Task- the pictures

heres a slide show on flickr

flickr test

this is a slideshow of my recent flikr pictures




slide show of artwork


slideshow of faux finishing/ commision pieces/etc...


how does this feature look to you?
i'm just playing with it so we'll see what i wind up doing with it.

*TASK* that thing at the Hirshhorn yesterday

Shoofly and I volunteered to help out with TASK yesterday. We took a lot of pictures and will post them later.

It was a lot of fun to volunteer and we both met some very cool people that I hope to see again. Task's creator Oliver Herring was a pretty great guy.

Overall however, I was a bit disappointed by the whole event. At least the "ART", of it.

I've never been a fan of performance art. I'm not a big fan of untrained actors. And while im a huge fan of chaos and absurdity, I prefer it in life rather than in art.


I'll write more when I get the pictures up.. but that prolly wont be today.

I'm hoping to see a client this afternoon, then have a long late lunch with friends and family and I've got a very busy week coming up. I hopefully will start on a Venetian plaster job this week, and I'm hoping to do more moving into my studio.

and the weather's beautiful yo.

2 new designs

HGTV segment of a condo i painted

The Washington Glass School just redesigned their website and in addition to including me as a faculty person also included a link to a video of the HGTV episode of Tim's condo.

you can see me walk in at the very end... in you watch very closely.

watch the segment here

this is the condo i have highlight on my featured projects page

show on saturday night -945 T Street NW 7-11

heres a flyer for an art show/house for sale.

get more details here
artdc.com

New Studio

I got a call from Tim Tate this past weekend saying that an artist that was currently sharing a space with the washington glass schools workshop has moved out. They offered the space to me and after a few days of deciding if i could afford it, i decided to take it.
I started moving in today.



I'm very excited about this new move. I will be participating in a Gateway Arts District open studio tour on May 20th, so come out and see me then!

i'll post more info about that later.


wish me luck!

3 new pieces.

The Happenstance of Living Gives You One Shot


Potential Energy




The Mythical Portal is A One-Way Journey


i've only just photographed some of these pieces from my latest series of work. What makes these slighly different from the very last series, is that i have switched from oil paints to Venetian Plasters for the background. I have also incorporated found objects to convey a more compelling visual. Still i am treating the pieces as if they are relics of our own times, archaeological evidence of our mindset.

recent additions to my gallery

I have updated my gallery on the Artdc website.


all my works are for sale. Please email me at
art @ wheresmycoffee DOT com, if interested.



please check out my stuff and the work of other dc artists.

Sculptural Graveyard

My backyard has become a graveyard for some of my sculptures.

Moravian Tile Works

The Moravian Tileworks in Doylestown, Pa is one of my favorite places in the world. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement and in the ancient atelier tradition, Henry Mercer set up his tile factory as a workshop placing creativity and the handmade tradition over production.
When i have my own studio workshop I will use the tileworks ( and Tiffany studios) as a model. The setup of the factory is both bucolic and efficient. It embodies what creative manufacturing was and still ought to be. As an artist interested in works that range from decorative, to didactic, to esoteric, I am truly and deeply inspired by the works of Henry Mercer.

His decorative use of didactic tiling is everywhere in his workshop ( and his house) Everywhere you turn there is beauty, lessons, inspiration, and color. Mercer believed in advancing the human soul through his work.

His home and studio both built in two years with a crew of six people were constructed in concrete. This was quite unusual in 1900. The walls, floors, celings, even the shelving was built from concrete. As readers of my blog know, i am a huge fan of concrete! You can see the interaction of polychromatic tiling against the drab concrete here:

All of Mercers tiles are pulled fom plaster molds. Here is a picture that contains some rather large ones:


Rubber molds have been take on his original plasters and are used to retool the tileworks stock as they become chipped, degraded or broken. His work is still being created and sold today.

my weekend in bucks county

This past weekend my wife and i celebrated our second anniversary and headed off to Bucks County, Pa. We stayed in New Hope, a small fun little town on the Delaware River and also made a trip into Doylestown, home of the Mercer castle, the moravian tileworks and the mercer museum.




these are some snaps of where we were.

a picture from my favorite museum

paint and plaster....well, actually just plaster.

here are some plaster samples I'm working on for a client. This is to give the appearance of an old somewhat distressed plastered wall. there is a slight lusterous quality to the plaster.
I'm a big fan of plastered finishes, and colored plaster work.

walking around today, i saw these things

Making an entrance! The public art project

So the Making an Entrance project is getting a bit whacked.

I was one of the lucky ones to have my designs accepted and put on their website in the hopes that sponsors would purchase the doors for $2000. I would receive a door, and $1000 to decorate it as per my drawings.

Great idea and common in the world of small scale public art projects ala pandamania, the party animals, etc...

Except they have no (or very few) sponsors. A while back artists were asked to provide info on leads to market towards. Odd, I thought, since surely they
have a larger mailing list than I do.

Yesterday I received a rather unapologetic letter requesting that artist go ahead and BUY THEIR OWN DOOR AND CREATE THE PIECE so that potential sponsers may have a better sense of what they are getting.

So.. lemme get this straight...i'm supposed to upfront the costs of a PUBLIC ART project that has specific requirements/limitations/forms AND send them POTENTAIL BUYERS so that they MAY buy them. All that and I get to keep half minus costs?

yeah, sure. here's my emporer's new door:














Somedays, being an artist sucks.

hyattsville maryland arts mecca

years ago Angela Blocker crawled up onto the loading dock of the workshop i was working in and introduced herself. Apparently Rhode Island Avenue was going to undergo changes and the Shop i was in was part of these changes. Tucked between the train tracks and Rhode Island avenue are a slew of artists studios. Margaret Boozer is back there, the washington glass school is temping there, and the prop shop of the shakespeare theatr is there.

Angela was part of the Gateway Arts District. or is it this

Part of that planning was responsible for the traffic circle in mount ranier, the artists live/work space and a bunch of other development projects along the way.

The other day i drov past the old lustine car dealership in Hyattsville and was happy to see that work is beginning there on more arts district stuff.

I have been a frequesnter of Franklins for nearly 10 years, when it was just a small deli. now they have the best beer in the area.

Hyattsville is gonna be hopping.

not art, not work, but funny

you've prolly already seen this but this junk is funny.

high end jobs

i was recently given the opportunity to bid on some very special, somewhat classically themed projects. During my interview, it was stressed on me that quality is more important that cost. this is manna to the artist ears!

So now, i'm busy doing research on beautiful classical adornments for homes. my research is leading me to the Baroque, Rococo, and to some of the more lavish of the renaissance simplicty.

if you have any leads on this you consider drop dead gorgeous, please share!



also, if you want some work, drop me a line! if i get these jobs, i'm gonna need help.

GRACE call for entry

Annual Juried Exhibition “Languages of Silence”
June 23 through August 18, 2006

Call for Entries – Postmark Deadline May 15, 2006

"Languages of Silence," an exhibition to be selected by J.W. Mahoney, will seek to show the wide array of possibilities open to artists to convey the qualities, beauties - and contradictions - in quiet content.

"That which is real is given and received in silence," a great Indian thinker once wrote, and "Languages of Silence," whether spoken in sculpture, painting, photography, or graphic and digital media will demonstrate the nature of that silent reality. J.W. Mahoney is Washington's Corresponding Editor for Art in America and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Please send the following materials:

· 5 slides or digital images of work completed within the last 3 years

Labeled and Numbered 1-5 with Artist Name, Title, Medium, Dimensions, Year completed

· Slide List with corresponding numbers and slide information

· SASE (self addressed stamped envelope for the return of images)

· $25 Entry Fee (free to GRACE members) Make check payable to: The Greater Reston Arts Center

Send materials to:

The Greater Reston Arts Center

12001 Market Street, Suite 103

Reston, VA 20190

For further information: 703-471-9242

Opening of Heineman Myers Contemporary Art

Last night i went to the opening of the Heineman Myers Contemporary Art gallery in Bethesda. Congratulations to Zoe Myers for the innagural show of her gallery.

The art on the walls was the photography by Connie Imboden. Elegant and sleek black and white photos all framed the same on auspicious fresh white walls.

The opening was a rather formal affair. Sadly i had forgotten to pick up my Armani from the dry cleaners, and so was a bit underdressed. It definitely had a more polished air than most gallery openings i go to. I knew very few people their but my survey seems to indicate the pressence of very few artists. I showed up with Rania Hassan, Jonathan (a painter from DC, currently getting his BFA at VCU). Two artist/gallerists were there also. F Lennox Campello, and Elyse Harrison

I look forward to seeing more of the artsits that Zoe has assembled.

this past week

This past week i was doing a job up by the catherdral.

this was the finish my client selected:
she wanted it stained down a bit.

after priming


how it turned out

free art for kids!

Free Art Classes for Kidz!!!!!
Every Saturday from 3-5 pm the Young Masters will offer free art classes to kids ages 5 to 12. The classes take place at the Woodridge Public Library located at 18th and Rhode Island Avenue Northeast in the meeting rooms. Class space is on a first come-first serve. Reservations may be made by sending an e-mail with the name and phone number of the student and guardian to: Youngmastersinc@aol.com . Reservationswill only be held until 3:15. For more information call The Young Masters at 202-269-3067.