Out for Art

You are invited!

The Arts & Culture Collaborative presents:

Out for Art
Thursday, April 29:  5 to 7:30 p.m.
Goldsmith's Art & Frame Gallery
99 Bank Street, Waterbury

Networking, Artists' Showcase
Live Demonstrations
Prizes
Food, Drink, Music
Free-Will Donation
Discounted dining downtown at Signature's, 146 Grand St. Bistro and
Marquee Cafe.

Spread the word.  Bring a friend.  Tell your staff.  Hope to see you there!

Art Scam

I just stumbled across slightly old news stories from March concerning Lawrence Salander and his Madoff-like scheme to bilk millions of dollars from art collectors and investors. His basic operation was similar to that depicted in The Producers: selling percentage shares of artwork to trusting investors, but selling more than 100% worth of shares per artwork (so, for example, there could be five people who paid for a 50% share in a single artwork). His scheme was exposed by John McEnroe, the tennis player and now art collector. Since McEnroe was suing him because a painting he had purchased from Salander had outstanding liens against it, I'm guessing Salander had more than one type of scam going.

What brought my attention to the story was Arshile Gorky. After reading a NY Times review of a Gorky exhibit, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite paintings, Gorky's Pirate I.

Pirate was on view at the Mattatuck Museum for many years, a long-term loan from Jean Levy before it was sold at auction by the Levy estate. It's a fantastic painting, perfectly capturing the mess and smell and noise of Pirate, a dog, raiding a garbage can. I loved being able to spend time with it at the Mattatuck and I still miss it.

When I read the NY Times article about the exhibit, I naturally was reminded of Pirate I and did a quick internet search to see if I could find out where it is today. Imagine my dismay to learn that it had been confiscated by "the authorities" as part of the criminal investigation against Salander. Poor Pirate! Do "the authorities" have the proper storage facilities for the painting (it's said to be in the custody of a bankruptcy court in Poughkeepsie), or is it languishing in a standard police storage room next to a wide variety of evidence? I suppose it will be stuck in the evidence storage room until the case is over and the true ownership is established, which could take years.

More Art!

There's a slow but steady trend towards more and more art venues in downtown Waterbury, which is absolutely fantastic. Be sure to check out the Freight Street Gallery--finally, someone has converted one of our many factory spaces to gallery space!

Fridays!

It looks like everything is in place for me to spend most Friday afternoons this summer painting in the window at Goldsmith's, starting this week, noon to 5 p.m. Here's what I've got done so far on the horse fountain painting:



I'll do more on Friday, mostly with the trees.

Bank Street, Goldsmith's, and the Clock on the Green

I had a great time at Goldsmith's last night. It's too bad the weather was so cold, I'm sure we would have had a larger crowd. There's a lot of talk about making it a regular event, possibly monthly, which would be great. Since that section of Bank Street is closed to traffic, we could probably turn it into an evening street fair. I think the Elegant Evening concept is something people in Waterbury are looking for.

The completed painting of the clock on the Green is now at Goldsmith's where it will be framed next week.







Nothing has been finalized yet (at the very least, I need permission from work), but it looks like I might be painting in the window at Goldsmith's on Friday afternoons this summer. I think that would be a lot of fun (and it only took an hour last night to get used to being a window display). I've started a second large canvas, of the horse fountain, which a lot of people took interest in last night. If I work on that canvas in the window every Friday, it would probably take me the summer to finish. People could come downtown every Friday for lunch, then stop by Goldsmith's to observe my progress. Or stop by to observe my progress before going to an early dinner.

Goldsmith's is also interested in giving me wall space for my paintings. I'm in NYC all next week, but after that I'll put some effort into filling up the wall space. I might have to swipe two paintings currently at the Waterbury Club, plus the clock painting, the tiny cross painting, and then maybe I can get a handful of little canvases done quickly. I think I will also order a few things from my cafepress.com store to sell to people who don't want to buy online.

Things are looking up!

Bank Street Open House

Merchants on Bank and Grand Streets will be hosting an Open House on Thursday, May 28, 5-8 p.m. There will be a lot of great things to do and see. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. And, for those of you who follow my efforts to be an artist, you'll have the opportunity to see me do my thing--I'll be the "Live Artist Showcase" at Goldsmith's, and I'll have with me the newly-completed painting of the clock on the Green!