Open for Criticism

I'm reworking my web presence at www.slshaw.info. I could get by with a little help from my friends. All comments, criticism and heckling welcome. Thanks!

Broadway and Houston

An interesting art concept appeared at the corner of Broadway and Houston. It is a series of chain link fences (lots of construction there). The fences are decorated with a series of pop in plastic squares. The squares together create some pixilated images further enhanced by the passers by. I'm sure it's someone's art work but I can't find out who. I guess I'll just enjoy it. Now there's a concept!

Art School Tech

You see all kinds of things in an art school but this is the first time I've seen anyone using their cell phone camera to zoom in on the details of a model.

In the movies...

It's becoming movie season here in New York again. You can find a movie or television show being shot here any day of the week. In the city the hot number right now is the launch of "Sex in the City:The Movie." These are some of the famous location spots: Barneys, 113-115 7th Ave, City Bakery, 3 W 18th St (you have to taste their marshmallows, and besides, Maury's been on Martha), Magnolia Bakery, 401 Bleecker Street, Restaurant Florent, 69 Gansevoort St (sad to say, closing—we will miss you very much), Sushi Samba, 245 Park Ave at 20th St, Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain and Loeb Boathouse, Bryant Park, 40-42nd Street between 5th and 6th Aves and the West Village's Perry Street. Oddly enough I ran into this film crew or rather they almost ran into me as they drove around Manhattan, crossing paths three times in a single day.

Color Blind

The Colorist is experiencing a spot of color blindness—not the kind where you can't see color but a summer equivalent of snow blindness (Niphablepsia). The Inuit carved goggles from caribou antler perhaps we should cut slits in our metro cards and wear them in front of out eyes.

Ocular Raindrops

It was raining this morning and wet with opportunity. The Colorist never misses a chance for visual inhalation of color. I wonder what an appropriate term might be? Performing an ocular inspection perceptible by the sense of sight? Inhaling the property by which vision can distinguish between objects that are similar or identical in size and shape? And diluted by the rain is it an inhalation of hue, shade, tint or tone?

Near and Far

Basha Kill is one of those places that's peaceful and vast. The surprising thing is that it is only an hour and a half from New York City. I offer this by way of apology for falling off the blog log. At least we fell into very clean water as you can see. Dried off and back in the city, expect some furious posts over the next few days. we have a lot to catch you up on...

Art for oil? or Oil for art?

Shepard Fairey rings in again with a VERY topical poster rendered in Fairey's totemic style. Once again, his placement on my local news stand brings art to all the people.

NYFA conference

This time the NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) conference was about a subject dear to out hearts— "Money". We looked at the funding world, a guide to project budgets, a discussion on pricing your work, and an overview of sales. Even more interesting was the afternoon panel, where artists who make a living from their art discussed their process. It was a individual as the artists themselves, Eve Mosher, Jean Shin and John Zinsser. Perhaps my future is as a dog portraitist?

Discarded Information

Artists seek and take what they need and discard what doesn't matter. John Dubrow, one of my favorite painters, uses a palette knife to reduce a scene to it's essentials. These photos, taken through greenhouse glass, are of of John and Kurt rescuing Elise and myself after a lockout. You can tell that from the photo, right?

Red and green and black and white and Blue Hill

Recently we went to dinner at a farm/restaurant upstate in Poncantico Hills, the Blue Hill at Stone Barns . It was a grand experience. Farm to table in a most elegant way. A restaurant imbued with "humanity and fervor" and as they say, the opportunity to be active participants in not just eating, but in agriculture.

No place like Home

Home, homeless and in between. These two images struck me as emblematic. A pictorial rant exhorting yet threatening with bats. A temporary home emblematic of the transience of cherry blossoms. All the while, the city flows on unmoved.

Rhythm and Lines

Sometimes, musical phrases play in a corner of my mind. During errands, I snap visual echoes of that music as I walk about. Today I was channeling Steve Reich, whom I've been listening to in the studio. "Different Trains" is lovely music to paint to—arcs of sound and rhythm.

The Colorist at the Car Wash

O.k., o.k. I couldn't pass on the polka dots. And if you really catch the color pox, take a gander at " Busby Berkeley's Polka Dot Polka.

Odd Signs of the Times

Vest Pocket Gardens

I always am amazed at the beauty of vest pocket gardens. Kurt and I stumbled one recently on east sixth street between B and C. There are a few in that neighborhood, one at the corner 6th and B with a wooden sculpture by Eddie Boros (20 years in the making) that is the subject of a recent controversy. It will be pickpocketed by the city—see it soon.

Getting in Shape

Art is like boxing. You have to get in shape and you have to stay in shape. One of the ways artists do this is by drawing. Even if you are an abstract artist, you draw. What drawing does is it makes you look and it makes you see.

I'm taking a portrait drawing class currently with James Cooper at the Educational Alliance. Today's image is of a charcoal self-portrait of the teacher with last week's model. Click through to Cooper's post of the portrait drawing class and see if you can guess which three I drew.

Mother's Day

Normally I hate made up holidays but when I saw this sticker in a cab declaring that New York loves women, well, I couldn't resist. So I send you my teenagers' message as it was told to me, "Happy Day, you Mother!'

Statuesque

New York, changing, mutating, like a giant coral reef, watched by stony Little Orphan Annie eyes.

Confessions of a Colorist

I can't help it. Like a cowbird or a rat I'm drawn to shiny things and color is what makes it shine.

Like a patient etherised upon a table...

I was at the doctor's office. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting... Lying there with no clothes but with a camera, the inevitable happens. Do you think that the patterns of the lights and window approach modern art a la Sol Lewitt? Minimalist and conceptual? Do you think that the ceiling tile above looks like it was decorated by an obsessive compulsive artist with a push pin who's also mashing in the wings of insects?

For the birds

Kurt has his birds, eagles, hawks, herons et al. I have my pigeon. Slightly beat no less resplendant in blue black feathers and red gnarly feet.

The Devil Made Us Do It

Capturing the wonderful flipside at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. We didn't care how many danced on a pin. When we got back to the studio we found out that we shot 666 pictures ...