When Dave, Randi and I began discussing a commissioned piece, I asked them to think of meaningful places in Manhattan. After a few back and forth emails, they decided on the place they were married – the South Street Seaport. To get things rolling, I spent a sunny afternoon taking shots in the area from about twenty different angles. From there, I narrowed-down, cropped and emailed six choices to the Wenders.
And the Central Park Boathouse commission is now complete. To recap: In early January, Stephanie, Scott and Ryan (their son) Gurtman came by my studio for an up-close-and-personal view of my work. With a vision of a painting in mind, we discussed a commissioned piece and the Gurtman’s decided to give the image some thought. The initial concept of painting J.G. Melon shifted to the Central Park Boathouse, they place they were married.
In mid-February, I was commissioned by the CEO and Founder of BEVFORCE to recreate the storied TriBeCa Grand Hotel on a 48″X60″ canvas. Rapidly growing, the men and women of BEVFORCE required a larger, loftier space and with that came bare walls. After some discussion, we decided on a large canvas versus a mural… so the work could travel as they continue to grow.
Adding The FWA (Favourite Website Awards) Site of the Day banner to a site is the interactive advertising agency equivalent of winning an Emmy. For the past ten years, Rob Ford has spent his days (and nights) building an awards showcase which has become not only an industry taste-maker; but a benchmark for client satisfaction and a career building distinction. During my tenure at Fi, each hard-earned FWA Award was merit for a company-wide celebration.
After the incredible Urbania ride, words cannot describe how much I enjoyed getting back to painting. I began painting this prior to my collage painting portrait, but it sat idle, unfinished. With time, it has undergone an interesting journey – there was some darkness and this 18″X24″ canvas was the recipient.
The year was 1925, the heart of the roaring twenties. New Yorker protagonist Eustace Tilley (below) had little on his mind other than butterflies and jazz ensembles. That was then. Today, poor old Eustace is out of sorts. The headlines illustrate doom and gloom. Strange new breeds of Three Term Changing Butterflies demand attention… he feels guilty. A rich man in a sea of social decline, afraid of terrorism, wondering who wants to kill him and his way of life.
Continuing on my new collage series, I decided to create a self portrait. With nothing but time – thanks broken leg – I decided to tackle a large-scale, three-by-four-foot format. Here it is, a portrait of the artist as a not so young man – comprised of the printed page, clippings from @TheNewYorkPost – which one day in the near future will no longer be in print, but rather illuminated on a digital screen. Read more
Instead of tossing my daily delivery of the New York Post, I decided to turn them into art. My lady Erin gifted yours truly six 18″X24″ canvases for Christmas, a perfect size for collage paintings in a growing series. This set came to be after I spent some time looking at a piece I made back in 2003 (below) over the holidays.
The New York Post + US Weekly + Acrylic Paint + Californication + Dexter = Christmas Painting Collage. As always, a traditional Borbay Christmas consists of the important ingredients as listed in the mathematical equation above. After the jump, my stream of conscious collage painting.
Sometimes there’s a man. Sometimes, that man spends 14 hours a day sitting on his couch, leg elevated, popping painkillers. That man is me, and this painting, is a 6″X18″ rendering of the Empire State Building. To date, I have done many Chrysler Building pictures, so it was high-time for an Empire.
