Four Six by Six pieces for Rochester Contemporary by Paul Dodd Untitled 2016
I continued a riff on my entries into last year’s 6×6 by doing pretty much the same thing with different colors. The rough cut boards I used, given to me by Pete and Shelley, are not quite six inches wide so I ripped a few pieces and sued them together. I planned to paint the two parts of each piece different colors but I could only paint one color at a time because I panted them while hold them. This was a nice sensation. I put them in a window to dry and grew to like the bare wood so they were “done” just like that. I never thought anyone would buy last year’s but they did. This may be pushing it.
We did the second shift on Record Store Day. Wouldn’t miss Saturday morning yoga class or Kneads & Wants. Last week’s “Hangover Biscuit” was the best yet, spinach, egg, cheese and caramelized onion. This week we went for the expresso creme filled croissants. And then we were ready for the great House of Guitars. We picked up a Coltrane ten inch and a Dylan ep with four songs from his new standards album. Headed over to the Record Archive and talked to Frank DeBlase about Margaret Explosion’s role in his new spoken word project. Way too nice a day to be in a record store so came home and took a walk. We found some ramps on top of the hill in Spring Valley and made an appetizer out of them.
I was looking for ramps because we found them yesterday in Edmunds Woods. My father took us there many times. It was one of his favorite haunts. The woods is surrounded by development and mostly deer free so there is plenty of undergrowth and wildflowers in the early Spring before the leaves fill in. We were visiting my mom earlier and she pointed out someone who she thought looked like my father. He didn’t but that got us thinking of him so we visited the woods.
The cut leafed toothwort was in full bloom and the trout lily were ready to pop. The squirrel corn was all still just green but the wild leeks or ramps were already in their prime. In the next few weeks this woods will be showcasing Spring Beauty, Red and White Trillium, May Apples, Blood Root, Blue Cohosh, Jack in the Pulpits, Black Snake Root and Flat-Topped White Aster. I wouldn’t miss it. Here’s my father’s map to the highlights.
I went out on a limb back in ’08 but I’ve pretty much stayed away from politics here. I will say we have watched almost all the debates. Some were a lot better than others. I fell asleep in the Clinton Bernie bash last night. We haven’t gone out to see any of the candidates in person. Cruz is here today but that wouldn’t be much fun. There’s a green house around the corner that has been flying a yellow snake flag for the last few years and his neighbor just put up up a small homemade sign that reads, “Billionaires Can’t Buy Bernie.” He put it right on the edge of his property line and faced it not out at the street but toward his neighbor. New York is in play for the first time in a long time and we are having fun with it so far.
Spinach, lettuce and beet seedlings In the garden mid April
We started spinach, lettuce and beets from seed about five weeks go. We bought a bag of sterilized potting soil on our neighbor’s recommendation and put that in some shallow plastic trays. Other years we’d just get some dirt out of the yard but our neighbor said this is much better for some reason. In fact he said we could sterilize our dirt by putting it in the oven. He grew up on a farm and he was a chemist at Kodak so he knows these things.
Each year he tells us how his grandmother would just scatter spinach seed on the snow in early March. Even when we think we are getting the jump on things, Jared is one step ahead of us. He has some spinach up that wintered over and he has started seeds in their glass porch.
They were headed out of town for a few weeks so they asked if we’d do the usual, take in their paper (so he can catch up when he gets home), feed the cat and water his plants. We brought our trays of sprouts down to their solerium and they loved it. Every seed sprouted and the lettuce was three inches high by the time they got back in town.
We turned over the garden and put the plants in the ground. If the groundhogs don’t get it we’ll be swimming in greens in the next month.
I know I have my dates all mixed up here but I’m guessing Greg Highlen did this art work around 1971. He was an art major living rent free in his painting studio instead of a dorm when I met him. He was a legendary figure around Bloomington Indiana. He rode a bike so he was always around. He worked at H Salt, a fish and chips place in the college town, and he’d bring bags of fried fish and chips by the trailer where a bunch of us were living.
I remember watching him make this piece one afternoon as we sat around the table. It took about ten minutes and I taped it to the wall when he was done. We tracked Greg down a year or so ago, living on the lower east side. He is still making art and promised to show it us next time we visit.
Mary Dodd with Paul and stuffed animal 1950. Aunt Helen and her mom are seen on the porch in the background.
My mom and I have been good friends for a long time. She is living at the Friendly Home these days. Sounds like a Quaker place but it is not. The management there randomly teamed a resident and an employee with one of the 64 teams in the March Madness basketball tournament. My mom was coincidentally teamed with a good friend of my sister’s, someone who works at the the FH in the business department. And they were both attached to Villanova, the school my father graduated from. Their names were printed on these little college pennants in a display on a table in the coffee room.
We watched Villanova hang in there as they removed the losing teams after each game. Even Syracuse disappeared and Villanova went right to the top. My mom was presented a $25 gift certificate, redeemable at the gift shop in the FH. We took her down there to do some shopping. My mom has always had excellent taste. She picked out a coral sweater, one with rather sort sleeves and no buttons, and a light pink, silk scarf with little white polka dots. The FH credited her account with the remaining two dollars and we dropped the new garments off at the station where they sew name tags on the clothing so gets reunited with the right person after being laundered.
Paul Dodd Model From Crime Page oil on wood panel 2016
There was an article in this morning’s paper about Matthew Klein, a NYC police sketch artist. They referred to his his occupation as a throwback trade but went on to detail cases where his sketches were instrumental in solving the crime. There are only a hundred full time forensic artists left in the United States.
One of them is Suzanne Birdwell from the Texas State Police. She says, “Forensic art is not about creating something beautiful; it’s about documenting an intangible piece of evidence. When we start a project we have no idea what we’re drawing. And we never know it’s right. Imagine drawing something you have never seen before.” I like that.
My current camera, a Sony RX100, has all sorts of options, ones I really use. But I am glad I have them. The auto mode is so good I have been spoiled. I hardly leave it but I know I should. If only to control the background focus. Duane tells me he runs around town with his ISO set to 1600. There is an advantage there that I can only imagine. I remember when that speed was twice what was possible with fast, grainy Kodak black and white film.
I recently photographed the a batch of oil paintings on wood panels. The ground was mostly white but you would never know it looking at my photos. I came up with maybe a 5 on the grey scale where it should have been white. I knew I should have been setting the white point and shooting with manual mode but I knocked off the shots in auto mode. They paintings are currently hanging in a show but next time I will do it right and I have a pile of my father’s watercolors that I would like to photograph next.
I called Duane for instructions. He worked for Lowel, a lighting company, and I use four Lowel brand Tota lights. We started with my bulbs. A couple are high quality Quartzand the others are Home Depot tungsten lamps which can change color spectrum as they age. I got on Amazon and ordered 5 EIKO FCZ 120V/500W R7s Base Stage and Studio Lamp from Barndoor Lighting Outfitters.
Not only were my whites not white, they were wildly uneven. Most likely the lights were too close to the subject. He suggested I step two feet to the sides of the paintings and then step back at least six feet from the surface of the painting to set the four lights. Two lamps on each side, barn doors set open about 45 degrees. As for aiming Duane recommended that I cross light the paintings so the the lights on the left side of the painting should be lighting the right side of the painting.
To set the white balance Duane suggested I frame a shot in auto made so it is full white, the same same white as ground on the paintings, and take note of the readings (iso, Fstop and shutter speed). Then use the same settings in manual mode (where my camera allows me to capture and store that white balance).
Finally, still in Manual mode, I will try an ISO of 400, an F stop at 8 and then get the M.M. setting to zero out by selecting the appropriate shutter speed. I will report back.
Judd Williams Wood Pieces at Mercer Gallery in Rochester, New York
Judd Williams, former painting, printmaking, sculpture and figure drawing teacher at Rochester Institute of Technology is having fun in retirement. I can tell. Just look at his current show at the Mercer Gallery which opened on Thursday evening.
On first glance it looks like things just come together, like he might find a piece of steel wool in his studio and an old can. Why not put them together? This piece of wood looks like a palette. Done. Almost anything works. He says, ” In my work with found objects, the pieces are inspired by the materials themselves, it’s like the object is a piece of language.”
But look again. This is the work of a master. Just as often he carefully constructs pieces to fit together in his Assemblages and sculptures He paints them and joins them in effortless and playful assemblages and sculptures. My favorite were these two wood pieces.
View from Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid New York. Photo by Peggi Fournier
The outside world finds a way in even if you are off its grid. Pete and Shelley’s literary recommendation for us was Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here.” Guess it closely mirrors the Trumpster’s run.
Speaking of mirrors, we spent the next night on Mirror Lake in the Adirondacks. After leaving the woods and retreiving a couple days worth of messages and not finding anything urgent we continued north instead of heading home. Our view, from the town of Lake Placid, encompassed the high peaks and the ramps for the ski jumps in the Olympic Village. We were there in the way low season, a few weeks after winter and well before summer.
We walked to the the center of town and had dinner. I ordered a John Brown IPA that was brewed by the Great Adirondack Brewing Company located just behind the restaurant. The description in the menu read, “John brown, a fiery abolitionist, came to Lake Placid in 1855 to build a community of free men. After being hung for his his raid on Harper’s Ferry his final resting place is on his farm in Lake Placid. Our rebellious India Pale Ale with a mountain of brilliant pine and citrus hop flavor, is an plosives tribute to John Brown and his fellow rebels. Pushing the boundaries of the status quo and fighting for the betterment of mankind.
We went off grid for a few days but I was still able to recharge my watch with solar power. Cellular service ends just before the closest town to Pete and Shelley. We got right down to business on arrival. We caught up on health issues and then mutual friends. We watched the snow melt in the full sun and slide off the metal roof of their shed. We boiled water outdoors for our French press coffee maker. We took long walks down the road, first in one direction and then in the other, Setting an all time record with our Moves app.
Listened to Pete play the Wurlitzer electric piano without plugging it in. I took photos of the compost pile and played “Ambulance Blues” from my watch on the phone in Peggi’s pocket. We drank a twenty year old bottle of Cava, one that Shelley’s parents had in their basement when they moved into an assisted living facility. We studied their book shelves and looked at old photos from a box in the back of a drawer. We sat around the enamel-top table by candlelight and talked for hours without googling a thing.
There is an old horse path that runs through the undeveloped part of Durand Eastman Park. It’s a beautiful trail that hardly gets any use although it did get a lot of attention when Bulldozer Man drove part of the trail with his earthmoving moving equipment about five or six years ago. Not a park employee or anything, just a private citizen, he atempted to clear the trial again for horseback riding. Some alert woods-walkers notified Larry Staub, the director of the Monroe County Park system. At one point this path skirts a cluster of homes and this statue stands behind a house at the edge of the woods. The base rotted out and he was laying down for a while. I probably have a picture of that on this blog somewhere. I keep track of that sort of thing.
We always had a statue of Saint Francis in the house when I was growing up and I have one today near my desk. My youngest brother youngest brother was named after him. The Paton Saint of animals and the environment, he is one of the church’s favorite saints and is usually pictured in a brown robe, sandals and a rope belt with birds on his shoulder. Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, he is the patron saint of Italy. He is reported to have received the stigmata during the apparition of Seraphic angels in a religious ecstasy making him the first recorded person to bear the wounds of Christ’s Passion.
Steve Piper abstract drawing at Little Theater Café in Rochester, New York
It’s snowing and it is beautiful. Who cares if it is April? The “Sights & Sounds” opening is over and it’s still daylight. All is right with the world. My sister was there and a couple of cousins from farm country so I spent quite a bit of time talking about family rather that art. There was plenty of arts speak though and music this time because the five artists showing are also musicians. Thus the theme of the show.
There was very little surprise in the music but Steve Piper’s drawings were a revelation to me. He’s known for and has made a living with his photos but but his drawings are each little worlds unto themselves. I hope you can get down there this month to see them.
You would think it would be enough to walk to the lake and look at it. You would think that would be enough for the day. The sensation can be overwhelming. It is about a mile away from our house as the crow flies but our Moves app had us at about three and a half miles round trip. We took the path through the woods and then followed the winding shoreline of Eastman Lake.
Nighttime had us down at the lake as well. We caught two sets by Rich Thompson’s Quartet at the new Pythod Room on Lake Avenue in the old beer bar next door to Mr. Dominic’s. They did a beautiful version of Miles Davis’s “Eighty One.” That was enough for me.
Ten Models from Crime Page paintings by Paul Dodd mounted as one piece for Little Theater Café show
So far, Peggi and I have managed to live our whole adult lives with only one automobile. It doesn’t usually present a problem but tomorrow we have a yoga class and I need to be downtown at the same time to drop off the artwork above. We will manage.
WXXI’s Evan Dawson is a real pro. He does his homework before the day’s interviews so he is completely comfortable with his subject and able to both deliver and roll with the punches. I have no idea what this show sounded like but it was a pleasure being there talking about art with some good friends. There is a podcast but I’d rather trust the memory.
For some reason Evan picked up on the sentence in my bio that says I take daily walks in the woods, mentioning it when we were introduced and then working it into the show as we discussed creating. I loved how he got around to the Robert Frost poem and the real point, that one road wasn’t better exactly, that both hold promise.
Evan moved around the table seamlessly weaving the five artists/musicians into the wide ranging conversation. For a moment the whole thing seemed to go off the rails when Jaffe, former member of the Fugs, Monk enthusiast and longtime keyboard player for Colorblind James experience, talked about someone giving him some white powder to drink back in sixties. It was a turning point of sorts for him as he stayed up for two weeks and almost died. Both Evan’s and the engineer’s eyes lit up and their mouths were wide open. It was brilliant live radio.
The tintype portraits at Genesee Libby Photography in the Hungerford Building looks like the ticket for tonight’s First Friday romp.
Sights & Sounds 3 poster for Little Theatre Café show 2016
I’m hoping this will be fun. The five of us, or whoever shows up, will be doing an interview on Evan Dawson’s WXXI radio show tomorrow, Friday, at one o’clock. The art opening is Sunday April 3, 1:30-4:30 at the Little Theater Café Art Gallery
Five artists/musicians. In alphabetical order – Paul Dodd, Charles Jaffe, Peter Monacelli, Steve Piper and Scott Regan. The exhibit runs April 2 thru April 29. I have some new “Models From Crime Page” in the show.
The priest who celebrated the mass for my brother’s father-in-law today had a heavy Guatemalan accent. But it only made me want to listen to what he was saying. Sometimes he said things twice, clearly working on the pronunciation of his new language. There was only one alter boy, they worked in pairs in my day, and after the priest had his big host and wine he walked toward the alter boy to offer him the sacrament. The alter boy refused and my mind went wild with what his reasons were. After the service we had lunch in the Knights of Columbus hall on Barrett Drive. The road was named after Joe Barrett‘s father, the Village of Webster’s Attorney and one time mayor, Gerald R. Barrett. With Xerox and unchecked growth to increase the tax base Webster has plugged every empty lot and former farm field with chain stores and track housing. I can’t even tell where I am anymore when we drive out there.
Funny thing is when we got back from the funeral there was a message from a friend who wanted to know if we could meet her on the other side of the swing bridge, the one they swing open on April first, at Gosnell Big Woods off Vosburg Road back in Webster. This park a gem and includes an open meadow for migrating birds and old growth forest. Our Moves app says we walked for sixty minutes in the woods. There are still pockets of beauty where “Life is Worth Living.”
We would be at the Steve Reich concert tonight if we didn’t have a gig.
Four chairs out front. Ready for horseshoe season.
If we left these chairs out all winter they would rust. They are made of metal and two of them came from my grandparents after they gave up their house. The chairs were white then and I’ve painted them many times since. Can’t remember all the Rustoleum colors we’ve used but I bought a gallon of the blue stuff so that will be around for a while. And I love the Sunburst Yellow. We took the chairs out of the garage after the winter and just minutes before Rick and I played our first there horseshoe game of the season.
Louise sent me a message today that reminded me it had been four days since my last post. Those days flew by and what space they had I filled with painting, an activity that respects no time frame. You dive in and don’t stop until it is right. And even when it is, it is only right for then, the best you can do for now.
I finally finished a batch of paintings, twelve or so, a series that was started last year when my painting teacher, Fred Lipp, was still alive. And then my father got sick and passed and we had some family business to settle so I feel we are just now crawling out of a big hole just in time for Spring and this art show at Little Café. We do a promo radio spot with Evan Dawson, on WXXI’s Connections Friday afternoon and the drop the work off on Saturday. Art vs. music.
The twins, who were feeding their mom, Philomena, overheard Peggi and me telling my mom that we were going to walk Clarabella, my sister’s dog. On the way out they asked us if the dog was named after the clown on Howdy Doody. We told her we assumed so but I could barely remember the character so, of course, I goggled the show.
Clarabella the dog is a sensation. She ain’t nothin’ but a hound dogs but she makes all other breeds look mean. She pretends to use all her senses but is ruled by her nose. She would follow it anywhere. And that’s what leashes are for.
Getting the jump on Earth Day, Margaret Explosion has released a new song recorded live at the Little Theatre just a few weeks ago. Margaret Explosion plays the Little Theatre Café tonight.
Listen to Margaret Explosion – End of the EarthLeave a comment
