I was trying to update my website and I lost a lot of pictures. I was able to find many of them, but some of them are not full sized. I am not sure why, but I am happy to have retrieved them. These murals are not in order and come from many different projects over quite a few years. I will continue to try to update the site as I find more photos.
This is from the days right after the 911 attack. Broeck Steadman designed the canvas and we painted it in the park in Red Bank. It was used as part of the fund raising effort for the families of the people murdered on that fateful day
A fun project: I designed and built the seat and painted this parachute as a photo stop in a shopping center. The young lad is my grandson James.
I was asked to paint these 7 sisters of virtue in a beautiful home on the water. It is after a fresco in Rome. The original was painted in the 1930's. This is painted on the upper story of a great room. It is about a 22 foot high ceiling. I had to modify the background slightly to make it fit into this home. It is still faithful to the original. Mary Gaynor helped me on this painting. Each panel is about eight feet tall.
Neighbors helping Neighbors
Mural concept
My inspiration for the enclosed mural came from a book that I read years ago. The title of the book was “The Color of Water.”
I did not remember the author’s name but the idea stuck with me, so I looked it up. In thinking about how to best represent the mission of the Interfaith Neighbors I wanted to solve the problem of representing all differing people who come together to support each regardless of faith or ethnicity.
In the book, Author James Mcbride tells of his upbringing as one of many children of a white Jewish mother and an African American father. When any of the children would ask their mom, “What color are we?”, she would always respond “You are the color of Water. This is why the stylized figures are shades of blue.
Each of the figures holds something that represents the work of the Neighbors organization. At the top of the mural there are two figures; one is holding a loaf of bread to represent Meals on Wheels and food pantries the other is wearing a hard hat and holding a hammer to represent the work of Habitat and other housing work. In the Lower section there are three people; two adults and one child. The Child is looking through a Japanese Ken structure toward the sun. The child is flanked by a man holding the scales of justice, and a woman holding a book to represent knowledge. They are showing the child the “way”.
The Sun represents Faith and Hope for a brighter future. The child is looking through the Ken which is connected to stylized unban buildings which surround a patchwork of fields. This is to remind us of the interconnected relationship we have with the land and each other. The corn and wheat represent the bounty of our country. The child set in the two leaves of a budding vine reminds us of the care necessary to raise a child.
The lower part of the mural will not be as visible as the upper part (due to parking necessities) but I wanted to create the metaphor of being connected to the earth and also the foundations of knowledge. The tap roots of all of the plants run deep and the lower section of the mural is a wash of water to represent purity. The earth is painted in a way that gives allusion to the universe.
Some additional comment on this mural: The figure holding the bread was modeled by my wife Robin. Robin is a blonde. While working on the mural one of the people who worked there came out to watch me and commented that she was the person holding the bread on the tray. Her name was Rita and she was about the same size as my wife and her hair was about the same length and style. I told her that she was right as the important thing was the work being represented. Rita is a black girl. I know that she understood the mural and the premise of the concept. As I was close to finishing the mural, one of the board members approached me and asked me if "I could make the figures look a little more ethnic" I simply asked her, "what part of my concept didn't you understand?"
Anne's breakfast room. She asked me to paint a rooster.
This mural installation is on Marco Island in Florida. I painted the panels at home and had them installed on the stone wall.
My good friend Ray was making a wine cellar for one of his custom homes and asked me to do the plaster work on the walls. The homeowner loved the idea of adding a mouse in the baseboard molding. I chiseled out the hole and flattened it, then painted the little fellow in the hole.
This mural is painted on the side of a liquor store in the Publix shopping center in Marco Island. The concept was designed by Amanda D'Addario and executed by yours truly. It is about 30 feet wide and 10 feet tall
Gary worked at Churchill Downs when he was a boy. He wanted a painting of the track with the two spires and Big Red (Secretariat) in the front of the pack. This painting is 6 feet wide and about 40 inches tall. I also made the frame and hung it in their home.
These two flanking walls are on the river side of the Red Bank Library. They are to teach the children about nature and the animals that live here, day and night.
Frieda Cowlo was painted for Juanito's restaurant
These are painted in Juanito's Charcoal Grill in Red Bank. There were already three paintings of very dark and macabre, day or the dead skulls. I did not have a lot of time and Juan needed to open the restaurant, so I asked if I could paint over the murals with a simple and colorful Mexican style landscape.
This is a carved plaster Bas-relief mural in Juanito's Charcoal Grill. It was started by another artist who skipped town. It was a mess but I was able to make it work.
This is painted over an electrical circuit panel box in one of the showcase houses I worked in. The primitive Americana style is mimicked in the frame of the companion painting in this hall. The time on the clock is 10:17 as that is the time our running group starts on Saturday mornings. On-On
This painting was made for one of the interior decorators I have worked with over the years. She wanted an Edward Hicks style painting with some of his animals and some others added. The dog chasing her tail is my dog Lillith. She was always chasing her tail. The donkey and the Scothigh Cows are from a local farm. I made the frame to match the clock painting above.
This mural was painted in the dining room of a beautiful home. The heavy wood post and beam structure was created for the seating area. The homeowners wanted to feel like they were dining out of doors in Tuscany. I painted the mural and glazed it to make it seem a little softer and older.
Painted on an old Ford truck for Rumson Exxon (formerly Rumson Esso)
A cute puppy cartoon for a groomer
A cute kitty for the groomer
This mural was painted on canvas on the wall of the Ama restaurant in Seabright. It was painted in golden tones to work with the color scheme of the room.
This was painted as a backdrop for the space section of the Monmouth Museum exhibit. The time machine was built over the sliding board which brings the children to the first floor.
For the flat earth society; a whimsical chair
This panel was painted for the Brick Plaza shopping center along their boardwalk pedestrian corridor
This was painted in the well of a basement guest bedroom in a house on the river. The homeowner thought it would be fun to make the room seem like it is under the river.
Early work
Broeck Steadman and I met one afternoon when I was building a large snowman sculpture in my yard. He invited me to join him in painting a mural at the local grade school. We worked with other volunteers to paint a few murals in our town and soon found ourselves with jobs in other places and venues. One of the earliest was at the Monmouth Museum painting dinosaur scenes. We were joined by his wife Marlis and our friend Mary Connell Gaynor. We painted together for a number of years.
This was painted in the cafeteria of the Forrestdale school in Rumson
These are the dinosaurs we painted together
This exhibit was about Egypt. These are the panels we painted together. I also ran the construction of the exhibit.
These stylized trees were painted in the large game room of a home in Forked River
This exhibit at the Monmouth Museum was called Westward Ho! and focused on the Oregon Trail. My buddy Sea Ray Guzman did the set construction
Andrea and Mark's foyer painted with Broeck Steadman.
Andrea and Mark's foyer looking to Sea Bright
Detail of the Mary Patten
Andrea and Michael's dining room with a Tuscany background mural
These two panels are painted on flanking walls at the Red Bank Library. They are to teach the kids about the animals that live in the area in the day and in the nighttime. Some are a little hard to find. Each panel is about 16 feet wide and 9 feet tall
A different style for sure: This is painted on the ceiling of the Ardena grade school.
Broeck and I painted this on the ceiling of a local seaside bar
I painted this on the back of a 47 Ford Pickup truck
Little Brooke's bedroom
Broeck and I painted this in a boy's bedroom
Baby Catherine's bedroom. Her mom told asked me to put bows and ribbons on the little animals
Painted in a little boys bedroom from photos of his grandfathers car lot.
Marlis Steadman helped paint these horses, These are the ones that I painted and all of them on the carousel building in Keansburg
I painted this deco on a dining room ceiling in Middletown
We painted this on the ceiling of a restaurant in Ocean
Painted on a ceiling in Colt's Neck
This mural was painted on the side of the Elks building in Red Bank Tara Amelchenko and I were the contracted artists to do the mural. The council asked me if I could make my mural incorporate her panel as if it was hanging on the wall of the painted building. I re-designed my mural concept to incorporate her panel and designed another panel on the street side. My mom and her brother Ned are the little children in the sepia tone photo in the collage. The other images of Red Bank were given to us by Dorn's Photos
Tara's panel is on the left side and the one on the street side was designed by me and painted with Tara and Tait Roloffs.
Broeck, Marlis and I painted these in an oncology center in Shrewsbury. The scenes were selected by a patient and painted by us.
This was painted on a brick wall of a restaurant in Red Bank.
Broeck, Marlis and Mary Gaynor painted this with me first in 2002. The little girl on the wall was not supposed to be in the mural. The council only gave me permission to paint the guy on the ladder. I asked the little girl, who visited daily with her mom, if she wanted to be in the mural. Mary painted her in the first time. The wall peeled off a couple of times over the years and I painter her back in when repairing and repainting. In 2014 a huge section of the wall peeled off. Mike Pappa repaired and re plastered the wall and I repainted the entire mural myself. I found the little girl with some help from some of the locals and asked her if she wanted to be in the mural again. She was now about 22 years old and showed up in a hot pink dress. I painted her looking back at her former self as she walked down the path of the mural. The really funny thing to me is that the person who paid me never noticed the addition to the mural.
Above the clouds; a boy's bedroom
Broeck and I painted a number of things for the Keansburg Boardwalk in the off season
Painted in a young boy's bedroom
I Painted this a few years back with my daughter Nikki. The mural was lost during reconstruction of the building, but it was fun while it lasted.
Oil on canvas painting of an entire family for Christmas
Detail of a chipmunk
Robin's Robins
Lisa's dining room
