On Tap

Brian Tomlin was the first Millville bar owner to have a vision for more than a tap room.  He envisioned a pub in the center of town that catered to the working class as well as local business people. He succeeded.

He recently sold the Old Oar House Irish Pub, but the ambiance and nature of the original live on.

The first thing Brian did when opening the pub was insist on 16 taps. They have since added more, bringing the total up to, I think, 22.

When I occasion the oar House, I generally sit at the bar. I generally wander in alone; my girlfriend doesn’t really like the place and I am not one to hang with crowds. I guess that’s the loner in me, alone even in a crowd.

I suppose that is why I like the image of the tap handles, I have wanted to paint this for years. each tap is alone in the midst of the others.

I might be criticized for the lack of detail (not only in this but all other paintings). Well, I don’t see any Brewery knocking down my door to give me money for product placement, sort of like Cuervo must have done with the most recent season of Dexter.

Hey, give me money and every one of those tap handles would say Budweiser! If you are a regular, you can name every brew. But the variety of choices is one of the reasons I like the Old Oar House. And one of these days when I have money, I will once again drink something other than Yeungling for $2.50 a pint! Presently, on the few occasions I have cash to spare for an hour out, I stretch it as far as I can.  I would much prefer a pint of Harp Lager.

Anyway – this is the latest in my Bar series of paintings. 18″ x 24″, oil on Masonite. This is NOT for sale for $50 – I like it too much. I should sell it for $300, but the first $100 walks with it!

$18,000 down the drain

Thank you, Michelle Post, for wasting $18,000 of the Millville Taxpayers’ dollars. But then why would you care? You don’t pay taxes in the City of Millville!

Your reckless case against the City of Millville, thrown out of court “with prejudice” is costing Millville taxpayers $18,000.

TrackRacket’s complaint against the city of Millville concerning enforcement of the city’s noise ordinance against the New Jersey Motorsports Park was dismissed by a Superior Court judge last week, but not before the city paid $18,500 in defense against the suit.

“With Prejudice” means that the case was baseless and without merit. It means that TrackRacketeer’s high price Philly lawyer, the one that stated publicly that they wanted the race track to just go away, did not do his homework. Or maybe he is merely a profiteer, willing to take money from anyone willing to pay.

“With Prejudice” means that not only was the lawsuit entirely frivolous, but so much so that TrackRackteers are prohibited from attempting to file another lawsuit on the same grounds.

Millville City Commission needs to be urged to go to court and be reimbursed for this unnecessary expense and financial burden on Millville residents. I think I know how four of the commissioners would vote.

another casualty

This abstract was titled “2012. It’s the end of the world as I know, and I could care less.”

It too met the coals on artist’s night last week.  I think this will be the last victim for a little while, as I concentrate on creating new work. I have only done two new Bar Series paintings, for my next Bar Exam book. (Enter this code – D3BS4QRJ – for a $2.00 discount if you order now!)

“The Forgotten“, a painting I did of Higbee’s Marina in Fortescue, sold yesterday.  I have to do more of those, I guess, if I want to make some money.

“Forgotten Sisters” is still available to the first $50 that is offered.

I still have a basement full of paintings, unframed but done on gallery wrap canvases (they don’t require frames) ready to be hung. Make an appointment – they are dirt cheap!

Original Sin

When the creative juices begin to flow, there seems to be no staunching them.

“Original Sin” consists of the jaw bone of some unknown animal; the beheaded, quadriplegic torso of a female doll; porcelain china that I think is really collectible (until I got through with it); and a porcelain figurine of mother Mary wrapped in rusted wire.

People accuse me of being an anti-papist or anti-church. Perhaps because I am. Some have gone so far as to whisper that I must have been raped by a priest in my childhood. Sorry to crush you hopes, but, nope! While I was christened and baptized a Catholic, I have the paper somewhere to prove it, I was never raised as such. Shy of having the water sprinkled on my head – and I don’t really remember that, I was too young, I have stepped foot in the Catholic church only for weddings and funerals. And I try to avoid both unpleasant situations as much as is possible.

Oh, and trust me, Catholic priests are not the only men of the cloth capable of anally assaulting young boys. And the pope is not the only religious leader capable of looking the other way when such crimes are perpetrated by underlings. And I do have a real problem with an ex-Nazi heading up one of  the world’s leading religions.

But anti-Catholicism is not the impetus behind my sculptures that rely heavily on religious symbolism. For the record, I hold all organized religion in equal disdain. I have seen little good come from it. It seems that the outreaches of most larger churches serve one goal – to increase membership and fill the offering plates. I see little emphasis on the command to “remember the widows and orphans.”

I don’t attack anyone’s church or religion, you are free to worship as you see fit. however, the rest of us should also be granted the respect to be left alone, un-proselytized, to live our lives of perdition. People should be allowed to believe any fairytale they want, as long as it doesn’t negatively affect others.

Anyway – the message of this piece is left to your own interpretation.  I won’t pretend to know what the original sin was, or is. Somehow, though, I have to believe a politician was involved!

New Art Scam Warning

Warning to all artists out there with contact information on their websites: it is that time of year again. Another Nigerian 419 type scam aimed at artists.

The email is from an alleged Michelle Campbell (mcamp.landslide@gmail.com). It begins:

comment: Good day to you.

I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing these creative artworks from you…………………

It continues that they want to purchase several paintings, just tell them the price and discount, and they will pay via money order or check. There are details that she is moving to South Africa – that detail never seems to change in these scams. Is that one of the classes they teach at email scam school?

Anyway – I always advise to respond and name an absurd price for the paintings. In a day you will have, overnight mail, a check well in excess. Don’t even think about trying to cash the check, it is a fake. But they will then begin a series of emails demanding a repayment of the excess submitted through Western Union to “pay the moving company”.

It really can be fun to tell them you don’t trust Western Union, and is there another way to send the payment, etc. It ties up their time, and at the very least you cost them $10 for overnight postage.

Check out the Art Scam Blog, and post your experiences.

Up in Smoke…

I am not one to wax nostalgic about the good old days, they weren’t that fucking good! I despise repressive people and groups such as Millville Me First who fight against any and all progress, while opining for the good old days.  Those days are gone, and good riddance.

This is what these groups want to do – they want to drag Millville back to the good old days, the days when you walked if you were not fortunate enough to own a horse and carriage; where you feared polio, tuberculosis, and where pneumonia was a death sentence because penicillin had not been discovered.  They want to take us back to the Beaver Cleaver days, where racism was rampant and lynching a reality; where cars were cool but crashes deadly; where there were plenty of jobs but workplace safety was not recognized as a right for the worker.

But enough of that bullshit, you are surely asking yourself what the painting in the chiminea has to do with this rant? That painting was my very first oil painting. I was 17 years old, in Mr. Gaynor’s art class, doing my own thing as always. I think I may have actually only completed one classroom assignment in my final year, opting instead to explore my own avenues.

Some people say I shouldn’t have offered this painting to the art gods in the fire. Why? There was no rational explanation forthcoming. The only rationale provided leaned to the fact that I should have saved it for sentimental reasons. Sorry, I am not the sentimental sort. Sentiment has no purpose in life whatsoever, it does not help one succeed to reach any goal. All sentiment does is prevent one for casting off shit that deserves to be cast off.

When I finally cast off this mortal coil, that painting will have absolutely no value to me. If it had any value to anyone else, they would have asked about purchasing it during the many open houses and art sales I have had. And face it, it is not even a good painting.  The horse is completely out of proportion, the ball of fire is amateurish – if you are dong a fantasy painting and trying to capture realistic elements, the elements should be realistic. The painting was quite embarrassing, actually, and so I bid it farewell.

The past is past, and sometimes you just have to leave it there.

Rebirth

“ReBirth”

Mixed-media, found object. Fred Kramer found boxes of ceramic doll parts in his trash-picking rounds, and obligingly parted with a bucket of body parts.

I love working with mixed-media, found objects if nothing more than for the creative freedom to construct without any rules.

Growing up my first favorite toy, and one of the few that I remember were Styrofoam building blocks. They were before the days when politically correct assholes took all of the fun out of growing up. I had toys with small parts. I had toys that shot projectiles at fairly high rates of speed. But liberal do-gooders just had to protect the mentally deficient, taking away Mother Nature’s role of weeding out the unworthy.

\I think there is a certain hypocrisy in being a liberal, atheistic, supposed believer in Darwin, but refusing to accept the theory of “survival of the fittest”. Let the chips fall where they may. Push the sickly and weak out on an ice float, let nature dictate the course.

But I digress.

After the Styrofoam (oh, so bad for our environment!) building blocks, my next cool toy was an Erector Set. I always enjoyed building things – but never according to the instructions included. They always gave you too many parts, anyway!

So I guess it is no wonder that I gravitate towards assemblage and found object sculptures. This particular art form allows me to explore my darker and more frivolous side, creating whimsical sculptures that somewhere convey a more serious message, somehow.

Simplicity is the rule I adhere to, with my sculptures. Minimalism rules the day. I try to avoid over-thinking, or adding too many components. The less, the better. I suppose I get that from my dad. My father ingrained me with the adage “KISS – Keep it Simple, Stupid.” I prefer my version, Keep it Simple, Shithead!

I don’t get much more simple than this!

In My Dreams

This particular clown head has found its way into several pieces, all deconstructed now.

Unlike my paintings, which all either sell, get painted over, or burn – my three-dimensional mixed-media assemblages either sell, or become fodder for other pieces. I have a few that I like so much that they adorn the house. I can’t say that about my paintings – there are really none that I like enough to hang. Liz says she likes some, but since they are not hanging, I suspect that she doesn’t like them ‘that much’.

No big deal, let them burn.

This piece was actually much larger, and a piece of crap. I hated it – it contained too many parts. When something gets too intricate, I shy away. Adding too many pieces to a found object sculpture, in my humble opinion, is like overworking a painting. When it is done, it is done; don’t try to make it better.

I finally ripped off all of the extraneous bits that did not scream to me “I belong!!!” and ended up with this. The box, the clown and three holes. I added glass marbles to the three holes, and “it is finished”. Didn’t somebody famous say that? I don’t think they were clowning around…

The Harvest

I reaped the harvest from the back forty today!

Yep, this is not photo-trickery or Photoshopism. This is an untouched, manipulated photograph of our tomato harvest.

Fuck “As Seen on TV”! I usually dig a hole and dump some cow shit into it, add some more dirt, and plant a tomato plant. I put a wood stake in the ground, or maybe a piece of scrap metal, anything to use as a stake. I have always gotten good tomatoes, foiled only by ‘the rot’ every once in a while.

This year we decided to to the planter where the tomatoes grow out the bottom of a hanging planter. We used the recommended fertilized soil for the project, and watered the planter regularly.This is our fucking harvest – no kidding! What a waste of money!

Dismissed with Prejudice

Dismissed with Prejudice – that is the last thing any plaintiff wants too hear. Yet this is exactly what Track Racketeers heard from Gloucester County Superior Court judge Anne McDonnell.

Gloucester County Superior Court Judge Anne McDonnell ruled that the city could not be held responsible for enforcing nuisance laws against New Jersey Motorsports Park because Millville developed an ordinance to regulate the sound produced by the track.

The prejudice ruling implies that the suit lacked merit. It also eliminates potential for appeal by representatives for TrackRacket on the same grounds.

The question that lingers, who is going to foot Millville’s bill for this frivolous lawsuit. For too long Me Firsters and now Michelle Post have brought frivolous lawsuits against the city. They have lost, and I don’t think the city ever demanded to have the litigants pay our legal fees. It is about time that the taxpayers force the people that are causing these unnecessary expenses to pay up!

Perhaps with this devastating blow to their asinine case, the Track Racketeers will finally come to the table rather than cream and complain and refuse to actually enter in reasonable discussions with the other party.

From the very beginning Michelle Post has refused to allow anybody from the opposing side to participate in her hate rallies. I know, because I attended the main rally at the Millville Public Library. Post, according to the head librarian, lied to the library personnel, pretending that her non-profit was a 501 (c) (3) rather than what is, a political lobbying entity prohibited from using public space for partisan events. She claims she didn’t know the difference – yeah, right. She knew enough to register it as a political lobbying non-profit as opposed to a (c)(3). I know for a fact that she is intelligent, and not as stupid as she pretended.

Shed illegally attempted to bar NJMP supporters from this advertised “Public Meeting”, and Millville Police had to intervene to uphold the law. When she could not prevent them from entering, she then, again illegally, attempted to prevent them from taking the podium. Once again the MPD was forced to intervene to force her to obey the law.

Unable to prevent open public discourse, she resorted to the underhanded tactic of joining with Me Firsters in the back of the room and they began shouting conversations with each other to drown out the speakers.

From day one, she had an agenda, and to further her agenda she has refused to enter into any open discussion, all the while claiming that nobody will talk to her. Boo hoo. Maybe if she came to the table honestly, and approached the NJMP reasonably rather than launching a smear campaign, she would have accomplished something other than helping Me First in dividing the citizens and residents of Millville. But then, she does not live in Millville. And like her buddy Paul Porreca, the man who from day one has been working diligently to destroy the Arts District, she doesn’t need a job.