On May 7, 2010, I have a solo art show at
Proximity Gallery called
"Dirtballs in Love". All the drawings are romance pieces, each one in some way inspired by romance and my gal Joannie (
to whom I was just engaged).
Click HERE for more information and to see more art from the show.The following piece, entitled "
Fire Siren" is a remake of a painting my Dad did when I was a little boy. He sold it at a flea market many years back. But he had a passion for the Philadelphia Fire Department, where he served for 27 years before retiring.
I wanted to have something that connected all the drawings and made them hang well together as a show, so I used a lot of colored inks as the common thread. This following piece was done in three layers to start. First I drew a woman, made of fire, surrounded by smoke in colored ink and marker as the background:
Then I drew and cut out the firefighter in colored ink. I fastened him to a piece of acetate. The back of the acetate was misted with spray paint, gray mist for the smoke and red and yellow spatter to imply embers in the air.
I laid the top sheet of acetate over the bottom piece, fitting them together. I had to scratch off some of the excess spray paint so you could see the fire woman clearly.
The drawings together...
Then I took a lighter and burned the inside edges of the mat. After the fire was completely out, I coated the mat with water-based acrylic polyurethane:
The final piece in the frame...
