2017 February

A snow day. February 2017. Cold with a storm at large. Snow coming and it dropped a load on Fort Greene.

Eight inches and more of the heavy stuff.

ADAM AND EVE by Charlotta Jansen

Charlotta Jansen at the Sphinx Gallery in London tonight with her painting 'Adam & Eve, Greene County, GA 1941'. She is one of 30 artists up for the Young Masters Prize.

I love her work.

125 Kensington Church St London W8 7LP United Kingdom +44 20 7313 8040

CARDBOARD NOIR by Shannon Greer and Charlotta Janssen

Earl looked out the window. Grady's gang was out on the street. The mobster wanted his moll. Helen was safe in the hotel room. The shadows on Broadway offered too many endings to this story.

I hit the pavement running. My gat was good for one-on-one. I needed serious back-up to deal with a gang.

Grady's goon offered money for Helen. Helen wasn't anyone's dame. I blasted the gunsel with my chopper. Grady got the message.

Grady and I fought it out on Broadway. The crowd fled from the bullets. My .38 ran out of ammo. My brass knuckles cracked Grady's head. He went down like a bag of mashed potatoes.

Helen got in my car. She looked good behind the wheel. Grady's gang sought revenge. Helen drove fast. My chopper shot faster.

Helen and I were safe in another town. We weren't staying long. Grady wasn't dead and live men have a memory. Me too and Helen in a cheap hotel for a long weekend was one of them.

I loved these photo-paintings.

My friend wrote about CARDBOARD NOIR

After having so much fun collaborating with on our cardboard cutout story with kids, I thought it would be wonderful to do one with an adult. Taking our inspiration from Bogie and Bacall, we decide to do a noir story in cardboard. Although labor intensive, it was so fun to shoot it was easy to forget the long hours of creating our set pieces. At least it was for me — Charlotta might still hold a grudge. I hope the whole crew’s enjoyment collaborating on this project is reflected in the results of: “Cardboard Noir!”

Art: CHARLOTTA JANSSEN Model: BROCK GLOOR Styling: LIZ TEICH Grooming: SABRINA ROWE Digital Tech: ROBERT BREDVAD Production Assistants: EVA MARIE LANSBERRY, Paloma Lansberry Wardrobe Assistants: NICHOLAS ADEDOKUN and MORGAN LEYKAM Location: TEN TON STUDIO

SEE SHANNONGREER.COM

ps i provided the text

8 Years

My good friend Shannon and his lovely wife celebrated eight years together. We had a drink at a Myrtle Street bar. "I have to ask you. Sex must be boring, so why don't we have a menage a trois?" "I'm game," Charlotta replied without hesitation. "Tonight?" "Errr." I was in no condition for sex, especially with a good friend. "Maybe another night." "Loser." Shannon was absolutely correct and I watched them leave for a romantic dinner, while I held hands with a glass of beer. It tasted good.

Night-Stalking Bed_Stuy

Friday night I attended a Protest Art opening curated by Richard Beavers at his House of Art Gallery. Its location was not in Midtown, Chelsea, Soho, or the Lower East Side, but at 408 Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyesant, a Brooklyn neighborhood for its famed motto 'Bed-Stuy, do or die'. Little Harlem fell on hard times in the 60s. Gang wars and race riots led to white flight. Robert F. Kennedy attempted to address the social inequity facing the residents after his election to the Senate and fought against the Democratic gerrymandering of the district. In 1968 Shirley Chisholm was elected to Congress from the 12th and fought hard to keep the Brooklyn Navy Yard open, but the 70s were even harder with Bed-Stuy bottoming out with the 1977 Blackout during which hundreds of businesses were looted or burned to the ground. Crack cocaine robbed the next two decades and only recently has the neighborhood revived thanks to the gentrification of the old brownstones. Richard Beavers was born in Bed-Stuy and mentioned about the hopelessness of those times, while also praised the works of the four artists featured at this show; Charlotta Jansen, Frank Morrison, Dan Ericson, and Anton & Najee Dorsey. "These paintings are meant to wake up our minds to speaking out against injustice." No one spoke about Warhol, Larry G, or Gerhard Richer. This was art aimed at opening our eyes. I drank wine, conversed with the guests, and then decided to walk to Fort Greene. I hadn't realized it was so far away from where I lived near the Atlantic Terminal. I cut through streets without a single person on the sidewalk. A few boys played basketball next to a school in the dark. The abandoned lots are cleaned of trash, signaling their extinction. I didn't see any gangsters or cops either. I didn't hear any shootings or police sirens. Bed-Stuy isn't what it was back in the 80s and I arrived at the Fort Greene Observatory foot-weary, but never threatened by danger. These might not be the best of times, but they are not the worst of times either. For this is no longer the time of dying, but the time of living. Go see PROTEST. It's well worth the trip. Even if you take the subway.