art town

Everybody always says that Montclair is an art town.

What does that mean?

I’m an artist.

I’ve been a full-time artist for pretty much my entire adult life.

The course has taken me here and there, to different cities at different times, to many different realms of the art world.

A lot of it was working with galleries; though maybe, by now, more of it has been acting independently doing public art projects.

At this time the path has led me here, to Montclair, and being 70, I’ve decided to make it the final stop on my train.

It just feels really right.

So this is all very new to me.

It’s all still kind of swirling around in my consciousness, with nothing really being decided yet as to which way to go.

I’ll tell you what I think to be my best idea so far.

I’m a master painter. I just am. I was born with a serious gift, and I never stopped pushing it. If you have that and do that with anything, you will master it.

This isn’t just my opinion. For all my life, everywhere I go, people who know drawing and painting, have always been seriously impressed with my work.

You don’t have to go to school to know great painting and drawing; better wine or good food.

One just needs exposure.

Most people do not get hardly any exposure to great drawing and painting.

It’s one of the reasons I dropped out of gallery world.

Being an artist, I have spent a great amount of time in galleries, either showing or viewing, and trust me when I say that hardly anyone spends hardly any time looking at a painting in galleries.

People just walk around in them.

Almost every morning when I walk into my studio and see the painting I’m working on, I’m hardly ever impressed. What the hell was it that I was so excited about yesterday?

Then I’ll sit down, stare at it, space out, think about whatever, and suddenly it will come alive.

Great painting is like that.

It’s like it is alive.

I see it as facilitating thought.

It will talk to you about whatever you want to talk about.

So I was thinking about this, and I was thinking: how can I provide the people of Montclair with this experience?

What I thought of is waiting rooms.

Or a public office, or a barbershop. Restaurants would be an obvious choice.

I’m thinking just one painting per location.

No prices listed; no advertising of locations.

The painting would hang for a year or so; whatever was agreed upon between us, which could change, as could the painting.

I have two series (in the projects folder on this website) that, should we go this way, I’d make available: Margaret’s Crosswalks and the Universe Series (on-going), most of which are available as I write this.

This is high-end art.

Spend any time with it, and you will come to understand something about that. It’s an experiential kind of a thing.

Ideally, I’d like to show in as many diverse locations as possible - all at the same time - as an approximation of everybody - everyone being equal.

Art Town.

May, 2023

If you are interested, contact me through this website. Ideally, I’m looking for people interested in sharing an art experience with their public. Considerations mostly apply to security and providing a thoughtful environment. Otherwise, I’d like the project to be as racially, financially, culturally, geographically (within Verona / Montclair) diverse as possible. Thank you for your consideration. I’d be honored to show with you.