A few years ago I was spending too much time in my studio alone. It’d be healthier to go out and ride the busses and just look at people. Styrofoam cups were convenient; they provided a cover, and more and more, a challenge. I liked that they turned my bus voyeurism into a sort of improvised performance of making indelible marks on a pedestrian form, with a beginning and an end. The cups don’t tell a story, intentionally at least. They’re more a random gathering of notes; some, fleeting, onetime perceptions; others, riffs, a bit more studied. I choose bus routes and schedules that offer particular opportunities to observe people. I like best rush-hour traffic that goes nowhere.
Biography
I was born in 1952 in Romania, transited through Italy in 1961, spent three years in Brazil, then came to the U.S. in 1964. I have always felt I retained a foreigner's sensibility. I suppose that makes me echt New Yorker.
1973 I started making art. My ambitions have been work-oriented and exhibition-phobic - decidedly one of my faults. Just the same, the main events:
1970 – 1975 Studied art at SUNY Binghamton, with Angelo Ippolitto (painting) and Charles Eldred (drawing)
1976 – 1980 Studied at the Art Students League in New York with focus on drawing and sculpture with Marshall Glasier and Jose deCreeft, respectively
mid-70's and 80's East Village group shows of uncertain title, location or date, alumni shows, etc. I showed expressionistic still-lives, cityscapes, portraits
1988 group self-portrait show at the New York Law School. My contribution was a series of "vector drawing" self-portraits, using a stylus/tablet for input and a wax printer for output. (Some of these vector drawings can be seen at www.dotcomties.com, under "older work".) Also included were a couple of traditional media self portraits
1990 two person show in New York at the Synchronicity Space Gallery, then on Greene St., where I showed landscapes from Samos, Greece and other paintings
1998 large group show in Rome, Italy, "Italiani in America". Showed landscapes, still lives, and a self-portrait. Strictly speaking I'm not Italian, but have Italian relatives, speak Italian, and have lived there, so no one objected to my pretending. Also contributed English translations to catalog and publicity materials
1997 – 2005 focused mostly on commercial design work for various tech start-ups. One of my archived flash sites survives almost intact at www.blinkonline.com
2003 Spent the year in Rome doing landscape paintings and drawings, drawn studies of sculpture, studying Italian, tango dancing and scooting around on my motorino. "La dolce vita!"
August 2013 group show: "Castleton Summer Show" in Castleton on Hudson, New York, exhibiting seven pieces from my "On the Bus" series
