I have become addicted to the app on my iPhone, that and some pressing work in the studio has kept me from editing and organizing photos for NewYorKamera. So this is a start to get back into blogging on NYK.

These watercolor sketches are from photos taken by other people on Instagram. I intended these to be just sketches to see whether or not I would take them further into larger formats in oil. Some have become miniature paintings in their own right and will go no further. Others have taught me to handle the paints differently and will likely be a start into work that will probably go farther into abstraction.

These originals, painted in pairs, are matted and available for $200. I have scanned the images and am making archival prints of separate images. The prints are in editions of only ten prints, they are available in mats for $30 and without mats for $20 each. There is one photo of two of the matted ‘singles’ at the end of this ‘show’.

Here is where I paint them using an inexpensive pallet.

Here they are without further comment.

This sketch, of Bone Trees and a Pink Chair has been sold.

These are two of the scanned watercolor singles that have been printed with archival inks on premium paper in editions of only 10 prints.

The Lumen Festival was held last weekend at the Atlantic Salt Works on Staten island just walking distance from my home.

We were meeting friends to see the show about 9 PM. The sun hadn’t set yet.
Salt mounds had been built as an environment where artists could perform or project their work. The factory itself provided architectural spaces for performance and video projects.

Smoke from grilled meats filled the air at an area with tables for eating and conversation with Manhattan in the background.

A shot of a performance piece.

People from all boroughs and a few other states were in the  crowd. It was one of the best attended events I have seen on Staten Island.

The salt works machinery was lit up to as a part of the festival.

A view of Bayonne through part of the factory structure.

More Machinery, I think this may be part of a painting in my future.

A salt mound as a projection screen.

There was a surprise fireworks show in the harbor. The fireworks seemed to be coming from the Jersey side of the river.

My  photo contribution to the Lumen Festival.

This is a hand held night shot. It’s amazing what the digital cameras  can do now with a little zoom and a steady hand.

I had been in the city to see a screening of an Israeli film ” a Matter of Size” with people from two meet-up groups, the Film Culture Club and the Hebrew Speaking meet-up group. It was a cozy set up in a restaurant on 57th street. It was a beautiful, clear evening, I took the following shots on the trip back to Staten Island.

All the passengers have boarded and the entrance ramps have been lifted off of the ferry just before we departed.

Mates and police man were on the decks below. one mate gave the captain the all clear for departure sign.

The ferry pulls out.

I refer to this water as ‘Making Soup in the Slip’.

A view of the Brooklyn Bridges lit up on the East river.

Looking to the west  side of lower Manhattan.

The work lights on the World Trade Center Tower have been colored, probably for the upcoming  4th of July Holiday. I wisj they had made red and white bands with a blue top. then it would resemble our flag, this way it looks a lot more like the French Flag.

As the ferry progresses acros the harbor, the Empire state building makes appearances in the skyline,  first  a small appearance on the east and then a little longer on the west side of the tower.  On the west it look larger.

Using the telephoto as we begin to lose view of the Empire state building.

Passing the Statue of Liberty.

Another passenger shoots photos from a lower deck.

Our Dark Wake.

On the way home I took these shots of the city while riding the ferry. The Sun hadn’t set yet but was low on the Jersey horizon.

I started this new copper vessel about three weeks ago in class at FIT. I started with a 12 inch square of 20 gauge copper from which I cut a 12 inch diameter circle. Having made a vessel with 18 gauge, I knew I needed to have something slightly thinner raising a larger vessel. I started in my usual way which is to sink a shallow bowl before beginning to raise the shape. These large vessels are really difficult to control. I got a pretty good height on the first half of the first round. Then I had to change angles because I couldn’t continue hammering on metal that was gathering too quickly.

On the second round I planished a band of the first round before the break  and then raised it the rest of the way.

Starting the Third round,  I had decided that the bottom part was about where I wanted it, I planished another time just below half way before I began to raise the pot. Gennady stopped me working on the t-stake and suggested I use a mushroom stake instead for the large diameter, saying I would be more comfortable. We searched the stake closet and I found this one, it was more comfortable and I was able to use it on the following rounds.

Almost there One more round to go.

Last round.

In my studio today, I began to work the shapes into the vessel this afternoon.  I began by dividing the surface.

Some of my divisions were off and I had to draw an equator where I could measure with dividers to make the corrections. I attached a sharpie to my surface gauge.

The drawing behind the vessel is one Colman is working on. He calls it Night Scribe, it is the idea behind this vessel. I intend to chase feathers onto raised ribs in this copper pot.

With the  lines corrected, I made a stencil of a feather silhouette to trace around the pot.

Then I took a dapping punch and hammered the beginning dimples at the bottom of the pot. I did this because I was going to hammer the feathers out from the inside and I needed some reference inside to help me strike in the right places.

Lines were drawn inside the vessel so I could manage the sculpture in stages rising from the bottom.

The sand bag was set on my bench and I used the hook hammer to start pushing the feather shapes out.

After working the feathers up about two thirds of the height I wanted to push the grooves between them deeper from the outside. It became apparent that I couldn’t go too high with this activity, some wrinkles started in two places and I knew that I had to complete the feathers before going any further. I used the ball peen end of the chasing hammer to do this work on the outside.

I finished pushing the feathers out to their tops (this isn’t the end of that). At this point I decided to trim the pot. The uneven edge was going to be a problem to cut if I continued to scallop the top edge. So I marked the rim, trimmed it and brought a preliminary groove up to the rim.

While the pot was resting (I wasn’t willing to put it down), I looked to see if I could make the drawing survive the next annealing.  I thought it would be a good idea to scratch the sharpie lines in with a scribe. While I was doing that, it occurred to me that I could do some chasing at the base to start the feather’s pin end. I chased and I saw that I needed to push that part out more, nothing like drawing all over the surface to bring details into focus. I got out a snarling iron and was able to raise the pinions and raise the ends of the feathers that the hook hammer hadn’t been able to reach. It has to be annealed before I can do much more.

Coming back home from an opening, we stopped on Richmond Terrace to take a few photos. It’s a cool, clear, spring night and the view of the city is dazzling. I should have taken a video so you can see the movement and light changes. Next time. . .

All the major landmarks. Statue of Liberty, Empire State building, the Chrysler Building and #1 WTC  with red on some of the work lights.

Today we attended the opening of Meg Whitlock’s photography exhibit at the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art.  It was a great day to be out and this is a new part of the island for us.  I have been told that this is the highest point on the east coast, being somewhat south of the Verrazano Bridge and with no leaves on the trees, we could see vast expanses of the Atlantic between houses and over roof tops. The houses on the ocean side of the road were surprising in that the entrance level was often the second or third floor of the building. The drop off is so sheer that additional floors were built down from street level with the farther reaches on stilts, many driveways are like bridges from the street to the house.

Here are some views of the  museum terraces.

The street is about level with the museum’s roof.

Some of my favorite iris were blooming in the terrace garden.

Lhasa on the Hudson is a fine-art photography project that has been funded by the Council of the Arts and Humanities of Staten Island, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and JP Morgan Chase. The focus of the project is a documentary investigation of the life and work of members of the Tibetan  community currently living in New York City, with Staten Island itself having been the home of a major Tibetan cultural institution for over 60 years. Since that time, thousands of Tibetans have emigrated to every borough of New York City, as well as to New Jersey and Long Island. A recent survey by the Government of Tibet estimates that there are 7,000 Tibetans living in the New York metropolitan area-and over 1,000 Tibetan mothers with children.  The project was approached initially from the perspective of  Tibetan mothers who have emigrated to the United States in search of the abundant educational and human rights opportunities necessary for their children to thrive in a globalized modern society.  The goal of this project was the investigation of both the accomplishments and challenges facing the modern Tibetan community in diaspora, while providing the beginnings of a visual record for future generations of Tibetans living in New York-children who will grow up as both American citizens and inheritors of a culture that has survived both the loss of its country and over 50 years of life in exile.

More about the exhibit at this link Lhasa on the Hudson

Meg Whitlock receiving  a set of prayer flags at the opening of her show from the Museum Director Meg Ventrudo.

Part of the ever changing exhibit of the Marchais collection of Tibetan Art.

Our friends Stephen and Shannon.

More of some of the Museum Collection.

A small altar.

I’ve been thinking about making something like this but to hold candles.

This is one of a pair of chairs set with stones that look like ink painted landscapes.

Colman talking with Farrell.

Beverly

Stephen and Shannon

The photographer Meg Whitlock and  Beverley.

Meg and fiancee Tim.

The lighthouse on Lighthouse Hill, Staten island