I think there's something to the Art Deco style that goes a little deeper than is generally credited. Years after the movement unofficially ended, it is still the subject of much emotional appeal, if it's continuing appearances in all forms of popular media are any indication. Perhaps it's because the movement is so strongly linked to the period between the World Wars of the 20th century, that period of simultaneous excess and poverty coupled with industry and futurism evocotive of the emergence of the United States as THE world power. Maybe it's because Deco was more decorative (for art's sake!) than the rival, utilitarian International Style without being as pretentious as the preceeding Nouveau. Or then again, maybe it's the fact that Deco was the springboard for the endearing Googie, providing it a position as a favored ancestor. I like to think that it's just because it looks so good.

Where did this train of thought come from, you ask? I've spent a lot of time this week looking at architecture from the American World's Fairs of the 20th century. There have been some spectacular buildings constructed for the purpose of temporary entertainment. New York has no doubt had the best of it, as the style and enduring memory of 1939's Trylon and Perisphere or 1964's Unisphere tower over other Fair relics such as Knoxville's Sunsphere, San Antonio's Tower of the Americas, and Seattle's Space Needle. (Towers and spheres were clearly pretty common themes for 20th-century modernist architects.)

I have long cherished the 1939 Fair as the cradle of superheroes. (1940 World's Fair Comics was the first to feature both Batman and Superman together -- on the cover. They were in separate stories inside.) But the 1964 Fair has a lot going for it, too. The aforementioned Unisphere is a masterpiece of sculpture. And the Uniroyal Tire Ferris Wheel was so spectacular that Detroit can't bear to let it go. (The giant vulcanized tire puts me in mind of Birmingham's cherished giant Vulcan, similarly made for a World's Fair -- St. Louis 1904 -- but now residing in a comfortable, customized park.) This all, of course, leads to one of my enduring interests: decaying urbanscapes. Have you seen the remains of 1964's New York State Pavilion? Fantastic!

To quote the NY Pavilion architect, Philip Johnson, "There ought to be a university course in the pleasure of ruins."

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Another painting is on eBay here. Yeah, I know, I'm a real machine, churning out these paintings.

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Latest painting is on eBay here. Fitting that I would finally get around to painting her. I was motivated to start painting dogs in her honor. (Ok, maybe she was a little spoiled.)

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New painting up on eBay here.

When my brother was young, he used to really enjoy stuffed animals. He had hundreds of 'em. Now he owns a Maltese/Pomeranean dog. Really, I guess I should have seen it coming.

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New painting up on eBay here.

Professional painter Robert Stackhouse once told me that the way to make a career out of selling paintings was to discover what other painters were not providing in a given market, then produce those paintings for that market. Until I find that niche, expect something a little different with each painting.

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As you may or may not know, I've begun selling paintings on eBay (under the clever eBay id "wriphe"). I started this last year off and on, but now that I've got a little more space around the house to work on several canvases at a time, I'm listing again a little more aggressively. I'll post here when I've got a new painting up for sale (like today, though the painting that I listed today is not the painting pictured below).

The above picture (Batmobiles are awesome) is about actual size on a 1024 x 768 monitor. Nifty, huh?

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My friend (who I usually call Chris, but for the sake of protecting his anonymity, for the rest of this blog posting, I'll refer to him as Otto, because, well, he calls himself Otto) has just completed a painting of Adam West as Batman and listed it on eBay. He's got an image of the painting as well as a "making of" video on his blog here.

(Don't worry. Robin throws a batarang through the canvas to prevent Batman from revealing his identity. Hey, that's what sidekicks are for, right? And that should definitely teach Batman not to host oil painting classes for the Associated Press again.)

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Ah ha! After months of wondering, I've finally found it. "It" is the name and location of a statue that has been looming large in recent months on my television: an orange, double-helix fountain sculpture.

I first noticed the sculpture late last year in a Sprint Mobile Broadband television commercial. It was background set decoration. Big and bright orange, it stands out from a typical back drop. Because it appears in a commercial, I assumed that it must be in Los Angeles, where most commercials are shot. Yet within days, I spotted a Dockers television commercial when a man in business slacks runs in front of it. The Dockers' ad prominently featured San Francisco landmarks.

Now I HAD to know where that statue was, featured as it was in two television commercials running simultaneously, apparently featuring two different locations. I was especially curious as to this statue's location, perhaps even because such a large, noticeable object was completely unnecessary for the products' sales pitches. (Though let's face it: I don't have a laptop computer, and I'm not wearing slacks. I've been paying too much attention to these commercials. come to think of it, I probably pay too much attention to all commercials. But that's why they run them, right?) Google searches on "orange fountain sculpture" in "LA" and "San Francisco" turned up nothing. That statue could have been anywhere.

But tonight I caught a break! The statue was featured prominently as "Kirby Plaza" in New York City during tonight's "Heroes" episode, "The Hard Part." (I fully endorse NBC's "Heroes," by the way. It's great television.) As I suspected, the name "Kirby Plaza" was fictitious, an homage to Jack "King" Kirby, the man most responsible for the look of modern comic books. (He's so important, he has his own museum.) Thank goodness for obsessive fans. One show fansite mentioned that ARCO Plaza was a planned shooting location for the episode. A few clicks later and eureka! (That's "eureka" as in, "I found it," not "Eureka" as in the also Wriphe-endorsed show on the NBC-owned Sci-Fi Channel.)

Summarizing from publicartinla.com: the steel statue, titled "Double Ascension," was installed in 1973 in ARCO Plaza in Los Angeles. The statue was designed by Bauhaus professor Herbert Bayer as the first in a series of Los Angeles public art pieces aimed at helping to revitalize downtown LA. Bayer originally named the piece "Stairway to Nowhere," but ARCO executives didn't much like that title (for obvious reasons), so it was changed.

The plaza, a virtual city-within-a-city, has since been renamed City National Plaza after City National Bank bought the buildings after they were vacated by ARCO following ARCOs assimilation by BP. There seems to have been some concern that with new corporate owners would come changes to the site. Instead, the sculpture, seen from several angles here at arcitectfad.com, has been embraced by City National and become something of a motif for the new owners' decorations, serving as a pattern for the surrounding tables as well as the logo for the building's website. I also discovered that in addition to the recent commercials and television appearances, the piece was in the movie Pretty Woman.

The plaza are managed by Thomas Properties Group (TPG), which also manages LA's Universal City, home of and General Electric's NBC Universal Studios. Filmed at Universal City is a television show called "Heroes." (Did I mention how good that show is?) Does this make "Double Ascension"'s recent media exposure coincidence or conspiracy? You be the judge. Meanwhile, I'll keep my eyes out for an appearance of the statue on "Eureka" just in case it shows up there.

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So, in addition to dog sitting, house sitting, attending weddings, applying for jobs and working on graphic and web design jobs, I've also been constructing a dollhouse. I like to stay busy.

The box proudly proclaims this kit to be from the "Mansions in Minutes" series. And sure enough, I completed it in minutes. Nearly 1,000 of them spread over three weeks of waiting for glue and paint to dry. Who says there's no truth in advertising?

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Today I finally listed on eBay those coin paintings I've been working on. We'll see what comes of it. My friend Chris recently completed a great Mego head Batman painting and listed it on eBay and (as of this posting) has received no bids. It's hard to be a starving artists, I tell you.

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