ROY CARRUTHERS:
I first met Roy over lunch in the early ‘80’s when I was a tourist overstay through a mutual collector. He gave me the keys to his studio in the Chelsea Hotel, paint, canvas and a friendship that has sustained the idea of the kindness of strangers to this day. He introduced me to the illustration that allowed my survival and Joan who became my Rep and later my wife. Roy shared a love of obscure artists, discordant jazz, redheads and a distain of the unoriginal - Peace, love, John.
I'd mentioned my upcoming show at the Oceanside Library. An odd place, some odd work, strange days. We do what we can. Around 20 pieces off the top of my head from the bottom of my barrel, it opens Saturday, May 4th. I will be standing once again in front of my orphaned children hoping they wont embarass themselves, or me.
My rented home is on the ocean and two blocks away on the same street my workshop on the bay. Idyllic. Then came Sandy and six feet of salt water flooded over 40 years of work in one hour. The 20 days with no heat no electricty no water and a sunk car was a reflective time. I salvaged work for a show at Kim Foster Gallery in December and made some contacts. The NYFA was the first
to help, followed by awards from the Pollock-Krasner and the Joan Mitchell Foundations. I have a show of new stuff opening next week at Oceanside Library and should be back in the clean empty studio the week after. Life couldn't be better.
Over the last few years I've been doing posters for a company called Diversity Inc. The most recent was to celebrate Lincoln and Martin Luther Kings first centenary since the Emancipation and I assembled a bunch of their enablers at the end of the rocky climb under the Emancipation Oak. Dumbass that I am, I left out Rosa Parks and on her centenary today wanted to post this apology to her and add this little drawing.
