THE GARBAGE CAN

Here's the 4th short film in the Terminal Bar series. It covers the last few years I worked at the Terminal Bar, after the newsstand on the corner was removed, I was able to get an unobstructed view of the garbage can on the corner of 41st and 8th ave. This new vista allowed me to shoot the outside action while standing inside behind the bar.

NO BODY, NOBODY

Click picture for larger | From Mats

When my son was at a diving meet somewhere in Virginia, I strolled outside the pool facility which was surrounded by nature and I saw this old, abandoned car. I liked how nature was slowly taking over. Six years later I unearthed the photo to make this commentary. Although it refers to the body of the car, it also refers to one's own body, which shouldn't be left unchecked. 

69

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Two years after I painted my first 69, I revisited the design using the paint-over-paint method, using only two colors, where the base coat of the blue field is red and the base coat of the red field is blue. The significance of 69 refers to the sexual act, and not the fact that I got married in '69, Yin and Yang, or a certain zodiac symbol.

IMPECKABLE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

As long as it's not on my roof, the rapid fire sounds of a woodpecker at work is pretty cool. What's cooler is how nature designed them to use their heads as hammers while making adaptations to prevent brain damage.

HOUSE of CARDS

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Recessions are part of a cyclical conspiracy run by Wall Street. The fix has always been in.

Stefan

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This is one of my earlier attempts at decoupage and paint. I think I was honing my skills because I had just produced (or was about to produce) my older son Cary's bar mitzvah sign-in board which was basically circular photos pasted around the outside of a mat board. This picture is that of my younger son Stefan who just lost his front tooth.

BLACK JACKO

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

This photograph came into the photo lab where I used to work and I made a copy for myself. I'm not sure what year this was, but it was somewhere between his transition from the original Michael Jackson to the pale alien thing he became.

The Twin Towers

The following are WTC pictures/mats I've created over the years.

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Asleep at the Wheel

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

A Wake, A Wake, Awake

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Promissed Land

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Twin Towers from NJ

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Twin Towers & Statue of Liberty

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

AMERWRECKA

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Back from my blog sabbatical just in time for independence day, I present you Amerwrecka. It's no secret that a common theme of my work displays disdain for many aspects of this great country, so this new painting can be no more topical...what's wrecking America?

PRODUCKTION

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Ducks, having a cosmopolitan distribution, are quite accessible to the nature photographer. I'm not sure exactly what kind of ducks these were, but they resided in one of my favorite places to visit: Lake George, NY.

IRON CROSS

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The iron cross is the highest decoration given to the German military. Bikers also use it to promote a tough-guy image. But this design was an accident...I started drawing out random lines until an iron cross materialized.

SLOW CHILDREN PLAYING

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Who spent all the money to put the U.S. in the hole? It's the gray haired mentally challenged clowns in DC. The mat says it all, and this was one of my earlier examples of decoupage, before I started using smaller circle punches.

RUSH HOUR

From Mats

I shot this in Amsterdam 10 years ago in the summer of 2001. I never saw so many bicycles before except when I was in the army stationed in Germany. I was in the armored division, in an engineer (E) company which builds bridges. We were in charge of 80 5-ton trucks, six tanks and six half tracks. Every month there was an alert (random drill) at usually 4 or 5 in the morning. So you had A, B, C, D, and E co, each with their own caravan of tanks and tractors and all this equipment which had to be mobilized. Imagine all the gasoline we needed in doing that.

HAIKU: Red Tulips #12

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

Amidst months of gloom
the clouds break and the sun shines
it's fucking springtime

SMOKING GUN

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

I took this shot from a moving car on the NJ Turnpike 22 years ago. I guess I was compelled because seeing this smoke spewing ceaselessly didn't sit right with me. And now all these nuclear plants in Japan are melting down and it reminds us how shortsighted we are and the risks we're exposing ourselves to.

Flamingo

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

The flamingo is the poster bird for the saying "You are what you eat".  Pink and orange flamingos eat algae that contain the same stuff that gives carrots their color.  I shot this is at Disneyworld exactly 30 years ago. 23 years later I punched circles in the from the same image to create its complementary mat.

WATER to WHINE

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

There's a wino crashed out on the steps of the church. Next to him is a bucket of water. My interpretation: he is asking Jesus for a little bit of that miracle magic.

GOTCHA

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

1981: When I was a bartender at the Terminal Bar, this fool used to look in the window all the time, like that. And I said (to myself) I'm gonna get his picture one day, and sure enough he came to the window and I went over and shot his picture. He was just this wild thing that was out there and I saw him for quite a few years. He was around a long time and he was surviving out there on the streets. But he couldn’t come in, no way, I'd just tell him to get the fuck out...and when Jersey (the bartender) was there, I didn’t have to do anything. Jersey would just stand in the back and yell "get the fuck outta here." I mean, it would take only a second. If the guy didn’t move, Jersey would come on out...(end of story).

SNAKE EYES

From Mats

question: What happens when you shoot snake eyes?
answer: You're a loser.

RAINBOW

Click picture for larger view | From Mats

A rainbow. There's no better sentiment to bring in the new year. To your health!