Picker - Treasure Hunter - Sourcer

I have been around antiques and old things for a long time since my dad is a dealer. When I was younger I would go to auctions with my parents, I would hang out at my dad’s store, and go to antique shops a lot, as well as other people’s houses.

One of my styles of work is taking old paintings, items, and photos and making them new I love going to sales and getting stuff for a good deal that I can turn around and add my modern twist to it. More recently I have been a picker for other people which is fun. Seeing what other people like and look for/need. I have even gotten stuff for my dad before.

For me, it’s the hunt for things most people glance over or finding things for myself to use or even give stuff to other people. In a previous post I ( click here) I talk about helpful and useful info on sales from a seller and buyer’s POV. I like helping people sell or find what they are looking for. some of the sales are overpriced and I walk away and a large majority of sales are kitchen and or child stuff. I like estate sales the most, going through the whole house and finding stuff, while yard sales are already picked through items and sometimes people have more inside. With estate sales you can see inside of other houses which for me is fun, seeing how other people live. I am not a reseller so it’s all for art and or other people.

Sourcing

I also love to source things for people as well. From helping fill airbnb’s to tools people need and other things as well. I go to sales very often and always look online for things for people. Besides items, I also source houses online and in person for my friends at LVLgroupnyc and for other people as well.

There is always stuff I source for myself art-wise- vintage photos, vintage paintings, anything camera, and art-related, ephemera, and things like that.

Here’s a handful of things I helped source for this Airbnb - 1-2 pieces of art and some decor on the shelves, 2 the Picasso and the chair, 3 all the art on the wall and some of the books, 4 the bench/trunk. I also “designed the art and the chair. just some quick examples.

Photos by Alon Koppel + me

Playing Around with Dall-E 2

As a creative/artist I like to try things out and see how they work. See what different applications and platforms work to see if I like them. I messed around with digital collage and NFTs a bit and I tried it and was not really my thing but maybe I can go back to it. I used to make a ton of videos- I don’t make as much as I used to. I have been messing around with different kinds of Ai tools. The first tool I used was a free app called wambo dream ( i’s an app) where you type something in and pick a style and it generates an image that does not exist anywhere. The next tool I used was midjourny its a discord server its free to use a few times then it costs a fee. for me, it was an upgrade from wambo since it’s a bit more free range as in creative type than wambo. There are a ton of ai tools like this out there but these are the bigger-name ones.

1776 painting of political figures signing an important document for the united states in boston ma inside of a federal building with important people

bright neon red chair living room in a vintage house

richard avodon portait of his out west series in the style of andy warhol

a vintage photograph BW of a old home shack 1930's with a family in front of it

These four images above have been making using the most “realistic” ai tool out so far or at least what I have used. They give you credits just like midjourny but they give you a handful for free the first month and the next month they give you a few more and you can always buy more credits. This is also a prompt ai generator and this is all free range, you put in exactly what you want and it will make it. I been having a blast with mixing artists together as well as seeing if it creates something I come up with. Underneath the 4 images are the prompts i put in to get that image. All these ai tools are 100% made up, a few friends and I typed in the exact prompt and we all got different results. The other downside to dalle2 is that there’s a waitlist and it’s randomly picked at the moment.

Here is my POV with all these ai tools out there and new ones to come. For me I am using dalle 2 at the moment to gather resources and source material for fututre works. Maybe i will try and recreat them in my own way or print them and do a collage. I am not sure yet what I will do with them but i will deffinitly use them in the future. Ai and new tech that comes out is always going to disrupt every industry but to me its the arts. look at the camera for example when they first came out people called it lazy art since all you do is click a button and your art is made, or when the digital cameras came out and made it so you can take as many photos you want with your card can take. For me ai is going to disrupt the illustration, wall paper, backdrop industries just to name a few.

Jean Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure

This show I have been waiting forever since it was first announced. I was on the email list and waiting for the tickets to go on sale and the first time they were on sale was his birthday. Josh & my mom and I went down to the city for a few hours we walked around near the exhibition till it was our time to go in. I have always been a fan of Basquiat’s work and going to the King Pleasure show which was 200+ works that have never been seen or rarely seen work of his. Some things I never knew he used like xerox copies of his work that he collaged on into his work and the number of works on paper. The things he found on the street and used to create his own canvas. It was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime show.

Scanning as a Service

Since I have been scanning all the vintage photos I collect. I have thought about offering scanning as a service. I am building up a collection of vintage photographs and documents to use for my art down the line and to build an archive of how people dressed and how things looked back in the day. I can scan negatives and slides as well.

My offers are

I would be willing to scan photographs and documents, send you the high res scans to you by cloud or by hard drive/thumb drive that you supply in exchange to have the physical documents and photographs. This option is an exchange.

I can also scan your photos and or documents and give you the physicals back for a service fee. If you want me to help with making something with the scans such as prints and or a book or whatever else you would want, I would be happy to do that as an added service charge.

I am open to other ideas as well as borrowing them to scan

I have scanned thousands of photos and am building my digital collection for future projects. It would be cool to use them with any kind of designer.

Jack Shainman The School - HIS TENDER, FRAGILE THING

I love this gallery one of my favorite places in Columbia County NY. The gallery its self is cool the walls that were left original. This show is a very strong and powerful. Its BLM work, some old photographs and art mixed with new photographs and art.