Duluth Art Beat: AJ Atwater's One Day Fine Art Estate Sale Is April 12

Abstraction 30 -- 36"x 48"

IN TEN DAYS Duluth artist AJ Atwater will debut 130 New York City and Lake Superior original abstract acrylic paintings at the AJ Atwater Fine Art Estate Sale Saturday, April 12 from 11AM-4PM. AJ Atwater Art will be on display in six galleries at 4701 Cooke Street, Duluth. Atwater calls it "the cream of the cream" of her painting collection.

Here are a few of the pieces that will be on display. You can check out my interview with the artist here at the Duluth Reader website: AJ Atwater’s big canvas blowout: Duluth Meets Manhattan.

Fog -- 16"x 20"

Still Life with Oval -- 16"x 20"

Yellow Series 2 -- 24"x 30"

Red Series 6 -- 10"x 10"

Palisade Head -- 24"x 30"

The Artist: AJ Atwater

The more you engage, the more you see.

Sunshine and large windows make colors brght.

 

 “Lake Superior is my Manhattan” ~ AJ Atwater

Related Links

AJ Atwater and PROJECT 30/30 

Virtual Reality Meets Virtual Gallery: AJ Atwater's 400 Paintings

Sneak Preview: Kuth and Atwater's Affordable Fine Art Show

Law and Order Matters: Inner City Retailers Close Doors and Head for the Hills

I don't know a lot about the grocery business, but it's my understanding that the margins are thin. This story about Target crossed through my inbox at the same time as I heard people talking about Chicago discussing the opening of a government run grocery store because six grocery stores have fled the South and West sides over the past two years:

Stocktwits Daily Rip
26 September 2023
Big-box retailer Target continued its precipitous decline today after becoming the latest company to close some stores due to violence and theft. 

The company said it will close nine of its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores after struggling to control crime and safety at those locations. The impacted cities include New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland. 

In a news release, it said, “We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests and contributing to unsustainable business performance.” Interestingly, unlike other retailers who have closed stores, Target explicitly called out retail crime as its primary reason for the decision. 

During its second-quarter earnings in mid-May, CEO Brian Cornell said organized retail crime had risen in its stores and that overall shrink would impact full-year profitability by more than $500 million. He also reiterated back then that the company did not want to close stores. But evidently, the problem has become bad enough to close at least these nine stores and likely review others.

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Crain's Chicago Business

Supermarket closings are the latest blow to South and West side neighborhoods
The closing of three South Side Walmart stores in the spring disheartened residents who already face limited options for fresh produce, meat and pharmacy goods. It was the latest blow to neighborhoods that earlier had lost two Target stores and, more recently, the Whole Foods in Englewood.

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Fox News
17 September 2023
Chicago mayor considers creating city-owned grocery store after Walmart, Whole Foods close stores in the city

Chicago is exploring a city-owned grocery store after several closed in the past year citing millions in annual losses

The mayor’s office said that "Historic disinvestment has led to inequitable access to food retail across Chicago, and these existing inequities have been exacerbated as at least six grocery stores closed on the South and West sides over the past two years."

Message to Chicago: Fix the crime problem and you will have grocery stores.

* * * * * 
San Francisco Retail Scene
According to the San Francisco Standard, over 39 retail stores have shuttered in San Francisco's Union Square area since 2020. This represents a significant decline in the number of brick-and-mortar stores in the city's downtown shopping district.

* * * * * 

When protesters shout DEFUND THE POLICE, one has to wonder how that will motivate retailers and grocers to remain in these neighborhoods. Shoppers like to feel safe, and businesses need to make money in order to pay their staff. In fact, employees need to feel safe as well. No one should have to put their life on the line in order to get a paycheck.

Anybody want to recommend solutions? Leave your comments below.

Theater Marquees of New York: A Wordless Wednesday Walk Through the Heart of Manhattan

A walk with a view: the sidewalks of New York 

Manhattan photos courtesy Gary Firstenberg

Related Links
A Few Shots from Gary Firstenberg's Midwest Travels
A Leisurely Visit with Gary Firstenberg Here in Duluth

Gary Firstenberg Gallery Page 

Throwback Thursday: Rivers

"All rivers run into the sea, and yet the sea is not full."
~Eccles. 1:7 

At one time rivers were the roads. Before the infrastructure of highways and byways, of rails and roads, the rivers were our transportation routes. In other words, geography played an important role in the generation of wealth.  

In Herman Hesse's novella Siddhartha, the river is a symbol. As he encountered the river in various stages of his life, its wisdom was revealed to him as it reflected his soul. 

At one time in my life, the word "rivers" meant Larry Rivers, an artist whose paintings made an impression on me when I was a young art student at Ohio University, Athens, which itself was located on a river--the Hocking.

Larry Rivers. (Creative Commons)

The best part about one's college experience is the vast sea of influences one gets exposed to. University libraries are just the ticket for getting that exposure. I lived in Scott Quad my first year at school which was possibly the closest you could get to the school's library without sleeping as a vagrant on the main green. Row upon row of large fat books filled with full color photos of art seemed to reach out to me. I explored, found that the number of artists I'd never heard of was countless, and so much of their work fascinating. In this manner I encountered painters and sculptors from all periods of history, favoring the moderns at the time.

To call Larry Rivers my favorite artist would be a misnomer, but for sure I identified with the originality and passion with which he created his work. As a young art student, I found inspiration when viewing his work. He had studied with Hans Hoffman but rejected abstract art, choosing instead an approach that gave viewers something to grapple with, figures and forms rather than fields of color or designs. 

A Ukrainian Jew born in the early twenties, he emerged as a successful painter of central influence in the 1950s New York circle with numerous shows and accolades. In the early 1960s Rivers lived in the Chelsea Hotel, the selfsame residence as many other notables like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Dylan Thomas, Arthur C. Clarke and others. 

If nothing else he was exceedingly productive. Making art is what he did, and I liked the liberated sense with which he attacked his work. You can see examples of his work here.

Originally published April 2010.

New York Prison Escape Brings Back Memories. Plus, Insights from the Author of Ghost Burglar

From fall 1978 to summer of 1979 I was involved one day a week in prison visitation at the Bayamon Prison in Puerto Rico. The experiences I had inspired an idea for a novel that I never wrote, but there were many fascinating stories that came from the experience. The year before I arrived there was a successful prison escape that was somewhat humorous in its audacity. On another occasion there was a less amusing story in which two guards were shot. Both these stories came to mind when the news was first released regarding the well-publicized story of two convicted murderers who escaped this week from a New York penitentiary.

One feature of the story especially struck me, the confidence with which the police indicated that the escapees would be captured quickly. It brought to mind the book Ghost Burglar (Savage Press) which I reviewed a little over two years ago and my interview with the authors Jack Burch and James King.

Tonight I sent the authors a quick email to ask what their thoughts were on this story, and how what they learned from their own research would apply here.

EN: What lessons would you take away from the Bernard Welch story that apply to this news story?

James King: Ed, thanks for remembering the details of our book, Ghost Burglar. I had the same thoughts as you about the recent escape. I think what's powering this story is that the escape process was similar to the movie "Shawshank Redemption." Bernard Welch and his partner saw a flaw in Dannemora prison security and went over a fence during a prison ball game. Not quite as interesting as digging a tunnel, but equally effective.

Welch [ednote: the central character in Ghost Burglar] was free as an escapee for over five years. That was when he was active in the Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC areas. During that time he stole an estimated fifty million dollars in goods, raped several women and committed one and possibly two murders. He was arrested and sentenced to 147 years in an escape proof prison. He managed to escape by concocting a ruse that he was an informer about future planned escapes and was sent to the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago. He and a partner managed to escape from the high rise prison by sliding down a buffer electric cord. It took several months for him to be recaptured near Pittsburgh, PA.

I believe the confidence of authorities in the capture of the two current escapees is to placate the public. The prison certainly has egg on its face because of the brazen way the escape occurred. I would bet that there will be some reassignments of personnel there in the near future. The only positive to the whole affair is the nation-wide media attention on the story. That will make the escapees' efforts to disappear very difficult. It should hasten their capture, but how long will it take? No one really knows. I only hope they do not harm any innocent people while they are on the run.

If you remember a couple of years ago two prisoners escaped from the Chicago Metropolitan Center in the same way as Welch did, but using bedsheets instead of an electric cord. I think this proves that lifer convicts will always try to escape. They have nothing to lose by trying. They are already serving a life sentence. What more can be done to them? The take-away from this is that long-term prisoners with a violent past have to be placed in truly escape proof facilities. That's why Alcatraz prison in the San Francisco Bay was so effective. A few made it over the wall, but did not survive the Bay waters.

The problem is that such high security prisons are expensive to operate. In tight financial times they become difficult to justify to the taxpayer. In high security prisons the inmates are usually held in small single cells for twenty-three hours a day for years. This creates a humanitarian concern. The problem is humanitarian concerns make prison security much more difficult. Desperate people will take advantage of any weakness they can exploit. This places prison administrators in a difficult position.

What's the answer? I don't truly know. History tells us there will always be escape attempts. Can they all be stopped? Probably not.

Street Art In the Bay Area and Big Apple

This building in SF caught my attention a few years back.

Last week when I shared examples of L.A. street art it brought to mind some of my San Francisco meanderings a couple years back and the street art I saw there. The building at the right here was striking because I'd never seen anything like it. Instead of graffiti or bright murals, it was a living sculpture with furniture falling out from all the windows.

What triggered my memories of SF was an article at ARTINFO.com on the 20 Best Spots to See Street Art in New York City. As the slide show demonstrates, the New York street arts community is quite talented, and busy. Personally I hate most articles that claim to designate ten or twenty things as the best of everything else, like the best actors of all time and top ten Dylan songs of all time. Usually it's just a person speaking authoritatively about his or her own opinion. Nevertheless, these kinds of articles do cause buzz or a bit of chatter amongst friends who get a chance to say, "Well, what about...?"

It used to be that graffiti artists worked on walls beneath underpasses and other out-of-the-way spaces because the work was unsanctioned. (i.e. illegal) Today's graffiti artist is now a street artist and their work is receiving a much higher level of recognition. Certainly building lathered with color are more interesting than abandoned structures that have been condemned but are yet to be dismantled.

I went to a Vegas auto show party once in which two dozen graffiti artists had been flown in from Detroit to create a wall of art during the course of the evening while suited executives sipped cocktails and talked about the industry. It seemed an odd juxtaposition.

For what it's worth, we have some really exceptional walls in Duluth and Superior, and I'm looking forward to seeing more in 2013.

The images below are from a wall in SF circa 2010. I wake earlier than everyone else so I walked the streets with my camera. How many times I've wished my eyeball were a camera, but there are a lot of fairy tale wishes in life that just ain't gonna happen.