Sadly, Sandy

East Village, November 2012

This week I thought about the woman whose arms are now empty for babies 

Swept away by the storm.

I learned to listen to the stories of others.

I watched my fellow educators make sense of our lives, while reaching our students like a life raft.

I  heard about friends grandbabies pets lost dreams and a widow who clutched her husband's slippers because that's all she has left.

I watch neighbors battle the storm recovering slowly in baby steps, while comforting their children in the cold quiet darkness under dusty quilts from the attic.

Texts, calls, posts, tweets, face to face.

How are you?

Thank God we are fine.

Grateful and guilty. 

My parents under my roof, rolling meatballs and making coffee.

The inlaws, with us every step start to finish, reminding us to fill up our gas cans, remembering Katrina, Ivan, and all the others before.

Armed with canned food, extra boxes, warm coats, we battle to help, but feel helpless to give true solace for what was lost.

Over the phone, a voice bravely facing pain-- can you put me on your list to rebuild?

Dumpsters filled with a lifetime

Long lines of cars and polling booths snake through Election Tuesday

Awaiting the next storm; turn off the radio.

A collective gasp for air.air.air: a reminder that it could be our last.

James Bouler: My Muse

From 2009 to 2011, I have been tearing through ideas and activities at a breakneck speed.  In fact, I once told someone I felt like a hamster on a wheel, on fire.  Let's just say that mindset isn't the best for making art.  My mind was both tangled like spaghetti and yet void of anything creative.
Sensing a momentary break in the action, Louise Millmann turned to me and said, "Time to get back in the studio."  OK, sounds good, but what to say?  After a few abstract watercolors, just to see color and texture again, I had my inspiration:  James Bouler's 50th Birthday.

I've dabbled in collage over the years, usually to generate ideas for paintings, but with James facing a milestone, his life gave me inspiration. It started in Photoshop, using old photos to make invitations and signs for an upcoming celebration.  Once the ideas started, it was time to work with tactile objects. Using a map of Alabama for the first image, I pulled in an old photo, text, and geography, trying to create a poem about his youth in the South.  With Ray Johnson's film, How To Draw A Bunny playing in the background for inspiration, Jackson helped me cut and glue the pieces in place.  We moved on to the target, with a man and his son planting seeds-- a metaphor for James in so many ways-- with his younger self running into the collage.  The text, a piece by Kierkegaard about the lives we lead and our spiritual goals, seemed a perfect fit to our 'target'-- a life well-lived.

Ray's Boxes

For those of you following this blog regularly, you are well aware of artist Ray Johnson's use of the postal system as part of his art performance. The act of mailing art and having it arrive on the doorstep of a lucky recipient was the key to his NY Correspondence School. And it wasn't just artwork that was often sent. Boxes filled with odds and ends from junk drawers, postcards, tennis balls, bric-a-brack were sent to special friends-- somewhat like receiving a Joseph Cornell piece in a cardboard box. Last week at Esopus in NYC, collagist Bob Warner shared with the viewing public the three boxes he had received from Ray before Ray's death in 1995. By unpacking, and then repacking the boxes, Warner resurrected Ray's ability to turn even the simplest, everyday act into a full-blown performance art piece.
photo by Louise Millmann, film by Nicholas Maravell

Good Ol' Photography

Louise Millmann's history of photography class is the only thing that could have enticed me to give up the first day of summer vacation. Louise's insights about photography moved at such a swift pace that I was afraid to take a bathroom break for fear I would miss a century or two. We paused at 1874 to become both photographers and models-- and sometimes even gentlemen.

Nadine in the 19th Century

As Louise prepares to teach the history of photography, her mode of attack is to purchase every form of antique photography methods. Forget the tin type, she's talking all sorts of types that I ain't never heard no nothin' about. Thank goodness I am enrolled to get the inside scoop. We are also going to be playing in the darkroom and. . . having our historical (hysterical) portraits taken. A master of disguise and photoshop, Louise has the eerie skill of swiftly turning the most hip Greenpoint fabunista into a Civil War widow. Here's a view of my life in the 19th century...the two sides of me that still exist in 2011. Let me know if you are around doing nothing on Monday or Tuesday next week and I'll see if I can sneak you into this wonderful and wonderfully unpredictable workshop.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Artist Louise Millmann

Last week marked the 100th anniversary of one of the worst industrial accidents in US history: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The fire, exacerbated by cramped working conditions and locked fire exits, led to the death of 146 workers who leapt to their deaths to escape the flames. Most who died were young women, recent immigrants to our country searching for the American Dream. It took this type of tragedy for factory reform. Alfred E. Smith became a champion for workplace safety and regulation and unions were formed.

To honor the event, there was a rally last Friday on the Lower East Side in NYC. Artist Louise Millmann, dressed in period clothing, walked in the parade, stunning the onlookers who believed they had seen a ghost. Millmann described the experience as quite emotional, a poignant reminder of the sensless loss of life and the continuted need for safe workplaces everywhere.

3 Backyards and 1 New Camera

3 Backyards was a thought-provoking analysis of three characters who are teetering on the edge of life-changing events. A cinematic version an Eric Fischl painting, behind the banal suburban facade lurks an undercurrent of depression, turmoil, and danger.
It was great fun to go to a movie with so many members of the cast and crew on hand. Louise Millmann, who plays the role of 'the teacher', sat behind me in the back row with her bag of popcorn and two good friends. In front of me was her mother Rose and brother Chris. As for her performance, it was not lost on me that Louise is more theatrical in her real-life performace as a photography teacher than she is in portraying on on the big screen.
After the enlightening Q & A session which followed the movie, Louise headed over to deliver homemade Irish Soda Bread to her longtime friend and star of the film, Edie Falco, who gave Louise a hearty embrace and me, a friendly handshake. But alas, my new camera, a spiffy Canon known for its great low lighting shots, leaves me with an 'atmospheric' shot of the two. Let's just say I won't be joining the ranks of the paparazzi anytime soon.

3 Backyards

This Friday at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, NY, 3 Backyards featuring Northport's own Edie Falco and Louise Millmann, opens to a sold out crowd. Winner of many awards around the globe, it's the story of three people from the same suburban town during the course of a seemingly typical autumn day. Behind the placid exterior, each character experiences a personal journey that takes them to unknown territory. Director Eric Mendelsohn will be on hand to discuss the film.

Janet Simpson: Northport Artist

While I was away this week, I regretfully missed an opportunity to be at the opening of artist Janet Simpson's art exhibition. Fortunately, collage artist and photographer Louise Millmann was on hand to provide a full report and to purchase a drawing for me before they were all snatched up. Hosted by the Tasting Room in downtown Northport, the place was packed with local artists, who were not only paying tribute to a tireless and talented woman, but to purchase some of the finest landscape art on Long Island. Simpson, who grew up on the east end in Amagansett, always appreciated the natural world. Whether working in pastel, paint, or fabric, her images capture the essence of light, line, and color, creating artwork that brought the outdoors inside. I was fortunate to have been Janet Simpson's student, during which time she served as a mentor and confidante, all the while still making artwork. She taught me that being a great teacher includes being a lifelong student, for our own exploration becomes an example for others. Fortunately for us all, Ripe Gallery owner Cherie Via was also at the opening and has plans in the works for another show of Janet's work. Will keep you posted!

So Ripe: Rose Colored Glasses

Here's a pastel sketch I did tonight planning out an image for Ripe Art Gallery's Valentine's day show, which is freshly renovated for the occasion. The topic: Rose Colored Glasses. Tricky for my 'Angry Landscape' motif, but I figured with my life coming up roses right now, I could muster up the positive spirit required-- seeing the rosy, romantic side of of the garden. With Redon in mind, I dove into the pastels. The results are a bit creepy, but I hope to have time this week to render it with more success in a painting. As for the Valentine's show, it is usually a standing room only affair, so slip in the back to check out the 'backroom gallery' of selections from my last show at Ripe with Honey Millmann.

Viv Maudlin Takes Las Vegas

Six minutes of Las Vegas fun, Maudlin-style.

A Cloche Encounter

Couldn't help myself with that pun---
But good news for those who have been waiting for the perfect hat this winter. Adriane, who made my fab hat, has offered to make more. Let me know if you are interested. And thank you to Louise Millmann for turning me into a 1920's flapper in this pic.

Ripe Show Opens!

Ripe Art Show: The Invite

My food offering of thanksgiving for Louise's lunch tomorrow-- white beans and escarole soup-- from scratch.

With the opening of our exhibition next month, Louise and I have been brainstorming like mad over the invitation card. I put together my illustration-- thrilled to have a chance to create a portrait of Louise and myself. Although I've known Louise since 1985, it was the first time I've incorporated her image into my work. Louise returned the favor and created a collage portrait of us that blew me away. The show will hopefully prove to be evidence of the interesting conversation Louise and I have been having ever since we first met.

Louise 'N Nadine

The Louise and Nadine show opens at Ripe Art Gallery this coming December. Here we are as luna moths.

ABAD Protest

The CW Post installment of A Book About Death exhibition had a great turnout at the opening event. Honey Millmann and I protested Nothing at the event as an homage to Ray Johnson's own protest of his exhibition at the Nassau County Museum of Art, just down the road from CW Post. The exhibition featured work from the original ABAD exhibition, as well as many new entries from around the world, unified in their belief that art should be shared as often as possible. The exhibition will only be up for fie days, so if you want to check it out in person, do it quickly. Otherwise you will have to content yourself with Viv Maudlin's film about the exhibition.

ABAD Exhibition: CW Post, Long Island

Viv Maudlin reviews the Book About Death exhibition at CW Post. Opening today at 5 pm.

ABAD Idea

As 'A Book About Death' postcard homages to Ray Johnson pop up around the globe, the sharing of ideas reminds me of the recent explosion of TEDx conferences. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, is a lecture series that centers around the theme of ideas worth spreading. LIke the artistic 'think-tank' ABAD has inspired, TEDx is able to take on its own local persona while retaining the integrity of the overall concept. Although ideas are shared not unlike the interconnectedness of Facebook and Twitter, there is something inherently different about ABAD and TED's viral nature. Instead of being trapped behind the electronic screen, it's the physicality of ideas being exchanged in a space, a gallery, a conference center, a university, which transforms participants-- presenters and audience alike. WIth this in mind, please do drop by CW Post University Gallery for the upcoming ABAD exhibition which opens at 5 pm on Wednesday, November 3rd. As artist Louise Millman would say, it's ABAD idea.

A Book About Death: Palumbo Picasso

Only Louise Millmann could rope me into a performance piece. The latest A Book About Death Exhibition installment will be at CW Post University's gallery, in November and my submission is in the mail today. The opening on November 3rd, will include performance pieces as a tribute to Ray Johnson's work as a conceptual and performance artist. Johnson, whose 'happenings' were actually called 'nothings', staged everything from ladder carrying, clothing cutting parties, art protests, and fan club meetings as part of his performances, but it was his 'foot-long' hot dog drop over Long Island that captured our fancy. Millmann's dramatic alter-ego Viv Maudlin, is at the ready to serve up a creative event, so it was time for me to introduce Palumbo Picasso, my riff on Paloma, whom Johnson deified through the Paloma Picasso Fan Club and incorporated into many of his portraits. As to what Maudlin and Picasso do, you'll just have to show up and find out.

Studio Time

Finally I found myself with enough time and concentration to finish some work I started before Olivia's fundraiser. It's hard to believe that these bird images were started before the fundraiser. The top painting, Bird House, is for the upcoming December show at Ripe Art Gallery, where collage artist Louise Millmann and I will share the space since most of our friends are the same anyhow. The two collages below are for postcard exhibitions-- the Seatuck fundraiser in September and the Book About Death show at CW Post in Brookville, NY in October.