On The Road

This seems to be the time of year for library book sales and this past weekend I made my way to Danbury Public Library Annual Sale up in Connecticut. I have to say it was a little overwhelming when I first walked through the doors. With over 30,000 books, this was perhaps the largest sale I have been to.

It was so large they provided each visitor with a floor plan, which identified all of the different sections by topic, with corresponding row numbers. I noticed they even had a designated “holding” area where you could keep what you collected safely stored while continuing the search for more books.

After studying the floor plan I decided to hit the children’s book section first. These are really becoming my “go to” books since I started working on a new body of work a couple of months ago. I love the outdated textbooks, activity books and storybooks because of their illustrations, typography and language.

Most of my books came from this area, but I did manage to hit every single aisle, except for the fiction section… nothing of interest there. On my way out a woman in line near me asked if I heard about the Ridgefield Library book sale happening in a few weeks, which I did not. Of course I’ll be there!

In Progress

Another new piece that is almost finished. Changing up how I use color and incorporating more text and imagery with this one. Also the process of how I create the piece has changed. Creating the circles from a middle point and working my way out. So far I'm pleased with the outcome and can see my work moving more in this direction.

On The Road

Had to visit BronxArtSpace this weekend to pick up some work that was in a recent show, so I decided to hit a couple of thrift stores in the area. I'm in search of much needed materials for a new circle piece I just started working on in the studio.

The first stop was at the Catholic Charities Community Thrift Store on E. 152nd St. The actual block the store was on turned out to be closed, for what appeared to be a block party, so parking was a challenge. After circling the area for a while with my partner in tow, I was finally able to park the car, in front of this beautiful building that turned out to be the Bronx Documentary Center.

BDC was founded in 2011 as a non-profit gallery and educational space devoted to documentary projects from around the globe! Coincidentally, the founder Michael Kamber will have 30 portraits on display at BronxArtSpace in a upcoming show titled Portraits of Survival.

Had a sneak peek at some of his work when we stopped in at BronxArtsSpace and these intimate photographs from conflict zones around the world were breathtaking! It opens on Wednesday, August 14th and he's also showing the photographic landscapes he made in the South Bronx during the 1980's.

When I finally did make it over to where the thrift store was located I found out it was no longer in business. Not a total loss though because being able to discover this new section of the Bronx and the BDC was well worth the trip.

After getting back in the car the next stop was the Salvation Army Thrift Store on 3rd Avenue. Have been there before, on one other occasion, and discovered it to be a gem for finding old record album covers for my work. Was not disappointed during this visit either and walked out with two large bags full of records!

Sold a piece from the show at the BronxArtSpace, discovered the Bronx Documentary Center and found some much needed collage materials... overall I would say it was a pretty good trip!