A road trip with no end destination in mind, part 1

Sinclair Oil Green Dinosaur sculpture

This past Sunday morning, I wanted to get out of the house (since I work from home all week), but couldn’t decide where to go. The weather was questionable (chance of rain), so I wanted an adventure that had some possibilities of being inside and/or outside. I’ve been exploring Hudson River towns in recent months, … Read more

Seeing art and faces on the slate sidewalks

abstract art seen on the slate sidewalk in Glen Ridge, NJ

I was walking in Glen Ridge, NJ recently after a light rainfall, and found myself noticing interesting images on the sidewalks. I lived in Glen Ridge for about 17 years, and during the time I lived there, I would notice things on the sidewalks on a regular basis while walking my dogs. What makes the … Read more

Native American Pottery from the Jemez Pueblo

Jemez Pueblo pottery by Mary T. Madelena

A while back I was visiting my aunt in Santa Fe, and enjoying all there was to do in such an arts-filled town. While I plan on writing more about that later, this post relates to the fact that shortly after I returned home, I received a package from her which included this Native American … Read more

Humorous Thrift Store Paintings

thrift store fishing painting

I always enjoy looking around at the Antique Emporium of Asbury Park, which has over 20,000 square feet of interesting finds, including furniture, art, ceramics, clothing, vintage jewelry and baseball cards, among other things. Here’s a pair of humorous paintings that I saw on a visit in the summer of 2020: at left, we have … Read more

Shark with a handle

shark brand tool hand saw

When I first noticed this covered hand saw at my aunt’s cabin in Santa Fe, the image of the shark perfectly lined up as an extension of the handle struck me as fantastic graphic design. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a fierce shark ready to bite that you could carry around? Below is the … Read more

A consistency of art style – or not

paintings by artist Mark McKinney

These are the last two paintings using acrylic on canvas that I’ve made, and I think you’d agree with me that the styles are quite different. The first one, titled “A Knowing Glance,” is a cubist-styled portrait, and the second one, titled “A Memory in search of Part 2 (Brant Lake),” is a landscape painting, … Read more

Commission request artist scam on Instagram

elements of an scam directed towards artists on Instagram

More than once I’ve encountered an artist scam on Instagram, with the more common ones including people who insist they want to buy my art as NFTs (and refuse to buy the originals), even though I don’t make NFTs, as well as a PayPal scam where they insist on getting my PayPal info to send … Read more