Yellow House (Potential 40 Units) Print

I first noticed the house depicted in this painting in 2016 and was visually attracted to the thin wood siding that marks single family homes in this area from the early 1900s, and the arched portico above the doorway. There are currently just a few of these homes remaining along this busy corridor where this house sits, although most of them have been poorly absorbed into multi-use storefronts. When the house was boarded up, my interest shifted, and I became intrigued to learn what would become of the structure. In the adjacent lots immediately to the north and west, large condos were going up. The house was soon graffitied upon and the formerly manicured lawn was neglected. This juxtaposition was striking for my eye--to see a building that had seen over 100 years of local history change value so visibly. Online real estate records 5 state that the house was first sold to a developer and then listed by that developer for sale, with potential for the property to be divided into as many as 40 units. In starting this painting, I wanted to reference to the “Potential 40 units” that the Lee & Associates sale sign proclaims for future property development. I divided the full canvas into 40 equal rectangles and covered the dividing lines with tape, to be peeled off at the end of the painting process. These divisions also reference the modern urban grid, which city planners use to chart off blocks in a unilateral way. I have photos of the home from different moments in time that express various levels of care, and I printed these photos as reference to use in the painting process. My aim was to paint primarily in thin, translucent layers to evoke the years and memories that are embedded into the skin of the house and allow the story of the structure to continue in new fragmented forms.