Lost Art #45: Place Charles de Gaulle, Paris

Hello, everyone! 

During this time that we've all been locked inside, there haven't been many objects lying around in the street, begging to be painted on. But now that we're all venturing back out into the sunlight again, somebody was kind enough to leave this wooden desk drawer out on the sidewalk for me to find, and you know what that means ... the return of Lost Art! I painted this one on the Place Charles de Gaulle, looking up at the Arc de Triomphe. I hope that someone will pick it up and take it home, perhaps as a celebration of our triumph over the lockdown period, or in hopes that we will one day triumph over the injustices that people are rallying to fight around the world. If you find it, please drop me a line to let me know! I wish you all a bright and liberating summer! 

This painting, acrylic on found desk drawer,  38cm x 42cm x 16cm, was left on Place Charles de Gaulle, 75008 Paris, on June 23rd, 2020, at 1:00 pm.

If you have found this piece, it is yours to keep, but please let me know in the comments!

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Lost Art #33: Place Lucien Herr, Paris

Hey everyone! 

How did it get to be summer already? I've spent most of this spring working on a big portrait commission, so I haven't had the chance to get out and lose as much art in the streets as I would like. But it has been beautiful painting weather! So I'm excited that this week I finally found a moment to get back to work on my favorite project :). I decided to visit a favorite 'stop and think' spot of mine. I've spent many quiet moments in this small park, and had some profound thoughts here. So it's a very special place for me. I hope I have managed to impart some of my fondness for this place onto the bar stool seat that I found in the street not long ago. And hopefully it will find a good home! If you know anybody in the neighborhood, share this post and see if one of them finds it. More to come soon!

This painting, acrylic on found stool seat, 32.5cm x 32.5cm, was left on the Place Lucien Herr, in Paris, France on June 17th, 2016, at 4:30 pm.

If you have found this piece, please let me know in the comments!

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Lost Art #24: rue Montmartre, Paris

Hello everyone! 

I hope you're all taking advantage of this beautiful spring by going out to search for abandoned artworks in the streets! With the weather a little more suited to longer walks, I've been trying to expand my reach a little lately. This week I found myself up in the 2nd near the rue Montmartre. While I was working on this piece, I was approached by a very sweet man who lived on the streets in the neighborhood. He said that he had found a pen recently and that he wanted to donate it to my cause. So now, thanks to my new friend, I have a new pen in my collection of Lost-Art-making supplies :). He left before I could get his name, but he wished me luck and he made my day. It would be nice if he turned out to be the one who found my painting! But if not, I'm sure that whoever does will give it a nice home. As for me, I'll have to make sure to use my new pen in my next piece! Thank you all for staying tuned, and if you live in a neighborhood I haven't been to yet, I'm always open to suggestions!

This painting, acrylic on found corrugated cardboard packaging,  17 cm x  35 cm, was left on the small place between the intersections of rue Montmartre, rue d'Aboukir, and rue du Louvre in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris on May 12th, 2015 at 6:30pm.

If you have found this piece, please let me know in the comments!

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Lost Art #21: Rue de Charenton, Paris

It's already March?

How did that happen? It's been unseasonably cold in Paris this year, and a little bit difficult to paint outside. But recently we have finally seen signs of the winter giving way, and the sunny days have cast a lovely light back into our beautiful city. So the other day I found myself on the rue de Charenton, where the rue de Prague turns into the rue Abel. And I also had with me this old jigsaw puzzle that I had picked up in the street. So I decided to sit down and take advantage of the pleasant light, the survivable temperatures, and this view of the Coulee Verte, to paint my 21st Lost Art. Then I brought the painting home to dry for a few days, and when I noticed that today was also looking sunny and pleasant, I went back out to leave it where it was painted. I hope that somebody else on an early-spring stroll picks it up and takes it home!

This painting, oil on found jigsaw puzzle, 36.5 cm x 49.5 cm, was left on the rue de Charenton, near the intersection of rue Abel, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris on March 2, 2015 at 12:00pm.

If you have found this piece, please let me know in the comments!

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Lost Art #5: rue Charlemagne, Paris

This week, Lost Art made its first official trip across the Seine into the St Paul neighborhood in the 4th arrondissement. This is the fifth painting in the series, and still no word from those who have found the first four, but the project continues to spread! Over the next few weeks, Lost Art will make its first appearances in the United States (I'm talking to you, Pennsylvania!) so keep a lookout for them there. The series will resume in Paris at the beginning of July. I hope you're all having a great summer, and as always, let me know if you find one of the pieces!

This painting, oil on found broken wood, 31cm x 85cm, 

was left on rue Charlemagne near the intersection of rue du Fauconnier in Paris on June 8, 2014 at 5:30pm. 

If you have found this piece, please let me know in the comments!

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Lost Art #3: Place Alphonse Laveran, Paris

It's time for Lost Art #3!

Unfortunately, I still haven't heard any news about the fates of Lost Art #s 1 and 2, but I suppose I knew it was going to be difficult when I started, and there's no going back now! So I've just left Lost Art #3 at the place where it was painted: 

This painting, oil on found wood, 21.5cm x 21.5cm, 
was left at the  Place Alphonse Laveran in Paris on May 25, 2014 at 2:20pm. 

If you have found this piece, please let me know in the comments!

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An Introduction to Lost Art...

I've always had a hard time letting go, especially of my work. I've always been afraid that once it left my possession my work would somehow get lost, or thrown out, or forgotten, or in some way cease to exist. And I imagine that this fear is rooted in my fear that I too will someday cease to exist. And if my work is what I hope to leave behind, then I must do everything in my power to protect it, right? But this protectiveness I felt toward my work eventually became a crippling burden. I didn't want to show my art, or sell it, and at some point, I didn't even want to do it. I started getting protective of my ideas before they even left my mind. I was shrinking away from the very interaction with the outside world that I so desperately craved. I needed to do something to get back on the horse, to open the channels of creativity and exchange. I had to find a way to let go. And this is how I conceived the Lost Art project.

Being a bit of a pack rat, I have for years collected materials from the streets. Any time I saw a smooth piece of wood, a nice chunk of marble, a large strip of fabric, I would gather it up and carry it back to my little basement studio, where I would horde it in piles, imagining that someday it would be made into something even more beautiful than it already was. But that day didn't seem to be coming, and the piles just seemed to be growing. So, facing the possibility that I would simply run out of space in my cave, I decided to start releasing these acquisitions back into the wild. But not before I found a way to put my mark on them.

I decided that I would take these things I'd found in the street, these bits of wood or canvas or plastic, and paint on them. I would paint the scenes that I'd seen in the streets where I'd found them. And then, after letting the paintings dry for a few days, I would take the objects back out into the street where they were found and simply leave them at the locations where I'd painted on them. You know, because, if you love something set it free, right? I needed to experience the freedom of turning these paintings loose into the world and being forced to make peace with whatever might become of them.

I assume that some of them will be thrown out, some will be damaged or destroyed, and some will merely go unnoticed for countless cold and rainy nights. But I also have the hope that maybe a few of them will be discovered and find homes. Just as these objects appeared to me as 'found art,' they will now be lost again, and perhaps they will go on to be found once more. And perhaps their new owners will even turn them into new works of art, or give them totally different functions altogether. The important thing is that they will go on to have lives after me, and after my artistic relationship with them. Their stories will not just end in my basement, in a whirlpool of anal-retentive self-doubt.

But despite my relinquishing control over the destinies of these objects, I will remain curious about whether they are ever found, or appreciated, or hated or loved. They are, after all, things that have passed through the inside of me, and they now carry with them some trace of my vulnerability and insecurity off into the streets, wherever they go. So I have marked the back of each one with the title of the project, and the internet address for this blog, in the hopes that anybody who finds one of them might get in touch and let me know what has become of the work. 

In each blog post, I will include a photo of the painting, and a map to where I've left it, so that anybody who has found one will be able to recognize what they've found. Then hopefully, we will get some news from the future lives of these pieces. Perhaps we will see a photo or two of a painting in its new home, or one that has been damaged and salvaged, or even one that has been painted over by an artist who fancies their own vision more than mine and is happy to have discovered a new canvas on which to work. And surely, there will also be a few that are never heard from again. But I won't be able to predict or control which ones. And that's what I'm in it for. It's like art shock therapy. 

So if you're interested to see where the project goes, and what does or doesn't become of the paintings as I deposit them back into their native environments, please sign up to follow the blog. If none of the pieces are heard from again, I'll still be interested to hear whether you think the project is worth doing. And if you find one of the pieces, please do whatever you wish with it, but make sure to visit the blog and tell us all about it!