Jonathan Shih lives in Taipei, Taiwan, although he lived for many years in the U.S., mostly in New York, where he earned his MBA and worked in finance. You cannot say he has retired, for his interests and activities keep him busy every day. A prime activity is his art. He carries a sketchbook wherever he goes. We met up in a beef noodle restaurant on TaoYuan Street in Taipei. [BTW, the beef noodle soup was exceptional!] Jonathan arrived with three sketchbooks under his arm, and I had to know what they were all about. He told me these three were just for the past few weeks – he regularly fills four to five sketchbooks a month. Clearly, art is his passion. I began browsing through the sketchbooks and quickly decided we should feature his work here at…
David Bond: A Sailor’s Photography
David Bond is a multi-talented man who loves to work with wood, machines, systems. He restored his 37-foot Egg Harbor wooden cabin cruiser, which he named Blues Breaker, pretty much from the keel up. He’s sailed his craft all over the Northern and Southern Atlantic waters from his home port in Wickford, Rhode Island. He spent seven solo months on the Intracoastal Waterway, sailing south all the way to the Florida Keys and back. Over the course of the past ten years, David has snapped around 11,000 photographs, a sampling of which we reproduce here accompanied by David’s commentary. Please click on the images for a larger view. * * * * * “We were sailing south through the Bermuda Triangle, about 800 miles from land, when this incredible sight occurred. “Looking east we saw the sun rising [photo…
The Photography of Paula Park
Artist’s Statement: If my photos have a mission, it is this: to capture common scenes and environments and present them in an interesting way. It may be underneath a highway overpass or the dark interior of an abandoned building. Whatever the locale, these images present the viewer with a unique view of the commonplace. Please click on each image for a larger view. In Armstrong Grove Armstrong Grove, Guerneville, Sonoma County *** Lily in the Woods Armstrong Grove, Sonoma County *** The Laguna Laguna Wetlands Preserve, Sonoma County *** March Madness *** onthewaytojenner *** Underneath the 101 “Underneath the 101, Sonoma County. I love to photograph the benign and show you what I see. This is underneath an overpass at night. When lit up by car headlights, it looks like a cathedral to me.” *** Abandonedtothedarkness California Packing Company’s Plant No….
Celebrating the Bicycle as The Tour de France Begins
Gregg Rochester is a very successful painter of large canvases depicting nature scenes that are an amalgam of reality and his imagination. People have bought his work in galleries from coast to coast. He lives in Wisconsin and like me, loves to cycle through the farm country where he lives. While out for a ride one afternoon, the idea of painting bicycles struck him. He began buying bicycle parts and building the bikes he would paint upon. The idea was a huge success, and before long he had enough bikes for a gallery showing: Gregg’s “Le Tour d’Art” was born and began exhibiting in a number of Midwest galleries. He began painting canvases with bicycle themes, too. “My original concept was to encourage my patrons to use the painted bicycle as a sculptural piece, hanging it on the wall…
Photography by Grant Kreinberg
Artist’s Statement: I did not start out to be an artist. My education and experience has been as a civil engineer. But I got my first camera when I was about 12 and never really put it down. My photographic interests lean toward nature and the outdoors, probably as a result of my work. I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying a camera with me wherever I go. When something catches my eye, I photograph it. Please click on each photo for a larger view. This is a car roof, taken at a custom car show in Santa Maria, CA last year. I call it “A Different View of the Universe” because it reminds me of the rings of Saturn. *** Two Barn Abstracts. These were shot in an old barn at Point Reyes,…
Gregg Rochester’s New “Pucci” Bike Art
We featured Gregg Rochester’s bicycle painting a few months ago. Recently, he was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art to paint a one-of-a-kind bike for their latest exhibition, “Italian Style,” which was on display at the Institute in early 2015. It’s called the Pucci Bike because it is using the fabric designs of famed Italian clothing designer, Emilio Pucci. Here are the left and right views of Gregg’s Pucci Bike. Please click on the images for a larger, more detailed view. You can see more closeup details, along with a list of the components he used to build the Pucci bike, at Gregg’s bike art site, as well as many of the other bikes he’s painted. He assembles the components and builds each bike himself. Where in the heck did he find a blue chain?