FRUIT SALAD AND BODY BAGS

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The military have all of these ribbon bars on their chest indicating that they, the company, or battalion were in a combat situation somewhere in some country, campaign, or war. This is sometimes called "fruit salad".  We're still sending bodies home. Soldiers are still getting killed every day, it never ends. I had to make a statement so I painted my own version of fruit salad except I added the black fields to represent body bags. Fruit Salad is such a pretty name for something that represents death.

FATHER NO FARTHER

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I shot this with a telephoto lens from behind the bar (Terminal Bar) looking out the side window. The guy drinking worked at the bar as a bouncer. He was a wino named Kojak. The other guy was 86ed because he was a troublemaker. I never let him in the bar.  Same with that woman...she was a pain in the ass. If these people are out on the streets drinking wine, I guarantee there were parental shortcomings along the line.

SPIRAL STAIRCASE

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This is a 6th floor walkup in Paris that was my 64th birthday present. My wife rented this five hundred some odd year old historic landmark with no fire escape. Our first shlep up we were shown how to unlock the apartment door because the last couple couldn't figure it out. That night we had to call the landlady because we got locked in.

CHILD'S PLAY

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I shot this photo of the Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial during a visit to see my eldest son at American University in Washington DC. I set up to take the picture when this woman rolled up, dressed in red, white and blue. A year later I was inspired to do the mat using the Jacks (or really the Jerks) as the leaders, led by the king and queen who are ultimately led by the Joker. Next to the Joker is a Fetus which is what the leaders are destroying.

BULLSHIT

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It's a sad story. Viet Nam 60,000 military deaths. Korea 50,000. You want the Civil War? 600,000, that's more than the WWII. Duty, honor, country, yeah that's what generals say. The soldier has no choice. All these wars are fought over money, borders, or religion, aka bullshit.

UNISPHERE

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In 1999 my wife and I went to visit my mother at a nursing home in Queens. Afterwards we stopped in Flushing Meadows so I could shoot the Unisphere. In the late 60s, my wife and I went to the Singer Bowl (before the Tennis Stadium was built) and saw The Doors and The Who perform. I was always intrigued by the Unisphere which was built for the 1964/1965 World's Fair and represented global interdependence. This is also called The House of Cards, as most people know what that could mean in relation to the world.

YANKEE STADIUM

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In the 70s my family and I shlepped to the Bronx to see the Yankees. I took this shot because I liked the way the two kids were silhouetted with the stadium in the background. Once again I used playing cards to decorate the mat, but this time using only the diamonds. The seams of the baseball were taken from a pattern I found at the art store. On the outside corners I placed asterisks because of the constant publicity about the baseball players who were taking steroids and the debates as to whether an asterisk should be placed next to the players in the record book indicating their performance may have been unfairly enhanced. In my opinion, I don't really care. They didn't do it for Roger Marist who broke Babe Ruth's record in 162 games where Ruth did it in 154.