My Show at the Airport Gallery

Road to the Light

48 x 60

I have a show at the Tallahassee Airport that starts this week and runs through the end of September. The title of the show is “Vanishing Landscapes” which is kind of a theme for me. That was the title I gave the Cultural Resource Commission back a year and a half ago when I applied for the show. It really turned out to be more about St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. All of the paintings are either painted at St. Marks or are from photographs and studies done at St. Marks. Because the space is in the main concourse I needed big pieces to get the attention of passers-by. So there are a bunch of big pieces. I am also putting together a map of St. Marks with dots that indicate the inspiration for the image. I am putting all of this together and now I have separate section of my website with all of the paintings and prices.

I dropped off the pieces this morning and returned this evening to take at look at the show. Here is a photo. I like it. It's great space.

One of the problems with this venue is that it is logistically almost impossible to set up a traditional ‘opening night’. That’s good and bad. Every artist has dreams of having an opening, (preferably at a famous SoHo Gallery) and every piece is sold that night!! Cha-ching, cha-ching. But really, let’s be realistic that ain’t happening. (Although I will do a super big discount on the lot.) So there won’t be opening. But I’m always available to meet someone out there and talk about my art. So email me, or put comment at the bottom or on the website and we’ll set up a private opening. Bottom line: I paint because I want to paint. I like to create. I like to try to communicate something to someone else through paint -- something of the place, of the time of day, of the experience of being there. One crucial part of that equation is that someone else has to see it besides me. So having a show answers that part of the process. Go take a look. Most of the pieces were created within the last year and half. I love St. Marks. I hope you feel that love.

Thanks for looking.

"End of an Era"

8 x 10

The last shuttle is coming home this week. It is the end of an era. Growing up in Titusville I am very familiar with space exploration and the space industry. As a kid I use to watch the Saturn Five rockets that transported the Apollo program into space and onto the Moon. Now those things were really big fireworks! You could feel them take off. When there was launch during school we would line up on the hill at Whispering Hills Elementary School facing east and watch the rocket head up through the sky. When the Apollo program was really going there would be wall to wall Winnebago’s done at the river waiting for the launch. Our little league fields were right down on the river so after games we would walk around between all the RV’s.

Between undergrad and law school I got a job at the Cape. I actually worked on the first space shuttle. My Uncle worked for NASA and helped me get a job with McDonald Douglass putting tiles on the shuttle. I worked on the rear upper elevon. I was a thermal protection mechanic. It was really interesting work. And it paid a lot more than the average summer job. Plus there was tons of overtime. For a while we were doing twelve hour days. That was tough. I don’t know how you could do that for longer than a couple of weeks.

I remember the Challenger disaster. I was driving home from work for lunch listening to the launch on NPR. My oldest son was only about 10 days old. When a got home my Mom was there with my wife and we turned on the TV and watched the coverage.

This painting is of the shuttle on the number 39 B. That’s the pad that is closest to Playlinda Beach which is the Titusville beach. That’s the south side of Canaveral National Seashore. You have the natural beauty of unspoiled and undeveloped land and the magic of the newest most modern technology. So in this painting I was trying to show the new technology against beauty of the land. Hope I got there.

Thanks for looking.

"Across the East River"

48 x 48

I wrote about the show at the airport later this month. This is another one for the show. It's big. The show is centered around the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge which is on the coast South of Tallahassee. It's a beautiful place. Every one of the paintings is an image of the Refuge or a view from the Refuge. My plan is to put a "you are here" map together to show where each painting was conceived (hhmm . . . not sure that's the right word). Anyway most of them are big and they are St. Marks. The painting above is the view from the road about a quarter mile from the lighthouse. If you stop your car there and look to the west you will see the East River and St. Marks River as they exit into the Gulf. There is a broad sweep of marsh and islands made when they dug the channel for the St. Marks. It's a really good place to pause and look, especially when the sun is setting. Hope you can make plans to go to the airport sometime during the show. I am thinking about designating a certain time when I'll be out there to talk about the work and answer any questions. If there's interest I'll set something up and put it on my website and facebook. Send an email or leave a comment and let me know. Is there a place out there to get a cup of coffee without having to do a strip search?

Thanks for looking.