Benefit Exhibition at Maryland Art Place

I am honored to be included in the 11th Annual Benefit Exhibition at Maryland Art Place (MAP) this Friday, November 17th from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m.

This will be the second year I have been invited by MAP to exhibit my work in this festive show in which 50% of the sales benefit MAP and their mission to provide thought provoking, contemporary art and other cool things.

At last year's benefit I contributed a larger print (13 x 19") and two smaller prints (9 x 12"). But this year I wanted to submit three works that were more cohesive as a whole and all the same size (13 x 19" which includes the maple frame). My cohesion philosophy was based on a few things: 1) the concept of a beginning, middle and end, 2) the color blue, and 3) confident horizontals and strong verticals.

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The First Time We Met | Baltimore, MD | 2023

The beginning, middle and end, like all good stories, is the structure of my triptych. The beginning suggests an encounter (The First Time We Met), the middle hints at the good days, bad days (Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm), and the end alludes to closure, Act III (Curtains).

Is this a happy ending?

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Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm | Baltimore, MD | 2023

On another level, The First Time We Met, was captured in Pigtown and was literally the first time I walked this wonderful neighborhood in March, 2023. Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm was taken in Old Gaucher in July, 2023 and was the second time I shot this location, so I knew what I was getting into, and of course, the weather was as reported—mostly sunny skies with an occasional thunderstorm. Curtains was taken downtown in May, 2023 and is probably a five minute walk from MAP with the title character of the photo being a wide swatch of curtain seen through a window looking up to: nothing but blue.

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Curtains | Baltimore, MD | 2023

When all three images are lined up side-by-side, there is a through line of horizontals and verticals. For example: The First Time We Met (Act I) has confident horizontals by way of the glass bricks which pair nicely with the third string of red-white-and-blue streamers in Mostly Sunny Skies With an Occasional Thunderstorm (Act II) and continues through the building reflected in the window of Curtains (Act III). And the vertical line in the middle of Act I flirts with the confident flagpole in Act II and foreshadows the climax of the vertical blues in Act III.

And yes, it’s a happy ending.

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Preach

Sundays are my favorite day to take pictures.*

The Gift was composed outside a church in Pigtown on a Sunday in October. There was a group of folks conjugating in front of the temple when I walked by, so I slow rolled without taking a photo hoping to return later in the day. The thing that drew me to the sign was the florescence of the humble letters. There was a warmth and timelessness to the message, even though I wasn't totally sure what it meant. My goal was to capture the feeling, and do the research later.

I learned that the message was referencing a verse from the Bible (Ephesians 2:8) and in short it means: By the grace of God we are forgiven from all sins through faith in Christ.

Heavy.

To be honest, I don't go to church, but I have used the expression seeing Jesus! when dancing into the wee hours, which in this regard makes me a—faithful devotee. Our lives are diverse and if the Bible is your guiding light? Alright, alright, alright. I believe everything is connected; we are all one people, one flower, one star. Do unto others (Luke 6:31). Amen.

Now, let's go shake that booty! It's about to be a sermon up in here.


* Because they are quiet (like a church mouse).

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Thanks for Inviting Me

It was your wedding day.

I always thought you and I would be a couple. Buy us a brownstone on 116th in Harlem. Sell it for a million dollars and move to Echo Park. Get a convertible and drive PCH whenever we wanted. Write that screenplay together in our bathing suits and drink lattes all day. Stay up late watching French films in that midcentury-modern we talked about, remember, the one with the fireplace and the view of downtown? Your art would brighten our walls and my best sellers would lively up the shelves. And we would get stoned and listen to Harry Belafonte on the Hi-Fi. Naked in the hot tub, candle drips and patchouli sunsets, ecstasy and laughter. Oh the laughter, but alas, not from the bellies of our children. You wanted to raise a family and I wanted to be Charles Bukowski.

We almost had everything.

I picked these blossoms for you. Aren’t they dreamy? I still have the self portrait you painted for me. It's in storage right now. Things haven't been going exactly the way I expected. I'm renting an apartment in Burbank with a friend from college. I sold the Volkswagen, but I can still take a bus to Santa Anita. When I get my book deal, I'm going to buy that place we always wanted, you know, with the swimming pool and the herb garden?

You look happy.

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