Opening Day

Center Field, Shea Stadium (2006-7), oil on canvas, 40x48in.

Finally, another baseball season has started, and we can put that horrific September permanently behind us. Let's go, Mets!

Anything

"Anything can happen."

"Yeah, but the most likely thing usually does."

Magic Act

2005, oil on canvas, 16x18in.

Traffic Barriers

2001, oil on canvas, 24x34in.

Embrace

2006, oil on panel, @6x8in.

Ohio

Ohio turnpike (2002), oil on canvas, 40x48

I grew up on the south side of Toledo, Ohio. It was a good place to grow up, and it's a great place to take my son a few times a year, to see his cousins, aunts and uncles and grandmother. We're pretty spread out but we all make the effort to get together when we can.

Homecoming (2000), oil on canvas, 72x42in.

I loved playing football.

Prom (2003), oil on canvas, 54x60

Snowscape (2004), pastel, 22x30in.

The view of the alley across from my parents' house. I think we must have moved into that house when I was in about second or third grade. My mother still lives there.

Doorway (2006), oil on canvas, 26x36in.

I think a lot of the black and white work I do, with imagery from old movies, must have something to do with watching movies as a kid, sometimes late at night, maybe in the basement. I like the weird blue glow that comes off the screen when you watch an old black and white movie late at night. I remember seeing that blue glow in the windows of other houses at night. I liked monster movies and I loved Jimmy Cagney movies. If a Cagney movie were on late at night, my mother would let me go to bed early, then she'd wake me up in the middle of the night so I could watch it. A different world before dvd's and videocassettes. During PBS pledge drives, they often played the earliest Hitchcock films that my mother loves, and I remember staying up with her to see The Lady Vanishes, The 39 Steps, or the original version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. The image above comes from a movie nowhere near as distinguished as those.

Go Go

2003, oil on canvas, 54x60in.

House

2007, oil on canvas, 18x20in.

Help

Gorilla with woman (2007), oil on canvas, 54x60in.

Injuries are a part of the game. Yeah, we all know that. But it's getting a little ridiculous down in Port St. Lucie. I'm not worried yet. Who was counting on Alou to stay healthy anyway, and I think Beltran will be ready. But at this rate, Mr. Met himself will be on crutches soon.

***

Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass

I got priced out of DUMBO in 2003, after ten years of renting studio spaces down there. Old codger voice: when I first moved in, there were packs of feral dogs roaming the streets. That's really not an exaggeration. I missed DUMBO when I first left, and sometimes I'm a little jealous when i see all the cool shops and bars and restaurants down there now, but mostly I've come to terms with leaving. I have a private, cozy [read: very small] space in downtown Brooklyn with great light that's closer to home, close to my son's day care, and close to my job. I don't mind reading in today's NY Times that Walentas gives a lot of great arts organizations down there [St. Ann's, DAC, Smack Mellon] breaks on their rent. But it's a little annoying to hear about some guy who lives in Arkansas and rents a 1,400 square foot studio space in DUMBO. Yeah well, cry a river, right? The important thing is getting the Mets healthy.

Overpass

2002, oil on canvas, 40x50in.

Empire II

2005, acrylic and ink on paper, 22x30in.