Lyrical Greening of a Brownfield - SOLD!

Lyrical Greening of a Brownfield I
Originally uploaded by 730N

I am happy to report - I sold the Lyrical Greening of a Brownfield paintings. My favorite of the two is pictured here.

I traveled out to Pittsburgh this month to attend the dedication ceremony for the Remaking Cities Institute.

The paintings were presented to the Luis Rico-Gutierrez, the new director of the Institute, as a gift.

The paintings were presented behind black cloth - and subsequently unveiled! That was an interesting thing to have happen!

The whole trip was hectic and inspirational.

The paintings will hang in the Remaking Cities Institute until the Heinz Endowments can develop the old LTV site pictured. At that point the plan is to have the paintings hang in a community oriented building on the very site that they depict.

Lyrical indeed!

The artworks are symbolic of the beginning of my renewed efforts in oil painting. I had spent about 1 year doing smaller works before executing these major pieces. They were a proving "stake in the ground" of sorts, and this sale has been in the works for 2+ years. Having the trajectory of the sale come to a close brings an odd feeling of validation -- one above and beyond the mere selling of a smaller work. I had much invested in this work! Now the box I have built for my "creative sandbox" seems all the more right.

Also: watching the paintings grow legs and walk off on their own is a great feeling. They found their perfect home.

Thanks to all involved in helping this happen. Definitely could not have done it without your help!

A painting I am working on right now is directly influenced by these works. I look forward to completing it soon!

In Progress of a current painting aka The Dead Space?

In Progress of a current painting
Originally uploaded by 730N

This is a cell phone photo of a current painting I am working on. Unfortunately, my canon powershot appears to be broken! So documentation of artwork for the next few months will be haphazard of sorts. This painting is of a vacant lot near the Berks subways station. I walked in there, half thinking I was treading on land I would regret for some reason or another. Yet it was amazingly quiet. The "bustle" of front street was at a distance. There was so much green! So much, that is, in a philadelphia sense of mass of green. The ground was full of litter, some of it interoperable, most of it not.

here is it's location

If you have looked at the map, notice how large a green space it is for the surrounding area! I felt like it was my own private park. I never could shake the unsafe feeling though, and perhaps it is justified.

From the Wikipedia article,

Kensington is perceived throughout the region for being one of Philadelphia's poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods. There has been some recent revitilization, and the amount of total crime and shootings has declined significantly in recent years.

The painting is large - 42" Wide by 40" inches high.

My friend Adam Grossi speaks of child playgrounds as opened and abstracted half-places as proof of our own uncertainties about our adult world, and perhaps even a hopeful obeisance to the child’s unknowing, her/his potential to unravel and reconstruct.

I see something analogous in these spaces like the one above. They are half-places too: open and abstracted with subjective meaning. However, they are transitory spaces, some turning into old growth and some turning into new lofts. (or Casinos) Playgrounds change too as new safety features are introduced... Both spaces come to reflect the society that built them in some fashion.

This land is kensington could be called a "Dead Space" or a "Vacant lot" or simply "forgotten" or "neglected."

But I believe they hold as many lessons as we could hope for if we paid attention.

The Show at the Rocket Cat Cafe was a success!

I had a show at the Rocket Cat Cafe coffee shop this June and sold 3 out of 15 paintings. I am happy to say that it was a record for art sales in 1 month. The three works that were sold are listed below. Each sale was driven by a personal connection to the space painted. 2 out of the 3 paintings were sold to people in the same zip code. All 3 paintings remain in Philadelphia.

Sugarhouse and the Divide Casinos was purchased by an individual whose family had lived in Fishtown for many generations. She was drawn to the painting by the idea that it crystallized a space on the cusp of change. She recently returned to live in Fishtown, a neighborhood that also has been changing rather rapidly. The conversation reminded me of what I was attempting to do with "The Point at Which the Stream Emerges"

Anatomy of a Street Tree was purchased by an individual who happened to grow up 10 houses away from the location of the tree! He did not know this until we talked.

FDR Park, Frozen was purchased by an individual who happened to get married in the rotunda portrayed in the painting.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama
Originally uploaded by 730N

I made this little portrait of Obama in oil pastels. The background is water color washes of overlapping geometric shapes.

This is the first political figure I have ever drawn and perhaps it is interesting to think of them as symbols of policy decisions that have real world effects. Obama is an interesting character and I look forward to seeing what happens in the next year.

I have yet to hear him address the arts and would be curious of his position.

The drawing is on ebay right now.

Art Show @ 1 shot Coffee in Liberties Walk.

My Show at 1 shot
Originally uploaded by 730N

My show is drawing to a close this upcoming week. I will be taking it down Thursday morning. Approximately 3 days left to see it in person!

I do believe it was my first official "solo" show and am happy to say it seemed to be well received. The portraits were hung together on the left hand side and the landscape/ cityscapes were hung on the right hand side. Clustering them like this made for 2 small sub-shows that helped me embrace the 2 different directions that my work appears to be taking.

The was nice rhythm to the way the paintings were hung. Thanks to Samantha for help with hanging the show.

Click on the image for a larger version.

4 weeks to Mozambique! Give yourself a Hand?

Today marks the 4 week countdown to Mozambique!

I am incredibly excited to expand my world view in this fashion and am kicking into high gear to get ready. We are slowly jumping the hurdles that are needed to accomplish this, and I am happy to report that we got our shots this morning for the various vaccinations.

This past week however, has been tumultuous. I found out last friday that my place of employment would be shutting its doors that IMMEDIATE sunday. I sit 4 weeks away from the most inspirational trip of my life and am unemployed. I hesitate to go into more detail, because simply I have not found my exact voice on this blog and do not want to stray far from the arts focus.

However, as part of my overall strategy in this chaotic time, I am using the internet to try and SELL my artwork, for whatever I can get. I am willing to sell for cheap because of the fast approaching move we will be making in August. Quite simply, the less I have to move in August, the better.

Without further ado, the drawing of a hand I posted on ebay this evening is
here

Recent Paintings: A show This April

I am currently showing 15 paintings at 1 shot coffee in Northern Liberties.

With 3 of the paintings, I am donating 50 dollars of the purchase prices to related community organizations. I am intrigued with the Painting Activist's fantastically pragmatic approach.

I’m addressing social issues utilizing painting as my medium of communication. Much like a photojournalist, I travel to locations/events of cultural interest and capture them, only with my brush. My talent is as an artist, my passion is advocating for social change; this is how the two work together.

All artwork is for sale, unless noted otherwise. A portion of proceeds from the sale of original work is donated to the nonprofit corresponding to each piece. So if you’re apt to support my talent and contribute to a cause, invite your art-appreciating-friends, browse, be merry, and buy great art!

The Integrity of the Picture Plane.

Is this what I keep mentioning as the elusive quality that I chase in paintings of late?


This was a phrase popularized by C. Greenberg, primarily in regards to the flattening of painting that occurred throughout modernism. I read this as an acknowledgement of paintings form as the medium(/meaning?) was being deconstructed: a self awareness.

I have thought of this integrity in terms of a puzzle metaphor. Imagine a puzzle where the lines between the pieces correspond to the gestalt lines of perception. This interlocking is not necessarily constrained to "physical" objects. It also works with "empty" space (a physical object none-the-less).


There is also a notion of "spatial architecture" that I believe arises out of this treating of empty space as a physical object.

The puzzle pieces have a direction implicit in the brushwork that contributes to the overall sense of structure.


I've been looking at

William Wray lately...

I've got an interview for Grad School!

So. In case I haven't mentioned it, I have started hearing back from grad schools.

The first three that came in were rejections.

The fourth, was a request that I show up for an interview.

I return to writing as I prepare for that interview, and I aim to get my words together for that interview.

Some questions:

How to contextualize the Bald Guy in the future direction of my work?

The bald guy is a symbol of myself. Whether he is an alter ego or projection is yet to be determined.



It is no coincidence that I started drawing the bald guy when my mother was undergoing chemotherapy "treatment" for her cancer. As her condition worsened, she stopped wearing her wig. The chemo made her hair fall out and an image of a bald mother is quite a haunting one indeed.

The bald is a symptom of an assault on the system. The assault on the system is an attempt to "fix" things. Perhaps there is an analogy between industrial thinking and that approach toward healing cancer.

Another aspect to figure out would be the music as it relates to my painting practice.

An interesting Art scam that just happened to me..

Idea!!

I was listening to this american life and they mentioned a way to fight back, and that is to find ways to waste the person's time on the other end. Send them on a wild goose chase if you will, while knowing that it is a scam. How do we waste their time so they can scam less people? Any ideas?

UPDATE!! (8/3/2008)

Received another scam! Similar in that they named the artwork on my site. This one came from Oceanic Artwork. Hopefully posting this address will warn people like the previous exchange.

Mr. Paul Simon
FOR: Oceanic Artwork

E-mail: oceanic.artwork@yahoo.com

Or writing us at:
Address:
Suite 031, Wuse phase 2,
Behind New Market central
Area FCT Abuja.

Calling us at: 09-7821850,
+234-802-525-8946

UPDATE!! (6/17/2008)

Apparently the FBI cannot do anything about this -- somebody said they called back and said "Australia is out of their jurisdiction."


What a strange time this internet phenomenon. So what do we do? Team up with the Knitting shop that is actually at this address? Keep sending the information to the FBI, regardless of antiquated structures of "jurisdiction?"

It baffles me that this still is going on.

UPDATE!! (4/28/2008)

This person has tried to pull one over on too many people! We are now encouraging everyone who has dealt with this scammer in some fashion to forward their emails and experience to the FBI.

https://tips.fbi.gov/

Apparently, one of the recent emails has an IP address that originates from Vietnam

---------------------------------------------------



So I went through an interesting internet interaction this month. It all started with this email.

Hello
my name is jack tom I want to place an order in your store, and i will like to know if you ship to Australia? and my method of payment is credit card so i need you to kindly get back to me with the link to your webpage where your products are listed so that i can see more of your works after which i will place my order to you and we can go from there i will await your prompt response,
Regards
Jack tom.

I did initially think it was spam, mainly because of the broken english. I responded:

Pardon my frankness, but can you elaborate on what you are talking about?

Where did you get my email? What webpage did you see?

My artwork is @ noelhefele.com. I've shipped to australia before, so I am sure we can work something out. Is it paintings you are interested in? I will have prints of artworks available in a month or so.

Thanks for your interest!

Noel

I suppose I was optimistic. He responded

Hello Noel Hefele,
Thank for your fast response and i want you to know that i came across your store information via Google and here is what i will like to order for,

Margate Mural Progress photos...............qty:2

Julie's Sycamore.............qty:2

It's 4:14. (Whey Fo Me).............qty:3

I will like you to get back to me with the total cost and the shipping cost.and here is address for you to the shipping cost via ups or fed ex.and please kindly get back to me if this items is in stock because i do not want any delay on this.

9 Marian Street
Killaria 2071AUSTRALIA
hone: 61 2 9498 6830

Do this on time so that i can be able to give you my credit card information and complete my order for me
Best Regards
Jack tom.

What was wild was that he named artworks of mine! I should have searched for that address at this point, but I needed to put up a print store anyway. So I went to imagekind and did that.

Noel Hefele to Jack
show details Jan 23 (2 days ago)

Reply

Jack!

Thank you for your patience.

Please take a look at my store -

noelhefele.imagekind.com/

I wanted to find a solution for you because I don't deal overseas frequently. I have been selling at festivals, but not much over the internet. Mostly just ebay!

Since you will be my first customer through imagekind, I am selling them to you at what the cost would be for me. I.e. no markup for me. If you do order and are happy with it, let me know!

Unfortunately I can't sell a print of the margate mural. That is a photo of a mural I completed for a family over the summertime and I don't have a photo to make prints from.

Please check back at the store over the next week as I will add more paintings!

Thank you again Jack!
Let me know if you have any questions...

He wrote back:

Hello noel,
thanks for the mail, what about the ???
Julie's Sycamore.............qty:2
It's 4:14. (Whey Fo Me).............qty:3

are they available in stock now?? if not let me know i can change my order if that will b ok by you and i will be ordering the margate mural in my next order so kindly get back to me asap so we can proceed with this transaction

await your reply.

I was starting to get confused. Yet, always wanting to believe in people, I wrote:

Hi Jack,

You can order both of those today at the web address below...

http://www.imagekind.com/GalleryProfile.aspx?gid=741ec70f-9bfe-4f1f-8ec1-be0e6473e57a

or if that doesn't work, go to

noelhefele.imagekind.com

They are in stock!

Thank you kindly...

Noel

The curt response re awoke suspicion.

Hello noel,

i want to place my order to you directly cause i believe its not secure for me to order online so get back to me with the quote asap

I searched for the address and found out it was actually a knitting store in Australia owned by 2 nice ladies. I wrote them:

Hello Crewel Gobelin -

I thought you might be interested in this... Your address is listed in what increasingly looks like a scam...

kindly,

Noel Hefele

They wrote back, confirming our suspicions

Hello Noel,

Thank you for your email with further information of this scam. You are the 8th person to contact me, that they have been targetted by Jim Scott, John Carter and now a new one, Jack Tom.

I have looked into what can be done from the Australian end, but nothing if a fraud has not been carried through.

I have a disclaimer on my Home Page for the first 2 criminals and will now add Jack Tom.

Thank you again and have a lovely day. Kind regards, Margaret

Kind of funny! It's a niche scam that I came close to believing! I have to say that is a first. I used to wonder who believed these scams, but when it tunes into a particular desire of your own, you tend to gloss over the inconsistencies.

As a result however, I've posted some work at noelhefele.imagekind.com, where you can buy prints of my paintings. Not a bad development in the end!