Just some of the great art we found at this past weekend’s Fountain Art Fair.
Have you ever noticed how many banks we have to choose from in our little downtown area of Greenpoint, Brooklyn? South of Greenpoint Avenue, on Manhattan Avenue, our banking options seem limitless: HSBC, Citibank, Bank of America, Dime, Capital One, Chase, Apple, and now, TD Bank.
For the average non-homeowner with a steady paycheck the levels in service don’t differ much from the green bank to the red bank. For homeowners, it’s usually a matter of a quarter percentage savings on the interest of their mortgage. Options are good, but I don’t think that they need to take up so much physical space from the downtown centers of New York City neighborhoods. It’s not like my account is physically there; most banking is done online. And let’s face it, banks are basically big empty spaces used as a public relation tool by an industry that can more easily afford centralized real estate than anyone else. And they are in need of public relations.
I know you hate the newest ugly condo building in the neighborhood, me too, they’re ugly and already falling apart, but this outdoor mall of banks isn’t any better. Continue reading
SANDY BENEFIT PHOTO PIN-UP SHOW
1-Night Only!
Friday, Nov. 30th – 6:30-9:00pm
Meble Studios
11×14 and smaller prints for $20
Larger prints will be silent auction
Free admission, donations accepted
Submissions can be dropped off at the studio prior to 11/30, mailed to Sara Macel 11 Judge St, Apt 1R, Brooklyn NY 11211, or dropped-off at 6pm on the night of the show.
I don’t know about you, but being on facebook and twitter and checking the news is making me a little nuts. So I am looking at all the Hurricane Sandy graphs on Noaa.org and using my awesome marker set to calm my nerves.
Send any #sandy inspired artwork to greenpointers (at) gmail.com
Photos from this past weekend’s Go Brooklyn Art in Greenpoint. If you took any great photos on your Instagram please tag #go_greenpoint @greenpointers so we can share them here, too. Did you go to Go? What did you think? Who did you vote for?
Greenpoint’s “eco-chic” boutique the one well (165 Greenpoint Ave) is hosting Greenpoint artist Amanda LaMarco’s first solo show titled Hair, opening tonight August 12, 2012 from 7-10pm.
This girl has chops with pen on paper, the time and attention to detail to draw micro-fine strands of hair isn’t easy, but her hair illustrations, created just for this show, are not meant to show-off her skills but to deal with her hair that she describes as “big.” Continue reading
How much do cats rule? When you can’t get enough cats in real life, check out WEBCATS, a series of hilarious cat drawings along with sarcastic and witty phrases that only a cat would be thinking. Greenpoint artist Scott Chasse is the brains behind Webcats. We started worrying about Scott when he began obsessively using Tumblr to post hundreds and hundreds of cat photos daily.
Scott is previously recognized for his obsession with painting Burt Reynolds so the obsessive part wasn’t a surprise, but cats? He is elusive about why cats are his focus, even though he is an avid cat lover and owner of a very handsome feline. My guess is it’s a riff on the internet itself, because apparently the two biggest searches online are porn and you guessed it – cats.
WEBCATS is not only on the web, you can now purchase screen printed t-shirts made by Scott right here in Greenpoint. When the entire world almost imploded after Instagram got hit by lightening, Scott said, “this is why I had to put my internet cat drawings on t-shirts – in case the internet breaks.”
And right now you can have Scott create a digital cat drawing of your cat for only $10 (on sale.) All you have to do is send him a photo and some text (optional) and he will draw your cat in true WEBCATS fashion. These make great birthday and holiday gifts for your cat obsessed friends and family.
You can look forward to Scott’s weekly Wednesday cat drawings right here on Greenpointers!
Although it was a scorcher, Crest Fest 2012 was a great day. It truly had a festival feel with good live music, great artwork, a fun crowd, good beer and great open space. 
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The Crest Hardware Art Show is coming up and they are currently accepting submission until the deadline: Sunday, June 17th, so all you artists, get cracking! “As always” the theme is “art about, made with, for and/or inspired by hardware.” All mediums welcome. Check out the Crest Arts website for submission form and official rules. And good luck!
The world is random; so is Greenpointers. The obsessive collector in me cannot keep my hands off any and all cool looking business cards that I find in coffee shops, art galleries, bars and those handed to meet when I meet new folks. I have a nerdy binder with laminated slots where I keep them, but since that has filled up I stuff everything into this pickle jar. Like a lot of organizational disasters in my life, it is one of the many elephants in the room of things I need to go through. I earnestly pocket these cards because they are attractive to me and I want to check them out.
Enter the new weekly post: “Pick a Card” in which I randomly pick a business card, show it to you, and tell you all about it.
This may sound boring, but this isn’t the “Leave a Business Card for Free Lunch” raffle jar you find in an overpriced deli in Midtown. This jar is filled with some of the most innovative and creative new companies, organizations, artists and musicians, all people who live in our neighborhood.
Another column I want to do regularly is a weekly featured Greenpoint artist, so I am killing two birds with one stone here. I am psyched that the first card I pulled is artist/photographer Caroline Burghardt. Aside from personally loving her work, the timing is great because on Saturday she is working on her Pastoral Dreams photo project up in the Bronx at the Andrew Freeman Home, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun! Check out the facebook invitation for more info.
