Seasonal Shifts & Surprises

The days have been rich with color (and an early season snowfall)...

Autumn has given way to winter a little faster than originally expected.

My buddy Steve and I did some flea marketing, as we often do...

We took in (and took home) some vintage finery as well as some local color.

Evidence of the impending Christmas season doubled its presence all around us...

A beloved former student (Maria) surprised both myself and other staff members with a visit...

Steve spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my folks and I.

He is always a welcome guest around any of my family's tables...

And as always, Chancy reminded us that she too deserves a place at the table...

As an added bonus, two Instagram friends, Linda (at left) and Jon (at right)

gave me an Instagram shout out when they met up for a drive-by Instameet.

I have yet to meet either of these folks (Linda is from Toronto and Jon is from Georgia)

but I sincerely hope to do so in the near future. It's amazing how many fantastic people are

out there and it's great to live in an age when we can share pieces of our lives with technology.

Diptych: Majors (2014)

CHRISTIAN MONTONE

Diptych: "Majors" (2014)

Collage on board. Two Panels: 24"X 36" each

Left Panel Above. Right Panel Below.

This is a personal piece that was made to hang in my home.

As I often do when gathering items for such a piece, I carefully select elements

for several months (or years) until I feel I have enough strong images to work with.

Details Below:

The Present Moment (And Notes For The Future)

An early cold snap brought us ice and snow.

It didn't fully strip the autumn color from the trees.

My buddy Steve's house remained fully decked out in autumn regalia.

A gang of us went to see our pal Tracey (top center) totally kill it as Vera in the play "Mame".

Andreas, a former student, came to observe me for an educational psychology class.

Things remained colorful, if not muted, both outside and inside my home...

The sun was warm but the air kept a still and almost eerily steady chill...

And a junior in my painting class gifted me with a unique and humorous portrait...

With twelve new NYC pieces freshly completed, I decided to pull out a winter 2009 

sketchbook that had a double page spread of notes for a group of pieces I had planned to do later.

Over the past five years, this chaotic stream of consciousness list always sat in the back of my mind.

Before delving into more NYC pieces, I think I may need to explore committing these

  concepts of the past to fully realized artworks using my newly developed form language.

After re-examining this initial wall of words, I pulled all of the corresponding pictures 

from my reference binders and edited the list down to five short lists of carefully grouped 

images that will inform the composition of some new sketches.

  I'm going to see how they work as drawings on white paper before anything else

and beyond that, I'm interested to see how a kaleidoscopic arrangement of 

layered imagery will interact with layers of splatter paint, water crayon and ink.

I'd like to see some old ideas shake hands with new techniques. Let's hope they play together nicely.

Vintage Roulette: Photos (1960s & 1970s)

Photos for any (and every) reason: 1960s - 1970s