August 6th - 15:54

Title: August 6th - 15:54 Medium: Super-8 film Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Resolution: 2880 x 2160 File Type: H.264 Codec / MP4. Comments: My old pal Robert, aka Nova, joined us in Pittsburgh for a few days on the road trip. Robert and I have a long history together. He is a decade older than me but we grew up in the same town in Holbrook, Long Island. We first met when I had a studio in a community darkroom in Bushwick. Photography brought us together! It was not long after that we started to jam out to gallery openings together, where we found our home at The Storefront Project. He helped curate my first solo show there, The Cactus Diaries. It was a massive success and sold out everything we had on the walls and merch on the table. The following month was the big Twin Flames exhibition at Superchief gallery. Again, we teamed up and he helped me curate that show. It was a landmark show and we were way over our heads with the production to find a ceiling to floor chandelier, metal candelabras, a church pew and benches, and a massive rolled out red carpet. We manifested and brought all the people and pieces together to make the magic happen. On opening night there was a full moon and it felt like a twin themed surrealist ball that even Dali himself could not imagine the dualities. A few days later I made his portrait for Smoke and Mirrors, the cards chose him and it revealed the Five of Cups. Robert sat under the chandelier praying for his mothers healing with Palo Santo, tarot cards, and meditation bells. On each of his sides, left and right, were the guardians. The Bailey twins with their faces hidden by the shimmering crystals swinging from the massive gold light. The show closed a couple weeks later and shortly after I moved to California. We had lost touch for a while when the pandemic hit, and he spent more time with his family as his mother was sick. When I visited New York years later were able to reconnect, and pick up where we had left off on this road trip. It was August 6th, which was also Andy Warhols birthday. It was not planned that we would convene in Pittsburgh on this auspicious day to visit the Andy Warhol museum! Originally, I thought we'd make Robbie's portrait with some of the art or soup cans at the Warhol foundation. But nothing really spoke to me, we simply enjoyed the art and all the floors soaking it all in. I've always wanted to visit this place and it felt good to finally make it after all these years. Ironically, 10 years earlier, while I was shooting Polaroids for the birthday project, on August 6th, again Andy Warhol's birthday I ended up going to the Museum of Modern Art and photographing a classmate behind the tight rope and him standing with a big smile in front of the golden Marilyn they have proudly displayed in the pop art wing. I guess you can say I have an affinity towards Warhol on his birthday to honor him and make art with his art. Robbie ran into a local bronze artist named, Susan Wagner, who recently installed a Roberto Clemente sculpture by the baseball field in PNC park. We decide to take a stroll over and see the work. It was massive and it said the words, "The Great one." It was uncanny that Roberto and Robert had the same name, so I thought this would be a great photo to make today. He told me to look closely, he was wearing a t-shirt from the first show we curated together back at the Storefront project. A polaroid of a younger version of us. An homage to our friendship, our past and the future we are building with each photograph and artwork we create together. Including this great one...