Don't Go Near The Water 2011

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Don’t Go Near the Water

In the early 1970s East Asbury, filled with old industrial buildings, was the rough and tough section of Ashbury Park, New Jersey. The Jungle was an old bus garage in that section of town. I loved going there to hang out with the hipsters, artists, and many great bands that frequented the place.

Now, forty years later, my painting series “Don’t Go Near the Water” is an off-shoot of a series titled “Don’t Drink the Water,” which I painted around the same time I was hanging out at The Jungle. The original series was named as a result of my first ever meeting with a group of environmentalists. The series was about the water situation in New Jersey, my beloved home state. There was high toxicity in drinking water everywhere. I was scared to death of consuming the water, but it was used in so many foods, drinks and preparations. How could I or anyone else escape it? Besides that, I wondered how many people were actually aware of the water issues. So, I began a series of mixed medium works on refrigerator boxes in an effort to inform people. About two weeks after the pieces were completed I entered them in a show at The Jungle. Unfortunately, the curator of the show walked off with all the work. Today still, no one seems to know why, and the artists involved haven’t been able to locate the curator or their pieces of art.

Currently, we still face many environmental issues relating to water. Even though we’ve become better informed, there’s still a lot of work to be done as our clean water sources are being depleted.

This latest series of paintings, “Don’t Go Near the Water,” consists of my abstract representations of water and the environmental issues surrounding it. Please enjoy them. Each one is for sale, so contact me if you’re interested.

Click on the artwork, for a larger image

#1
13 x 15.5
Mixed Medium on Wood