Sean Qualls

I recently had the honor of working with the staff of the Arne Nixon Children's Library at Fresno State. In the main office was a small collection of original illustrations by Sean Qualls from a book called "Poet Slave of Cuba, I instantly fell in love with their mood and scribbled his name down.

 His smudgey lines and splotchy colors create a texture that is stirring. No wonder Qualls has received numerous awards for his books and illustrations.

Qualls' Blog hosts a series of portraits he made just for Black History Month, see Zora Neale Hurston below. Exquisite and Inspiring.

Please see more works or purchase an original at seanqualls.com

Park Slope and Dead Horse Bay!! NY part 4

Click on any image to see a much larger version.

A few things we realized after a week in NY. 1) Cats do not live in NY, well they do, but they have to live on the roof. We saw two cats the entire time and about 3,000 dogs. Both cats were prowling rooftops 2) NY women still wear the tight black leggings with knee high boots and 3) Even though it is illegal to leave dog poop on the sidewalk, you still need to watch where you step.

Sunday we headed out to find a few record shops. Surprise surprise we found a food truck convention in Grand Army Plaza.

There was something like 25 trucks here.

The Van Leeuwen ice cream truck! 10 am is a good time for Van Leeuwen.

gianduja ( the ice cream guy said, " it's like john-do-ya' want some ice cream?") and vanilla

I've heard a lot about the Park Slope Flea Market and was totally stoked to stumble across it. We found a handful of records, and some small treasures (small because that's all my luggage would allow at this point) The rest of the day we explored close to Brooklyn then went out to our reception at Max Fish. 

But Monday. oh Monday was for exploring. We took bus B44 down to flatbush and then hopped on Q35 towards Rockaway, hopped off right before the bridge and found the trail head for Dead Horse Bay.

Dead horse bay has been on the top of my list for a long time,

but it's not every day that you just happen to be in Brooklyn.

I've been dying to see it in person for years now.

The history is incredibly fascinating and all the treasure I've seen other people find make my fingers twitch like Gollum.

And here we are

dream come true.

 

Our first unbroken bottle. This side of the bay was very low key, tide was in so there wasn't a whole lot available.

Leather soles last a long time.

Dentures

I have never in my life seen one of these horse shoe crabs in person before. He was dead. 

Man, I'm so broke I got sand coming out of my wallet.

Pantyhose, or stockings from the mid 40's maybe even earlier, are filled with sand and strewn everywhere, tangled into every branch and making it frustrating to untangle interesting things from them.

I was glad we met up with these guys. The older guy has been visiting since he was 13 and had amazing stories about the objects we came across. Behind him are rocks that were used to pave some of the streets and sidewalk areas of NY.

So Dead Horse Bay is a national wildlife refuge which means it's illegal to remove natural objects from the area. In this case it seems like this entire beach could be cleaned, since it all is garbage. But, since it's been part of the landscape since the 1920's or so the local government has just deemed the whole mess a grey area and won't let any local groups do waterway cleanups of any kind in this area, even if it is to remove the newer garbage. Is it illegal or not? It was suggested we put things in a plastic bag then tuck it away before we left the area.

We also met up with two other pickers, they both came over and brought me things they had found, an interesting bottle and a jewish medallion. This is the side of the bay that faces the ocean. We were told that Hurricane Irene eroded a lot of the land and exposed some new things on this side.

We stopped hunting to have some lunch on the windy sand bank.

See that brown layer just under the grass, it's entirely made up of old paper and garbage of every variety.

I found an old cap gun.

Sifting like miners we came across old metal tubes of toothpaste, interesting bottles, small glass pieces that came from chandeliers, animal bones, a few buttons and coins, ceramics, depression glass, ornate metal doorknobs, light fixtures, roller skates, ceramic figurine, small plastic toys, scissors, tools, rusted up old irons, thousands of clocks, silverware, and tons of old slate and tile.

We stayed out there long enough to catch some low tide action. We came home with two bags full of small treasures we couldn't pass up and had such a good time figuring out what all this rusted up stuff was and discovering some interesting historical treasures. It was fascinating to see how certain things decay more than others and it really made me reconsider everything that I take for granted that will eventually end up in a dump somewhere.

Our collection made it home. Zach was sweating bullets about the gun in my luggage, but that's another story. Thanks for reading and looking! I love sharing with you.

Art smart in NY part 3

Again, pictures from the interwebs because I don't take pictures when I'm hungry.

 Tom's Saturday morning breakfast was high on the list of must do's for Brooklyn. We walked over and jumped in a short line for some super yummy french toast and walnut apple pancakes. This was the line when we left. Does that prove how good it is, or what? We jumped on the subway, not really sure where we would get off, and found ourselves coming up into Grand Central Station.

I want to recreate this on my bathroom ceiling.

On the way to MOMA I can't help loving the old architecture tucked amongst the new. 

The following images are things I really liked at the MOMA. Yay for staff passes. We got in for free!

on the left is the decoder. Every moon phase represents a letter. Thanks RHFleet for hammering these phases into my head.

Graffiti Taxonomy. The letter S as seen in NY streets, note the recreated source underneath.

Click to see a larger version. Original Hobo symbols are an important form of communication.

these last two were part of an incredible exhibit called Talk To Me.

Eva Hesse is mind blowing in person.

Chinatown, as we walk to Max Fish. This lovely sky was intoxicating.

Boom!

Justin, Jake and Rocko. Swipple in action.

It was so nice to see some real work from fellow Swipplers, as opposed to online pictures. This stuff was inspiring. Zach's pink Polaroid up top.

Jim Damron and Zach's cat.

Zach's collection of Assholes next to my triangle piece. 2 sold right off the bat.

What you can't see in these pictures is my work sandwiches a John Ahearn original.

My work, Jason is still hanging prints. Up, up, to the left. perfect.

Max Fish is hands down the funnest place I've ever shown my work. Now Imagine it full of people and that was the reception. Zach and I both sold some work right away and we met some great people.