This was my art studio around the year 2000, right after I left New York. I rented this house in Gainesville for about what I would have paid in rent for a railroad apartment in Hoboken. New York was cool but I decided it wasn’t the best place for me to be. This house was just three blocks from UF’s campus, which meant I had a lot more visits from friends that hadn’t graduated or left town yet. Everyone that visited said the house was peaceful. Despite the burglar screen on the front door ;-)
That’s my painting in-progress on the right. You can see the big vat of joint compound on the table. This was the first time I painted with joint compound. It’s easy to shape and I was pleased with the result. The bottom portion of this painting is a layer of cardboard, which I may have sewed on. The sky incorporates sand and lacquer. I’m all about mixed-media. The finished painting is somewhere in Los Angeles, maybe. Like most of my art, it could be anywhere by now. I lose touch with my drawings, paintings and sculptures when I lose touch with the people that own them.
The painting on the left is Claudia’s. She’s a scientist and art collector now. Blake Harrison once had a MFA critique of his prairie paintings in the room off to the left. Providence LeGrand-Fenn occasionally worked on a sculpture in the adjacent dining room. I had a small Delta band-saw, drill-press, chop-saw, clamps, chisels and other tools in there. So I wasn’t just painting. I was making lamps and jewelry out of wood with a custom jig. And building and stretching canvases, which is an involved process in itself. Alison Eager came over too, another painter. Overall it was a creative environment.
I also had a really large canvas on the opposite wall that was just too large and it started to sag. That was an important lesson. I ended up chopping that in half, into two 4’x2′ canvases that I gave to Fiorella for her class with Jerry Cutler. She showed me one of the paintings when I visited her briefly in Ft. Lauderdale, and it was beautiful. Next time I’m in Miami, I want my easel back! Haha. I was also into photography back then. I’ll post a few more photos here soon. This is actually a digital photo of a 35mm print.
