See Me Tell Me

100 unique images. With all the interesting people returning to the subway I am photographing my fellow straphangers, again. This time I am doing them in the mode of John Schnabel’s (1957- 2016) “Passenger” series, a “voyeuristic portraiture project of anonymous airplane passengers. He would capture the faces of unsuspecting travelers as they patiently waited for takeoff revealing a spectrum of expressions, from indifference to exasperation, occupying identical porthole spots in the massive aircrafts.” I saw similar shapes of the windows repeated on the R-model MTA cars. So, whenever I travel, before I step on and after I step off the train, I make a few shots. I printed and cut the images down to 3 x 3 inches, provided the information on the verso, added a signature red button grommet, and put it all in a plastic bag. I will be releasing 200 of these, 2 for each image, in the subway.

Listen, 2016-2017

For this series, I found a cast of an ear, made a rubber mold and created hundreds in a variety of colors. They are hand painted and collaged with the simple message...LISTEN - to your friends and those you disagree with, to the angry and the smug, to the confused and the saddened, to those who don't have a voice and those now shouting loud. Don't talk over them...LISTEN and HEAR. This is just about as political as I get. 

Part of the SEEKER series, this is a collaborative work between myself and my co-artist Ted Madden. He takes the 3-D photograph, processes it, and prints the first version. I rubber-mold the work and add colors and attributes as I cast and collage them. This is a self-portrait – my first in this series. I asked him to shoot me staring deep into my iPhone as we all did, starting in early 2020 - trying to find a snippet of the real world, trying to connect with others – but locked down. And while we have mostly come out of the epidemic – we are still part of it – avoiding crowded places, binge shopping at the grocery just in case, skipping all the parties and get-togethers we frequented before, staying home. We are forever changed. The work is cast in grey/silver plastic with a brush or splatter of black. My face, tucked under a protective hoodie, is painted blue mimicking the glow of the cellphone and envelopment. My face mask, removed temporarily, flaps to the side.

SEEKER AMY, 2022, ed. 100.

Part of the SEEKER series, this is a collaborative work between myself and my co-artist Ted (Teddy) Madden. He took the 3-D photograph, processed it, and printed the first version. I rubber-molded the print, then added colors and attributes as I cast and collage them. This is a self-portrait – my second in this series. I resisted this at first but RL and Teddy where convincing - and Teddy is, I’m sure, glad to see me transforming myself overtime, instead of him, as I have done to him all these last six years – as he was the first SEEKER. This one is a little butch, a bit cyber-punky, a tiny bit vandal – I hope. My face, again, is tucked under a protective hoodie, my hands in my pockets, but on the reverse are gromet holes which will be unfilled or filled – over time with beads, seeds, butterflies, stars, sparkles - the list is endless. I will be placed in high up places watching the goings on.

Seeker* Series: Teddy, 2016-2017

This is a collaborative work. A self-portrait of my nephew Teddy 3-D printed at 4 inches. I made a rubber mold and I am casting them in various colors of liquid plastic one by one with a dash of glitter thrown. I enjoy the changes as the mold breaks down through use, the details blur, and the silhouette changes.

He stands, hands in pockets with a tiny silver heart hanging at his breast. I dry scumble the details of the work with black, silver, and gold paint. 

[*Name change in 2017 from Dreamer to Seeker.]

This is a collaborative work like the SEEKER TEDDY series. They were created from a 3-D photographic portrait of one of my family members shot by my co-artist Ted Madden and printed at 4 inches. I made a rubber mold and I am casting them in various colors of liquid plastic. Each has their own attributes – PAPA PHIL in a blue chambray shirt grasping his walking stick, ELLEN her green puffy coat and white lapel button, and MAX with his splash of yellow and star on his chest.

Seeker Series: Meghan, 2017-present

This is a collaborative work. A portrait of my niece-in-law photographed by my nephew Teddy, then 3-D printed at 4 inches. I made a rubber mold and I am casting them in various colors of liquid plastic one by one highlighted with a scumble of grey paint. She stands, hands clasped, with a tiny silver pendant star hanging at her breast

[The Meghan's thwarted me for awhile as I requested them too small and couldn't release them from the mold without breaking off their legs. Now Teddy has made them larger and with a finer surface and I chose a gentler rubber mold and all is well. Sorry for the delay. ]

I was in the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan a few years ago and happened upon tiny turquoise statues called shawabits (my spelling). They were created, one for each day of the year, and placed in the tomb to answer questions the dead pharaoh would need to ask once she/he awakened and to help them with their gardening. I created my own from the casting of a small votive first communion figure I found in a Catholic supply shop in Louisville, a bit of paint, and some found objects – thread, string, trinkets, bells, beads, etc. They will be placed on top of ledges, tucked in corners, looking down on you from overhead beams throughout the subway stations, museums and streets - watching, waiting, there to ask and answer questions.

For this series took a child's toy, made a rubber mold, and cast hundreds of little hands in a myriad of colors. To each I added a "gift" - a string of beads, a locket, bottles of sparkles, mirror, and all sorts of other found objects. They will be installed various ways; the usual magnets, ribbon, string, but some will be screwed into wooden bits around the city.

I saw the “Jasper Johns: Mind Mirror” exhibition at the Whitney this year. While I expected his usual chilly stuff, I was pleasantly surprised by the emotion, nostalgia, even sweetness. He uses common found objects (my favorite trait of assemblage art), “making art closer to life.” In one huge grey monochrome painting In Memory of My Feelings-Frank O’Hara, 1961 and in some silk screens I found the use of spoons and fork alone or nestled one within the other. The Times said, “This fork and spoon. A little rusty. They snuggle together…” I found them so poignant that I decided to create my own little love notes. Mine are these simple utensils with a bit of twine binding them. They will be cast messily in various colors to blur into the background, bound with more string or wire, and installed with a magnet or thumb tacks.

Simple. Simple. Stamped paper with magnet and plastic dome.

Series just for Octobers. A bit of Halloween and memento mori mixed up. I used a purchased candy mold of a skull and my usual cast plastic in various colors with a touch of paint to deepen their eyes and blacken their teeth.

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday with friends eating, talking and laughing. They have a new kitten and it reminded me of this marvelous Eadweard Muybridge. A long languid cat prancing through the scene, its bell jingling. It is a color print, a little bit of gold leaf added, some collage pink paper, a grommets, and a QR code on the back.

I went to the Louise Bourgeois show, “Freuds Daughter," at The Jewish Museum a couple of months ago. It was a very complicated exhibition and included her diaries and inspirations for her works. As the press release stated, she "considered the act of artmaking a form of psychoanalysis, believing that through it she had direct access to the unconscious." I zeroed in on some of her wall works that repeated over and over, "I am afraid. I am afraid of silence. I am afraid of the dark. I am afraid to fall down. I am afraid of insomnia. I am afraid of emptiness." When we concentrate on what scares us - what makes us afraid, what will kill us, and what has been taken away. They stay there lying under the surface, exacerbated by politics, the nightly news, and just living in the city. And as one gets older the fears get bigger and lurk around every corner. So, I created a work with a photograph of my eye - wide and staring upward - printed it in black and white and placed it on one side of a magnet. Then I printed a few of Bourgeois’ quotes on the back with a place for you to fill in your fear.

This is a "readymade" tribute to Marcel Duchamp’s 1919, 50cc d’air de Paris, a "store-bought glass vessel encasing air that appears to contain nothing at all forcing the viewer to question what exactly, if anything, the ampoule holds." It is a "…a work of art capturing a moment in time." Mine consists of a glass container and cork stopper, cast onto a slip of clear plastic measuring 3 x 1 inches, with a bit of black dust , a floral grommet, a bit of red string and Brooklyn air.

This work is as complicated as this crisis. I wound string and made a selection of four orbs. Among the windings are heart charms, beads, and grommets. Then I made rubber molds for each and cast them in colored liquid plastic. I included a metal grommet at one end with a hole and a string with a “seemetellme” label. The are for holding in your hand and contemplating.

At the moment of this writing, we are in quarantine, lockdown, shelter in space. This started for me on the 11th of March when my university announced that all on-site classes were canceled for the rest of the semester because of CONVID 19. At that moment I stopped riding the subway, began teaching remotely, started wearing a mask to grocery shop, and haven’t left the neighborhood. At that time I also started casting these little GLIMMERS - a series I had been working on for about one year - and placing the finished works on our local 100-year-old retractable bridge that spans the Gowanus Canal. Every day I place about 10 and sometimes they remain and sometimes folks take a few home. I hope they help. They are helping me.

So I am blocked. I have days and days of free time that I can dedicate to the creation of art and I can't seem to get started or everything I start turns to garbage. So I made a bunch of portable lingam and yoni - yes appropriating a religion I am not a part of - again! When we went to Cambodia in 2012 we visited the Preah Khan temple complex at the edge of the Angkor Archaeological Park - a very different temple from Angkor Watt and Banyon - lower and even more of a labyrinth. It was created in 1191, as "a temple of learning and a monastery." What I remember in Shiva’s temple was room after room connected by linear hallways each punctuated by a lingam and yoni. The lingam is a smooth cylindrical mass so I sculpted a phallus form and cast it in various colors and strung it on some silk string. The yoni, an emblem of the goddess Shakti is the plastic container - lined with rice paper for pretty.

Another reboot! But you know how much I love Hiroshige. The images for this newest series of the Statue of Liberty from various viewpoints - the bottom of Manhattan, Governors Island, aboard the Staten Island Ferry, New Jersey, etc. Each is made on a 3 to 3 1/2 inch piece of hot press watercolor paper and placed inside a plastic bag. On the front is a printed photograph by me of the lady from one my travels, a stamped “chop” or seal and a plastic cast of a tiny Liberty - a trinket, a momento. On the back is an image of one of the 36 (there were actually 46) views of Mt. Fuji by the great ukiyo-e printmaker Hiroshige - my inspiration. The edition of each image is 10 and I will continue to make these till I get to 46. I will release these in the subway as they are delicate. See Me!

This is a throwback to the bound numbers series from 2010 and 2011. But this time I found a great candy mold at NY Cakes and cast the numbers instead. Wrapping, binding and tying is a method used by outsider and visionary artists as well as artists of the Congo and ancient Egypt. In each case the string, rope, thread, ribbon, amulets and trinkets, threaded in and among the windings attract and concentrate spiritual energy within the object empowering it to fulfill its intended purpose - that you the collector decides. Each sculpture consists of a 1 3/4 x 1 x 1/2 inch cast number in plastic, a magnet, found and purchased string, beads, buttons, sequins, bells, an other various objects. On verso is the number wrapped and the edition number. They will be placed in multiples in New York and perhaps Louisville before 2019 ends.

O TRUE APOTHECARY, 2019, ed. 50
Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3. For this I made a rubber mold of a row of five glass bottles, then cast all but one in colored plastic. The remaining bottle is incorporated, filled with silver and signature red beads and stoppered. Magnets are placed on the back with a SEEMETELLMENYC tag and edition number. Symbolism - the opioid crisis.

As you know I'm all about magic and missives, luck and talismans so here is STREET AMULET, ed. 100. And notice the color - the same as the NYC street furniture - call boxes, light pole bases, subway entrances, water testing stations - red, grey, black and green with a spatter of gold. They will be hiding in plain sight, like chameleons, ready to be collected by the observant and needy.

To make these I rubber molded and cast about 35 heart charms then replaced a few with a real trinket and filled that with silver beads and one signature red. On the verso are magnets, the SEEMETELLMENYC name, and the edition number. Each measure about 3 x 3 inches, big for me, and some might even include some found objects…occasionally. 

You know when you make and make and make an image and it never works. Well, this is how these went. Maybe it’s the times, maybe its something else. Anyway, here are some homes-away-from-home. We are trapped inside our houses, allowed out only to get groceries or take a walk. These are the little houses we escape to…just for a bit…at least in our imaginations.

They are cast plastic houses - sculpted and molded by me, collaged and stamped with butterfly wings. Then I added a label and some other detritus.

Yeah…not sure what these are. But spent a lovely wet afternoon casing and making them and they fit nicely in the hand. Used a 1 inch round pastry mold, filled each side with beads, found objects and various colors of plastic. Each had a hole drilled through the center through which was threaded - string or filament as some can be tugged apart to see inside, yet some cannot. Added a label, a heart charm and maybe a bead or two.

I’ve always wanted to do a simple series like this. I wandered the neighborhood gathering the flowers, weeds really, that grow in the fringes of the sidewalks and crevices between buildings, clawing themselves into existence. Not the vegetation grown in the gardens, street tree plots or pots planted on purpose, although escaped jonquils and pansies were a temptation . I took them home and pressed them in the pages of a heavy art survey book. After awhile I took them out and burned photograms of each in cyanotype. Then I placed them in small plastic bags, added the label on the verso and sewed in a red bead.

The first - is the Dandelion (Taraxacum Asteraceae) The current genus name Taraxacum derives possibly from the Arabic Tharakhchakon, or from the Greek Tarraxos. The common name dandelion comes from the French dent de lion, or "lion's tooth", in reference to the plant's jagged-edged leaves.

The second - is Poor-Man’s Pepper (Lepidium virginicum) Virginicum means “North American” and Lepidium is Latin for little fish scale. The notched seed pods of look like little fish scales, some say little purses.

The third is Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca, Asteraceae) I printed these in their late state with exposed seeds and fluffy white petals, and yes they can be eaten as salad - if a bit bitter.

The fourth is Queen Anne's Lace or Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) While this is found here, I fondly remember my grandmother picking these wonderful blossoms in Indiana, explaining the center purple flowers (Queen Anne was a lace maker and pricked her finger with a needle, and a single drop of blood fell from her finger onto the lace, leaving the dark purple floret found in the flower’s center) and showing us that if we placed a few drops of food coloring in their vases they would turn red or blue. Here is link on how to grow it from Happy DYI Home.

The next is White Clover (Trifolium repens) also called dutch clover and ladino clover. You cannot walk by a patch of green in the city and not see this stuff but I do love the cheerful flowers. It is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe, including the British Isles, and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated types of clover. Sometimes the flowers are tinged with pink so, this and for other reasons the beads added are green.

The next is Morning Glory (Ipomoea lacunose), made sexy by Georgia O'Keffe, is one of my favorite wild flowers but not until I moved to New York. In the city you don't really see the weather like you do in the Midwest. Yes it gets hot and occasionally it snows but your life is determined by your job or the semester. So to see nature you have to look really really close. What signals Fall to me (because I am writing this on August 1) is three things - the Monarch butterflies start flying through, the cicadas scream from the local trees and the morning glories have finally covered every chain-link fence in the neighborhood. Each morning and early evening you see their upturned white, blue, and maybe pink faces staring up, otherwise they are curled up, like us, to avoid the heat. By the way the little brown pips are seeds so you can plant your own. 

Back in 2013 I made hundreds of this series and lots of folks liked them, so here are more. PEST consists of a xerox of a locust and a plastic casting of a little frog. Both are mounted on a red tag with ART and SeeMeTellMe abel. Just for fun or maybe on climate change - you decide.

So the Christmas season makes me happy yet depressed. I get to see my family - if the roads stay clear and planes are flying - yet the commercials, signs and ads, even articles in the @nytimes are dedicated to the acquisition of gifts and more gifts. I keep seeing people on the subway, overburdened with bags and boxes all full of presents for their loved ones, with harried faces and desperation in their eyes. They break my heart.

So I rubber molded an image of the Baby Jesus that I acquired from the Tonini Church Supply in Louisville. I cast it in the colors of Christmas - red and green - which I found out has ancient roots in the winter solstice celebrations of the Romans, not just a symbol of our consumer society where the Coca-Cola company linked the color of Santa's red robes with their product. Then I surrounded him with a collage of stars, jingle bells, and cast gold, red, green dollar signs, then attached all to a price tag. I stamped seemetellme on the verso along with the edition number.

A quick collage with color prints of my Mom's late kitty sitting in the sun and some early medieval saint images taped in. Add a dash of confetti, a @seemetellme label and a sewn on red bead. Perfect for Caturday. Edition 10. To be released in the subway.

As you know I love everything dragon- and butter-flies. So, punched out a few tinsel images, added some silver beads, sewed them across the middle and I mindfully spent the morning making them - no students, no grading, no gym…just bliss. Sometimes it's just for fun.

Throwback Series: Homage to Alice Neel, edition 10. I admire Neel’s paintings, legacy, and influence. But my favorite Neel is not one of her revealing portraits but the use of plants in one of her still life works titled Philodendron, 1970. And not just this painting but the way that plant pervasively peeks into other paintings like Priscilla Johnson at the Speed Museum. And, I like the way she makes me think about philodendrons and other pet houseplants. Each collage consists of a 2 x 3 ½ inch poly bag, multiple images of my photographs of my mother’s philodendron back lit with afternoon light and printed on semi transparent velum paper, with a scattering of silver and red beads sewn into the bag.

To celebrate winter I am borrowing the wonderful show flake images of Wilson Alwyn "Snowflake" Bentley (1865-1931). A self-educated farmer, Bentley attracted world attention with his photomicrography, most notably his extensive work with snow crystals. He adapted a microscope to a bellows camera, caught flakes on a background of black velvet, and became the first person to photograph a single snow crystal in 1885. He would photograph more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime. These works will consist of a 1 x 2 inch plastic bad, a clear sticker of one of Bentley’s images, dash of clear beads, a touch of blue tape, some white string, and a red bead. The edition is 35.

Wet afternoon with thunderstorms rolling through the New York area. So decided to stay inside and make a collages. Called KING because I Included black and white photographs shot in London years ago of some of the great grotesques, sewed in with a bit of muslin thread and a few red beads on the front. On the back are KEYS, plastic cast in red, pewter and gold. I tumbled in some silver seed beads and stuffed them all in a plastic baggy - thus the "throwback" reference. Ed. a small 25.

So this one has been a fight. Months ago, after a studio reorganization, I unearthed in a blue envelope, a smooth stone found on a beach at the bottom of Crete 35 years ago. It fit the hand so perfectly. So, I rubber molded it, then cast many variations (there will be 100 eventually) with beads, paper, glitter, faux pearls, found objects and even LEDs (some light up!). Some I battered and bound as the plastic cooled and some I left pristine. The battle is with the simpleness and the blankness of a mind blocked. Why to create such a simple project? - to just keep making…. They have a magnet on the top and a label dangling and will be released in NYC.

So I have always loved those great tin mint boxes. And I've created many a collage or sculpture within them. They have not always been received well, but I just can't stop. So I took an Altoid box and filled them with various cast sculptures  - hands, ears, a frog or two, added paper, beads, trinkets, charms along with my seemetelleme tag and cast liquid plastic. I'll be placing them in NYC and maybe the 'ville this summer. No deep meaning, just fun. 

I've always been curious about others keychains - those private votive collections we all stuff in our pockets and purses heavy with tags, charms, and mementos. When I moved to New York I saw keys being tossed from upper story windows, dangling from fences and poles when lost; and inspiring this series - found on the subway steps where someone had stumbled. I was at the Morgan Library the other night for the Tennessee Williams show, and saw, as the Times noted, "keys that he collected [from his various hotel rooms] had been assembled into a still life that bespeaks a life that was never still." As a tool that allows opening, the key is a symbol of freedom. As a tool for closing, they symbolize privacy and security. In Christianity, the keys of heaven give the power to enter into eternal life. In Eastern Europe, there was a superstition that a key hung over the bed, brought good dreams to the owner and had the power to prevent all bad dreams. In Turkey, the dead were buried with an iron key to unlock the door to the underworld. In his dream therapy, Freud concluded that the “lock and key” imagery expressed the person’s wish to have sex.  #keytocity #keytomyheart #keyfigure #latchkeykid #llave #schlüssel #chave #clé

So I will assemble these and release them to dangle from the various hooks in the city for collection or reclaimation. 

So by now, you should know that I like dragonflies. They are my tag and my MISSIVE slaps. And Monarch butterflies are my go-to childhood nostalgia symbol. So this is a combination. I cast a few dragonflies (I got a great new rubber mold from Mold Muse. Remember I am a gatherer, not a sculptor.) in various colors and highlighted them in gold. Included color xeroxes of the butterflies and placed them both against a field of blue sky. I added a grommet, an ART sticker, a bit of black thread and a few red beads. I stuffed them all in a plastic baggy - thus the "throwback" reference.

This frigid weather has my mind wandering back to warmer days - in fact sweltering, sweat running down my back, jungle hiking days. In 2012 we visited the great Angkor Wat / Angkor Thom temple complexes. Miles and miles of 12th century palaces, shrines, and places of worship. We stayed in Siem Reap and traveled out each day via tuk-tuk with a driver and ex-Buddhist monk to tour the ruins. It was so, to my recollection now, marvelously hot!

So I photographed the little brass elephants I picked up at the central market and the newsprint they were wrapped in for travel written in Khmer text. I added some rice paper with gold leaf, sewed on a silver heart and a red bead and scattered over them silver dots. I stuffed them all in a plastic baggy - thus the "throwback" reference.

So MISSIVES are my "slaps" or stickers. I make thousands of them in all shapes - round, long rectangles, square. This time I decided to go negative and print or press my favorite dragonfly image into some clay, make my usual rubber mold, then pour them in liquid plastic in all colors. They are embelished with beads and paint. See them in a subway station or on a bridge, or just anywhere, near you. 

Just a little throwback series of tiny bags stuffed with cyanotypes, Japanese paper, beads, sequins, and stamps. Series 70 (see seemmetellme.blogspot.com for others). Ed. 50. 

These tiny projects at 3 x 1 inches are made of various colors of liquid plastic, a dash of black sand, and various found objects - wire, bells, sequins, toys, mirror, glass, beads, ribbon, shells.

So, I've always had this weird dream of running through the streets of my childhood town in pursuit of clear bricks packed full of secrets, trinkets, beads, messages, and missives. This dream has repeated over and over during certain periods all my life. So I made a few.

They are little cast plastic 3/4 inch square blocks filled with all those things mentioned above, a bead or two and the seemetellme tag dangling from each. 

Three Bean Salad, 2017

New mini series, only 10 of them, THREE BEAN SALAD, to celebrate 4th of July weekend. I always loved my Mom and Grandmas' three bean salad - yellow, green, red beans, onions, sugar and lots of vinegar (German ancestry go figure). It told me along with cucumber salad, in the same vinegar, potato salad, brats, hot dogs, and later beer, my summer was in full swing.

So these are little hard plastic vessels about an inch tall and in diameter with a soft plastic cap. I filled them with layers of liquid plastic, toys, trinkets, beads, shells. The color scheme - the primaries and a bit of gold here and there. I'll put them out sometime in July. Open the lid for my instagram link and addition number.

Missing Monuments/ Eulogiai / Banksy in Red Hook

This ongoing series will point to and explore relationships between older pilgrimages and fetish objects now conducted under the name of tourism. We are all familiar with the medieval pilgrimages of the devout but the history of fetishistic eulogiai is far vaster. These mementos were manufactured and sold at holy sites in ancient times to be left in tribute, to request blessings and rejuvenation, and as venerated keepsakes. New York City is full of pilgrimage sites; the Statue of Liberty for the immigrant, Ground Zero for the patriotic, Wall Street for the moneyed. But I intend to highlight and rediscover similar sites devoted to the name of ART by creating tributes which will guide devotees to the locations and provide a token to document the missing work and the travels of the art tourist. 

These hearts will be placed at the site of the removed 2013 Banksy mural periodically to mark its demise and the selfishness of those who hacked it out of the wall.