Onward

Hi friends!

This blog may be officially defunct by now, so to those seeing this know that you can forever keep up with my work on scbaker.com. 

For real-time images, art, artifacts and other fun crap: visit Instagram @yesbaker.

Scroll the previous years on this blog for a time capsule of side projects and fond memories. 

On Convenience | Paper 25

("Gas stations, robbing the world of mystery")

On convenience and the problems it presents to us in the end; on convenience and what it robs us of. Following a discussion of how we can never truly be "lost" these days.

From the collection of Original Little Pieces of Paper. 

Context: Picture the gas station for all of your road-traveling needs. From a fancy piece of cheese, to the modern ATM. From water with air, to the exact directions you need when you're lost from point A to B to D and back on track again, recounted to you by the gas station attendant who's using the iMap on their cell phone (since yours is charging in their wall), and not using their local prowess. Everything you need conveniently put there for you.

(This is true story.)

This is a true little piece of paper.

Note* This is also the description of a modern convenience store that also happens to sell petrol, not a dusty, broken-down, picturesque gas station. 

Convenience stores: robbing the world of mystery. 

When we rely only on what is convenient, we may be lead down a path of suffering so great that we don’t realize it is happening.

Visionary Museum Part 4, The Roof

Hello Baltimore! We are now on the roof. The fourth and final phase of the mosaic project and the 20 year anniversary of the American Visionary Art Museum entails the crowning and covering of the small rooftop surface (upper skylight shaft) visible from across the Inner Harbor, and most visible from Federal Hill Park.

Like always, this is a proper mix of manual labor construction, and fine art. In November we spaced and hung the steel struts and installed 90 cement board panels, then de-installed to take back to our studio for design and mosaicing. Late spring/early summer look for us up in the lift piecing together the final glitz and glam. PS even when icy cold, the view is worth it.

The Fin

After finishing the mosaic wall at AVAM, we flipped to the North side of the building to complete a 20ft. fin-like pennant facing Key Highway.

Sunset meeting night sky, in conjunction with south side of the building (Day, 2006) and west side of the building (Aurora Borealis 2014).

Night (2013)

30 feet up; transferring glass from strips of industrial contact paper, after building the entirety of this in our studio. 

Glass process

Mosaic Wall Opening and Dedication | Rebecca Hoffberger | Juvenile Services Program

The young men of the Schaefer House (Juvenile Services group home for boys) were a huge contributing factor to the 2000 sq. foot mosaic that was installed and dedicated in October.

Watch the "DJS TV" short video about it here, hear interviews with the guys, and see them working in our studio. See some of their personal work from our program this past year.

Above: Installing the last ceremonial panel.

Artist Mari Gardner, and (below) AVAM founder Rebecca Hoffberger during presentations with the Schaefer House guys, and crew.

Studio crew: (Photos courtesy of Maryann Baker)

A really lovely day for a crowd. Below: poem taken from  museum's annual literature.

Aurora Borealis: Wall Complete

The Visionary Museum mosaic wall facing Federal Hill in Baltimore has [long been] completed! Just recently there were some great photos taken.

above photo: Dan Meyers

First day of install.

I'm in the lift with Kyle Miller, and Eddie from Schaefer House!

View of Inner Harbor, and third story panels from the AVAM roof.

The core of the Northern Lights spiral. 30 lb. cement half-sphere painted with electrifying automotive paint .

Completed October 2014. Click here to see midway point process photos.

Paintings on the Billboard

A group of my paintings were flashing on the 52 ft. LED billboard over Baltimore's Penn Station! 

Put together by the Shanklin Media Group, and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, this is a tremendous way to showcase MD artists. You can look through their featured artist database to see what's coming up next. My personal profile is here.

Why Not..

24"x30" acrylic on OSB

From here to there. Highway inspiration. Of course there are dozens of explanations, but it may have been stolen (the irony) because it's not there now.

New Index

I was curious to see if I would work better (+faster) with a hands-on version of "every piece of artwork I've ever made" in tiny piece of paper form. It helps and I love it. It's like an odd little game every time I comb the images selecting which work samples to send off. 

Just for the sake of place holders I used things that were unfinished (pear below) but only one shot per mural. New categories coming soon on scbaker.com.

Found: North American Slides

Another tiny, red-toned drawing;

5"x7" ink, acrylic, pastel on paper. 

Based on slide below:

Whose slides?

In 2010 I used to go to the American Corner/Federalsburg, MD auctions. This is deep into Maryland's Eastern Shore.  One night I took three slide packs from a completely discarded table where everything was free, after the winning bidder took only what they were gunning for. They are labeled Alaska 1965, Plane trip to Slippery Rock, Some beautiful mountain landscapes, Cabin Caliadonia [meaning Caledonia?] *Special one, Mary & Walter, and Beach scenes. They are all very gorgeous slide photos. This particular one is a runway in Canada, of which there were several. Out of 90 slides, there is only one with people, (two people standing on a beach). There has to be some universal old photo lost and found. The ones I saw online seem junky. So if you read this and take interest, pass it along. 

Key info: slides, Alaska, Maryland, A. Curtis Andrew Auction, 1965, Canada, Caledonia, Walter & Mary.

Black Walnut, Classics, and Cold

Happy New Year. This is a photo from 1948 of my grandmother giving my grandfather (not married until 1950) Japanese silk pajamas. My mom stated that it was probably a smoking suit. Dreamy AND fun. In the vein of curious gifts, my parents gave my brother tap shoes for Christmas this year. 

Black walnut tree cross sections from the Anderson Farm in Ohio, made into lovely hangables:

Proof that the new-old 1977 F150 still looks so beautiful even in the snow.

Eventually I hung a white artificial tree from the ceiling by guitar rack, (not realizing the ceiling-tree's sudden popularity) but because it's so logical with annoying pets. This wood ornament was a gift from Collodi, Italy, the town where Pinocchio was from!