Sometimes… the connection finds you. While researching neon signs, I discovered the Blue Swallow Motel. My attention immediately turned to the swooping bird… reminiscent of Twitter’s logo. Most 140-character-missives dissolve into the collective unconscious… some, as we now know, can change history.

I’ve been wanting to create a piece exploring Anthony Weiner’s pseudonym, ‘Carlos Danger‘, for ages — and the Blue Swallow triggered a memory. I met Weiner back in 2011, just as his first scandal hit the airwaves. Weiner is an ice hockey goalie, for those who don’t know. Clearly, Anthony had his hands full, so the team needed an emergency substitute keeper — not uncommon in beer league.

So there I am, half suited-up and ready to skate — when a distraught Weiner shows up in long baggy basketball shorts and a rather unseemly tank top. He began whining to the captain, who was sitting next to me getting his skates on. Needing the “stress relief”, he pleaded for the crease. I told the captain, “your team, your choice. If I bounce, you need to give me 30 bucks and a six pack.”

Well, the captain paid up, I got undressed and went home. The next day, I received a call, “sorry man, I wish you played, we lost 12-3. I’m trying to get a municipal contract out of him, so you know how it goes.” Even beer league hockey is ruled by politics.

I digress. Here is the dangerous process from start-to-finish captured in time lapse, with a soundtrack courtesy of my man MH the Verb. Read on for the creative process…

Warm underpainting, nailing down the two primary forms.

What the Helvetica neue? Nailing down the words… the bird… and the dog. Bird dog?

Splashing down some sweet, sweet twilight, with a touch of blue neon and hopes for a dangerous result.

I allowed myself a rare opportunity to zero-in on an area of a painting early on… being, of course, the sign itself.

I figured… in this composition, the glow of a hot dog would dictate the tonal balance, so I lead with the wiener.

There are many, many tones in the sign itself, both in and around the letters.

With the red glow in the foreground, this piece almost feels like two paintings. I loved the challenge of balancing dual light sources.

OK, now we are cooking with crisco. The office is now coming together, and the car is taking shape.

The interior of the office was fun to paint… I treated it as a series of abstract forms, heeding an office, as friend and fellow artist Liz Park noted, “you can almost smell.”

The devil dog is in the details… highlights, branches… there are many breadcrumbs throughout the painting.

And with that, I present Carlos Danger! When this painting began, Weiner was a mere footnote in the public mind. As the work evolved, so too did his story. Weiner’s latest scandal had come to light… and, at the time, it appeared to be nothing more than another sordid chapter in his book of horrors. Over the coming weeks… his laptop would play a major factor in the presidential election… a point visually noted in the final work.

The result? A rare, unintended political work with a lesson — so much can happen in one painting.

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