Subway Sonnet No. 30 | Nothing But Flowers Painting

Subway Sonnet No. 20 | Nothing But Flowers Talking Heads played at the Mudd club in 1979. I was in high school and had a fake ID and won't say I snuck into the Mudd Club because I did show an ID lol They have always been a favorite and their songs were also often played at the clubs in the city I went to.... One song has been standing out in my mind lately- "Nothing but Flowers" I created this painting with this song in mind and on repeat. You kind of got to look hard - but you will get it, especially if you love David Byrne... This piece is created with oil, paper, soft pastel on museum wrap canvas with a 2 1/2 " profile with a UV protective varnish. The sides are painted and it is ready to hang. More on this series: In my new series of paintings, I work to create a visual narrative that is derived from memories of growing up in the projects in NY late 70s and 80s. I clearly visualize the utilitarian canvas of aluminum and stainless steel deployed by city architects and industrial designers of every public resource provided to Brooklyn’s working classes in the form of subway car, public telephone, ATM, elevator, restroom cubicle and the rolling steel cages that secure the neighborhood stores after closing. Mark-making in these paintings emulates the process by which all these metallic surfaces became the backdrop for the graphic history of the neighborhoods as they became adorned with the textural and visual imagery. “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls -(Sounds of Silence, 1964). In this environment the sharpie, self-adhesive sticker, pasted hand-bill and aerosol paint can can quickly communicate and populate an entire neighborhood overnight promoting local punk rock bands and their gigs, political messaging, self-expression and the advertisement of services from 24-hour plumbers to local sex workers. My paintings feel as if they have been created by random collaboration in the same way public telephone booths and trains quickly filled up with stickers and graffiti. The surface is archaeological, stratified with graphic artifacts as some, previously placed, are torn away and others overlaid upon existing iconography. The picture plane is scratched and eroded and scrawled upon. Song lyrics and Shakespearean quotes share the same space with philosophy and street slang. There is rough poetry in the un-painterly rhythm and coarseness of this approach.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:30 W x 40 H x 2.5 D in

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