I grew up 70 miles from NYC, in the rural town of Ridgefield, Connecticut. I started visiting Manhattan from the age of 2 or 3, driving down the Saw Mill Parkway with my parents as my father delivered art to the publishing houses who hired him to do book cover illustrations. One of the main clients was Pocketbooks, a division of Simon & Schuster, whose offices are on 6th Ave, right across the street from the subway station I use now every day.

The music that speaks New York to me is particular and special to my history of NY as visitor then a 25-year resident. The attached song by the Brothers Johnson will forever conjure up trips to New York in 1978 that invariably ended up with bar-crawling, party-crashing and public debauchery.

A friend of mine has 2 Colombian red skin boas that throw off their skins regularly and it got me wondering about the leftovers as a usable material. They are pliable but tough, kind of cellulosy, and depending on what side you leave exposed they are either mildly iridescent or a white fishnet pattern that can be dyed. With this piece I wanted to use colors that were analogous to the natural snake color, which i backed with a slate blue to bring it’s own pattern forward. From there it was just the usual draw, cut, glue process as usual. After being backed with paper the skin cuts beautifully, supporting the finest cuts without tearing.

“Compound of 5 Tetrahedra,” 8″ x 6″, acrylic on paper

“Great Ditrigonal Icosidodecahedron” 8″ x 6″, acrylic on paper

-JD

-JD

Oh, and this isn’t masking tape, it’s a quick painting to be used to make other stuff.

-JD

-JD