Original artwork description:

This painting is constructed with paper, ink, paper bags, oil paint and oil stick, all sealed with a protective UV varnish. The sides are painted silver and it is ready to hang.

The Subway Sonnet series is inspired by my time growing up in Brooklyn and NYC in the 80s. Graffiti was all over from the old school telephone booths to the metal cages small business owners pulled down over their windows at night. It was all over the D train and Q trains that I took from Brooklyn into the city. There was an unintentional collaboration of marks coming from spray paint cans to stickers.

Over time these areas would get so filled up that new paint and stickers would be put on the surface and marks covered up of the previous “artists” there. These marks also told stories of the people who lived in these neighborhoods. I’m revisiting this vision when I paint. There is one mantra I keep at the forefront and then the rest follows (the one in this photo is love)

I work to find the right mix of what the painting is asking for, for it to be authentic and not fussy with the actual marks when a lot of thought actually goes into the piece before I picked up the paint. It’s challenging to take what is a random collaboration of paint, marks, paper, pieces and make it cohesive and balanced with the right amount of artless mark making.

“Cause down the shore everything's all right
You and your baby on a Saturday night
Nothing matters in this whole wide world
When you're in love with a Jersey girl”
.

Materials used:

oil paint and paper

Tags:

Featured by our Editors:

• Best of March