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Art Bikers Discover Mysterious Pink Twinkies

by Melissa Bailey | Oct 23, 2006 9:52 am

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Posted to: Arts

A secret forest road, bygone frozen custard, and Marxist-tinged “spectrum lozenges”: A weekend City-Wide Open Studios bike tour encountered all these, and more.

The tour gathered on a crisp, sunny morning Saturday at Artspace, where the City-Wide Open Studios main show hangs. Fueled with coffee and warm drinks, about 20 bicyclists set out on a wide-sweeping tour of some of the western artist studios that have flung their doors open to visitors for the 20-day art celebration. The tour was led by David Streever, Rob Rocke and Mark Abraham.

p(clear). First stop: Daggett Street Square, where a painting by Max Miller depicted mysterious pink Twinkies being loaded onto a boat.

p(clear). “They’re spectrum lozenges,” explained Miller (pictured), “the building blocks of painting.” His painting is a Marxist take on a landscape painting by the 18th century French painter François Boucher. The reinterpretation, full of Disney-like symbols, explores the “current condition of production,” said Miller. Instead of loading laundry onto a riverside boat, the people are collecting the lozenges. Miller’s exploring “how these things have been used by the power structure, and how it relates to painting.”

Lozenges ingested, the tour rolled on down past marsh grasses and water views to West Haven. At the West Cove Studio & Gallery at 30 Elm St., a cooperative of print-makers occupy the second floor of a converted warehouse.

p(clear). Inside was Regina Paleski (pictured), who’s working on this painting of one of the last standing buildings from Savin Rock, a popular amusement park that closed its doors forever in the 1960s. The building used to be an ice cream shop on Beach Street, near where Paleski grew up. “I remember my parents taking me down there for a frozen custard. It was the best frozen custard, down the block.” Having returned to West Haven to care for her ailing mother after spending two decades in New York, Paleski said she’s “making a little memory” of her childhood haunt.

Cyclers nibbled on gourmet olive spread and delicate wafer cookies (no custard), then rolled through leafy West Haven streets, past a football game, to another converted industrial space at 14 Gilbert St. in West Haven.

Inside, a father-son team share one spacious studio. The father, Rick Albee, is best known as an artisan of handmade tofu, which he makes at a popular Middletown store, The Bridge. Visitors to his studio puzzled over his latest work, discovering the key to the shape at the bottom: “That’s Saudi Arabia!”

p(clear). Each depicts how many U.S. states it takes to equal the square footage of Saudi Arabia. Albee started working on the project after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When he heard most of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, he pulled out an almanac and started computing. “I thought, people don’t have any way of putting it into scale.” Albee started with the biggest states (one Alaska, two Texases, four Californias, etc.). He has 24 states down, 26 to go.

p(clear). Albee’s son, Fred (pictured), isn’t carrying on his dad’s tradition of making tofu. But he has been inspired by his father’s artwork. He took inspiration from his father’s earlier work — vibrant paintings of geometric shapes (pictured in background). He told his father, “Dad, I know we can take this and make it something that’s moving and living and breathing.” So he did: Using hanging paper models and colored lights, he created videos that replicate his fathers paintings in 3-D.

p(clear). Seeking a path from West Haven to New Haven’s Westville, bikers rolled through this woodsy biker’s paradise: Marginal Drive, closed to cars and full of colored leaves. The Devil’s Gear’s Matt Feiner (pictured) called it a “best kept secret” of New Haven (well, almost New Haven) streets.

p(clear). Near West Rock, bikers met Gar Waterman, who bought an abandoned industrial space on West Rock Avenue for one dollar and has turned it into a lavish studio and home. The sculptor showed his latest marble work, “Feral Seeds” (pictured), as well as the garden behind the house where he spends time turning marble blocks into smooth plant- and bone-like shapes.

p(clear). In the heart of Westville, off Whalley Avenue, bikers sipped Magic Hat beer with Chris Engstrom, a teacher and Yale School of Art grad. Engstrom’s working on a children’s book about a little boy who can’t figure out what to draw on his canvas. The boy steps outside and nets in the earth’s glories — sea, sky, sun — and hauls them back inside. Engstrom (pictured) has poured scenes from the book onto the walls of his studio/home.

Diehard tour-takers continued through Sherman Avenue, Elm Street, and back to Artspace, for over four hours of arts and eats. A bike tour Sunday hit studios on the east side of town.

Next on the CWOS schedule: A show at the Alternative Space at 550 Newhall St. next weekend. For details, click here.

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