PH. SEGURA ART ARCHIVE: July 2018

Monday, July 30, 2018

1970 - early work

Earliest photographed works. Paintings prior to this time have been lost. These were all executed in San Francisco in the early 70s. These might have had titles different that simply "Rondo" at the time. The order here does not represent the order of execution. The last image is of the Billboard of the Magic Square of Jupiter or of the number 15. See below.
Previous works were created in New York City in the 60s on very large rolls of paper using enamel spray cans sprayed through cut-outs and sometimes doilies. As far as I can recollect they were cloud-like formations. These works probably still exist somewhere rolled up in a corner. They were left with friends to preserve but you know how that goes. I don't consider them necessary at this time as I'd probably want to burn them anyway. We are only dealing in this Archive with images that have somehow remained in tact.

1972-3 RONDOS - 7-INCH DIAMETER - WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1972-73 RONDOS - 7-INCH DIAMETER - WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1972-3 RONDOS - 7-INCH DIAMETER - WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1972-73 RONDOS - 7-INCH DIAMETER - WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1972-73 RONDOS - APPROX. 12-INCH DIAMETER -

WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

1972-73 RONDOS - 7-INCH DIAMETER - WATERCOLOR ON PAPER

Not a RONDO. SIZE UNKNOWN. WATERCOLOR ON PAPER.

1974 - Magic Square of Jupiter (number 15) Non-advertising BILLBOARD - 15 X 30 FEET -
Water-based paint on paper. Hand-painted.

The billboard company (Foster and Kleiser) donated the paper. I was given an empty floor in Glide Church, San Francisco, to complete the work. When completed I wanted it exhibited in downtown San Francisco, on a rooftop, as I recall. But the billboard company hung it up without my knowledge on the corner of Haight & Ashbury. A fitting place nevertheless. I only found out about it since friends saw it there.

A press release, titled "A Press Release to Release the Pressure" (the Vietnam War was ongoing) was created for this and will be added once I locate a copy. This was created by "following the numbers" of the magic square. Go the the wikipedia page below for a definition of a magic square and to actually see the one for number 15.

The shape on the left is one dimensional, in the center three dimensional, and on the right n-dimensional. The patterns on the top and bottom are similar to how a computer (none then) would produce a pattern using the same configuration. This is the largest work I've done, as I suspected it would be at the time. It was not intended to be preserved but to be covered over by the next advertisement. It is more to my liking to preserve work photographically rather than store things. Given my lifestyle that emerged it would not have been possible to preserve and store very much. I did make certain that someone took photographs. I still have the slides. I wish I could remember the name of the friend who took them. Someone might possibly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_square

1976 - MANJUSHRI THANGKA - GOUACHE ON COTTON

12 X 22 INCHES

Began studying thangka painting, initially with Glen Eddy, then the Rongaes, then Sherabpalden Beru. There aren't too many other examples of this sort of work in my files. After this I preferred doing single diety images that were painted in one single session without stopping.

1980s

1980s Beginning in 1983 I moved from Boulder, Colorado to Barnet, Vermont to New York City. I began to work in the garment district studios painting plaids and stripes. I used an airbrush a lot at the time. I also had to match particular colors by mixing the gouache perfectly. This was a skill mastered over time. I was then able to look at a color on a piece of cloth and know what paints I needed to mix together to get that exact shade. Some matching took longer than others. It was a way of training the eye but in an artificial way.

After that I designed bed linens. I recall making some other paintings using a round sponge brush. (I'll photograph the one remaining.) There wasn't much time nor space for painting during those years.

This entire group of the Near Future series was either sold, exchanged for services or given away. The photographs here don't depict the actual colors that were brighter but otherwise they are pretty good.

The Near Future Series

EVERGREEN - 10-7/8" x 11-3/4" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

4

TERRESTRIAL LANDSCAPE - 12-38" x 13-3/8" - Gouache on Paper

1983-84

SPORES - 10-3/4" X 12" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

TROPIC - 13-1/4" X 11-3/4" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

INDIAN SUMMER - 14-1/8" X 13" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

GROUND PLAN - 15-5/16" X 12-1/4" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

VISION - 13-3/4" X 12-1/4" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

DISBURSEMENT - 14-1/2" X 13-5/8" - Gouache on Paper - 1983-84

REVIEW OF EXHIBIT 1987.

2000-2010

What can I say. Not much happened during this time that I lived in Piermont, NY. A beautiful place abutting the Hudson River and I could see lots of sky. The band in each is 2 inches which makes each painting 14x14 and so the series is called "Squared View." I think I've painted over a few of these and if not will do so when I run out of linen which is very soon. Hey, I'm allowed, at least I documented them. They have actually grown on me recently.

VICTORIAN VIEW, 14 x 16 inches, oil on linen, 2009

UP RIVER WITH YELLOW, 14 x 16 inches, oil on linen, 2009

REFLECTION WITH PINK, 14 x 16 inches, oil on linen, 2009

FLOATING WITH VIOLET, oil on linen, 14 x 16 inches, 2009

HIMALAYAN DREAM, oil on linen, 14 x 16 inches, 2009
collection Antonella Maccioni

1998 NEWSSTAND Visual Literacy Project

I've done a few public art projects of my own devising over the years. Below you will find the San Francisco hand-painted billboard. For continuity sake, here is what Paul Krassner wrote about it in the Berkeley Barb 1975:

No one commissioned them. [Though the last ones in Times Square in 1999 were a proposal.] I returned from an extended stay in Europe in the late 90s. Everything streetwise appeared rather grey to me. I didn't have a permanent place to live at the time so I had to think big. Here is the proposal I wrote:

I then proceeded to obtain several permits. No one had ever heard of anyone doing a project in any way similar to this so as I approached one city office after another I was responded to with great curiosity and bewilderment. I wasn't even asking them for funds. They didn't know what to do. But one man, who I only recall since somehow over the years I managed to keep a detailed set of papers outlining the entire affair, was inspired by the idea. He was Frank Addeo. We had several fun conversations. Here are a few more letters and a letter or support from the Community Board.

This is the letter that granted permission.
It's dated Dec 1998 and says
permission was granted May 1998

A Letter to City Lore asking for help. I don't know if
I received a response as I've no copy.

A survey of the newsstand at Third Avenue & 14th Street.

I had spoken with the man who either owned it

or worked inside it several times. He is mentioned

in the newspaper article. He said he was going to

speak with the owner of the stand and put me in

touch with her or him. He never did. I had all the permissions I needed except that and he said it was all right with him. I'd been trying to get it passed with the various organizations for about a year. One day I

decided I would proceed no matter what. How could anyone mind; it was going to make the newsstand very visible and people would be flocking to it.

Here we are painting the newsstand on a spring day. I am horrified that I do not remember the name of the person helping me! It's difficult for me to imagine that I don't know his name. Joe keeps popping up in my head. I never saw him again. Where did he come from? I think he was going to the Shambhala Center and meditating but I'm not certain. Where/who is this person? The one person who came to help me and I can't remember. How very terrible. Perhaps this will be righted after publishing all these images and notes. Surely someone will recognize him.

I hope.

Somewhere around here the attendant of the newsstand came to open it for the day. He was in shock and made us stop immediately. No one ever got back to me to allow us to continue. His English language skills were very small and I never did find the actual owner of the stand. This is how it was left. Too bad we were almost finished!

JUDITH MALINA ARRIVED TO CHEER US ON!
HANON REZNIKOFF TOO IS IN THE CAR.
HOW WONDERFUL TO HAVE SUPPORT FROM
YOUR FRIENDS.

Now for the finale.

Even though William Niederkorn meant well, the fact is I did have all the permissions I needed. The newsstand guy saw all the permits I did have since a year but I don't think he could read them and he never asked the person who owned the newsstand (Kash) as far as I could tell. The decision was not up to the manager and permission from the Consumer Affairs Department was not necessary. We don't know what kind of mind anyone has. But in my mind the colors were a great improvement. I went on to make more painted newsstands the following year. So all was not lost as it led to the next project with high school students. More on that another day. It's exhausting trying to document one's artistic doings. This was almost 20 years ago. I hope you enjoy the efforts put forth here. Now where's Joe?

And here's to vividness for its own sake.

1990s

1990's

(There are some duplicates.)
Keep scrolling.

Vertical 1

Vertical 2

Early in the 1990s I was painting only on paper. Here are a few examples that I preserved as slides. There are no titles. They were painted with a round sponge implement and probably with acrylic paint. I find them pleasingly shimmery but don't find the choice of colors satisfactory. But then again not terrible. Size would be a guess, but probably around 36 x 48 inches. I had to store them rolled up. I had a custom-made frame created with velcro attachments so that the paintings could be popped into the frame. One of them was in an early show in Dumbo. I don't recall the name of the space. What exhibit space was in Dumbo in the early 90s?

In 1992 I created several series of calligraphic drawings with sumi ink on paper. They were all 7 x 30 inches. The paper is stark white and impossible to reproduce here. Most have been sold or given away. Here are a few:

At that time I also devised a drawing course called "Drawing from Mind." Here is a newspaper article about it. I will come back here and describe the course in detail another day. Hoping I recall. I blew it up so you can read it.

The next group were all Acrylic on Canvas and executed between 1992-93. The titles may not be the original ones. When I locate them I'll edit. I don't think the titles matter here especially. Sometimes I even change titles. These were all lost in a flood. I hung on to them for years, some hadn't been stretched and were rolled up in storage in someone's basement and got moldy. I'm especially fond of Whipped Air. These were all created while in a painting and meditation practice retreat in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The calligraphies above were also created during that time. I rented a shambles of a house near Gampo Abbey at the northernmost point of the Cape along the Cabot Trail. I especially wanted a place that was not furnished so that I could paint freely. Even the refrigerator didn't work but I didn't really care that much. I just dropped everything and started working in about three different rooms. One was for calligraphy and one was for painting and another for drawing. The location was glorious and free from a sense of obstacle. There were many ravens and eagles flying about and the Bay was a short walk. http://www.pleasantbay.cabottrail.com

POTENT GLEAM 40 X 50 INCHES

EMPIRE RETURN 40 X 50 INCHES

WHIPPED AIR - 50 X 62 INCHES

The painting pictured above after Hurricane Sandy (2012). It's drying on top of the car but I deemed it hopeless as it was rotted and moldy. There looks like a blue painting done in the squares and drip style that never got photographed. I remember it being mostly blue. There was a hill next to the house on Cape Breton where many wild blueberries grew. I would sit on top in the day and pick blueberries and look out over the Bay of St. Lawrence where the whales played and the fishermen trolled.

REFLECTED WATER, SPACE & TIME 40 X 48 INCHES

I wish I could remember the title of this. I started experimenting with this dripping thing that Pat Steir was doing but from a different direction. This one got sold to a couple after I exhibited it at a street fair in Sleepy Hollow. Later there will be photographs of that. This was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Justin Michael.

I was also painting a good deal in my apartment in New York City at the time. It was located on the 16th floor with big windows looking west. I watched as the workmen re-gilded the tower of the New York Life building. Don't let anyone tell you insurance companies don't make huge profits. Here are a few more paintings from that same time:

SHADOWS TREMBLED 50 X 30 INCHES
COLLECTION OF AMY AND ROBERT CHENDER

(They won it for $20 in a raffle I had. I was very broke and decided to offer this painting and another drawing in a raffle. These days you can fundraise all sorts of ways. It was a difficult and embarrassing thing for me to do. I had to convince a friend to sell the raffle tickets. There was this painting and two framed drawings available for sale. Bart Leonard won a drawing and Sharon Ascher's brother won the other one. I asked them, as I do for all owners, to sign a contract about reselling. It was a legal paper that artists were trying to get going at the time. This was because you could sell something and then years later it was worth a fortune and the artist, or their estates, never got any further compensation. I don't think this has been worked out or settled yet. I don't think any of them agreed to sign it, but I don't recall, and my copy of the agreement would be long ago lost. I think I tried to buy back this painting for double the price but they wouldn't sell it back.
I don't blame them afterall they won it and if they like it they should keep it.

POTENT GLEAM 40 X 50 INCHES
I think I gave this painting to my friend Vyt Bakaitis.

SISTERS 10 X 50 INCHES
These two were donated to the Nyack Hospital. I donated these two, a yellow painting and one blue painting to them. They had someone frame them with a wide black frame that I didn't like. And these two, instead of being hung next to each other were separated and hung on either side of the yellow painting like shutters. The idea makes me shudder. I have a picture of the room and will post though it makes me ill.

Lesson learned: even if you are donating art make sure you can approve of what they do with what you give them.

Must find the title of this one. Looks like it too is 40 x 50 inches. This photograph is from an exhibit I had at the Nanuet Public Library in July of 2009. They have a huge room, almost a museum sized space, so I was able to have almost a retrospective there with 16 canvases. Not many people came to see the exhibit. Most of the comments were variations of "my child could do that."

I actually have this painting hanging on my wall currently. It was one that survived Hurricane Sandy. I think I'd lent it to a friend who died and somehow I got it back. It's most likely 40x50 inches.
The colors look nothing like this but this will have to do for now.

I'll figure this one out. Title and size. Donated to Nyack Hospital.

I had done a series of these much smaller, about 5 x7 inches on canvas board that were very successful but when I tried to blow them up it no longer worked. I will photograph the smaller ones. There are many of them. I've given a whole lot away over the years. These early 90s were a very special time for me and I painted a lot. I lived at 88 Lexington Avenue then and was still doing textile designs though that was soon to terminate by 1993 with a thud.

These were exhibited on a painted wall at the Inside Out gallery in Piermont, NY.

These are all separate paintings. Each one is 5x7 inches, acrylic on canvas board.

This one has a different background. Same size etc.

I had a friend in those days, now deceased, sculptor Tony Long, who would visit from time to time though he lived mostly in Switzerland. We argued about the 'edge.' None of my paintings ended at the picture plane but went beyond it and this disturbed him. So I added a line, but only on three sides and with a broken line on one side. It wasn't a bad idea. This painting got drowned in Hurricane Sandy or maybe it's still in the garage in Piermont, NY, where I lived from 2000-2013.

The next three paintings are all called BLUE GROTTO and they are all 30 x 50 inches, acrylic on canvas. One was donated to the Nyack Hospital.

SILENT TIERS 1 OF 9, 1993-4, 42 x 31 inches, acrylic & collage on canvas

SILENT TIERS 2 OF 9, 1993-4, 42 x 31 inches, acrylic & collage on canvas

Firmament Series, pencil, ink & gouache on paper, 26 x 19-1/2 inches

Okay, here it is. I wasn't represented by this gallery but the owner somehow convinced me to do this Sleepy Hollow street fair with him. He put up the tent and I loaded up my Ford Escort hatchback with all the paintings. Miraculously, they all fit. If the width of any of the paintings had been one-half an inch larger they would not have fit. It was like I had designed them to fit in the back of a Ford Escort. Loved that car. Hatchbacks are great, the back seats fold down and you've got a great car for moving things around. It finally rusted out and couldn't pass inspection. I dressed as my idea of a street vendor with a baseball cap and basketball sneakers. By now, some of these paintings are familiar to you. Three of the large paintings sold for $500 each - at a street fair!! Amazing! (2009)

Here is a blow-up from some paintings I haven't added yet. The Black and White ones are from a series of nine paintings called 'Silent Tiers' more on that later. The framed image on the right is from a small series of drawings - that's gouache on paper - called "Towers."

Another close-up of the street fair exhibit. See the tag on that drippy painting in the back that says SOLD? That was the first one to go. (2009)

This is the woman who bought that painting. (2009)
Maribel and Roberto Correa in Sleepy Hollow, NY.
Both couples who bought paintings at the street fair had small children and lived in the same condo grouping or whatever that's called.

The Correo's bought that big red one too. They had small children, twins, I think.
They were happy to have the paintings. I never had anything to do with the Tappan Zee gallery again after that. I gave him a commission and paid for the tent.
I think it's not there any more. (2009)

This is the wall at the Nyack Hospital. Actually my inspiration in donating these paintings came from having gone to the hospital for a test. I sat waiting in a dim hall with a few framed posters. You know those posters, they're the ones that have turned purple and blue with age and fading. They were so dreary I thought I'd offer something to cheer up future patients. That didn't work out too well because they put the paintings into a meeting room and too many on one wall. On the opposite wall were prints from revolutionary times. I went to check it out once and got ill. The heavy black frames stopped the energy of the paintings dead, and, of course, the two red paintings hanging like shutters. No good deed goes unpunished. http://patch.com/new-york/newcity/artist-donates-paintings-to-hospital#

COSMOLOGICA SERIES 1997-98
(Will replace these photos with better ones when available.)

BLACKBODY DEFINED, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98

DECLINATION SWEEP, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98

POLARIZED COUNTERGLOW, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98
Collection of the artist

RADIO-WINDOW SHIFT, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98
Collection Ellen Yaroshefsky

SIDEREAL TIME 22h, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98

SYNCHRO-BOUNDARY, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98
Collection of the artist

TRAPEZIUM UNRESOLVED, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98

ZENITH INCANDESCENCE, 16 x 18 inches, Oil on Linen, 1997-98
Collection of Una Morera

Here is a sampling from a series of drawings called MEMOIRS. They are ink on Magnani paper. Each was done in one sitting reflecting the energy and mood of the allotted time, thus a memoir. I believe I used a reed pen and possibly a selection of other pens as well. My guess is somewhere between 1991-92. There are several more. I still have them so I can count and measure at some later date, if I remember. Meanwhile, here are six.