The Bronze Serpent Column of Istanbul

A 25-foot high, 2500 year-old bronze column sits in the middle of Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) representing the oldest surviving Greco-Roman artifact in the world. It originally had a trio of snake heads at the top, serving as a tripod for a golden sacrificial platter, and was created for ceremonies celebrating the turning away of the Persian invasions under Xerxes by the Greek alliance of city-states in 478 BC.

The Emperor Constantine had it moved from the famous temple to Apollo at Delphi (remember the famous “Oracle at Delphi?”) to his capital city, Constantinople where it now stands. Constantinople, of course, became Istanbul under the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

At the end of the 17th Century, it was vandalized by Christian invaders from the West, leaving the column, but without the snake heads.

After viewing the stunning column, Marzena and I hunted down the one remaining snake head kept at the Archeological Museum in Istanbul and took these pictures during our vacation in Turkey last year.

In honor of this magnificent monument, I sculpted the 12″ model replica shown below on the weekend of August 13 and 14, 2010.

This painting was completed August 2010, and represents a scene at an outdoor restaurant adjacent to the spectacular Fairmont Chateau Frontenac Hotel, and is based upon several photos shot during lunch.

View of Paterson’s Historic Passaic River Falls
Acrylic on Canvas Board
34″ X 24″

At long, long last, the painting that has sat neglected on my easel for perhaps a year, now completed this day. Prints may become available in the near future.

Goth Dancer
Acrylic on canvas 24″ X 36″

This is a recent (2009) painting based upon my observations, during the past 18 yers, of beautiful dancers at clubs of the gothic-industrial scene in NY/NJ. This particular beauty was a prominent scene figure frequently present at various clubs in northern NJ, noted for her exceptional dancing skills. Here she appears in her most feminine persona. At other times she could be seen in tough attire and punkish, flat work boots.

24″ X 30″ Acrylic on canvas—Opera stage scene featuring miniature portraits of Luciano Pavarotti and Ghena Dimitrova. Ownership: Anna Maria Andriulli Ambrose

This is my most elaborately detailed painting ever, and it is based upon, or inspired by, movie-director Franco Zeffirelli’s set design for the Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini’s “Turandot.”

This scene is a fantasy set at the court of the emperor of China in a legendary time. The set as portrayed in this painting is modified and abbreviated, leaving out repetitive elements of Zeffirelli’s design. Furthermore, Pavarotti never sang in this Metropolitan Opera production, but I put him into the costume of the lead tenor vocalist playing the part of Calaf.

Dimitrova, on the other hand, was definitely cast in this role in the title role of Turandot. The painting was executed in 1989 as a gift to my late brother David, the world’s greatest authority on lyric opera that ever lived. Since 2003, it has passed to the hands of his widow, Anna Maria.

24″ X 36″ acrylic on canvas, in rough-hewn wooden frame with iron corner brackets and collage of historic paper flyers

The famous music establishment and New York landmark closed its doors in October 2006, thirty-three years after opening. It had been the “Ground Zero” of punk and New Wave in the U.S.A., having presented such iconic bands as Blondie, The Talking Heads and the Ramones. In its later years, the 1990s and 2000s, when we got to frequent CBGB’s it was more associated with local bands, parties, Miss Gothic NYC Pageants and aspiring, never-to-be-seen-or-heard-from-again punk rockers from around the country who could now and forever recount to their friends, their future children and grandchildren that they had once played at CBGB’s. The biggest name we were fortunate to catch was Patti Smith— in the revival phase of her career when she performed one Halloween night around 1999.

We will never forget the gracious hostess Althea, performances by The Empire Hideous, Ninth House, The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, the wit and wisdom of Voltaire, the walls papered with promotional announcement fliers, the door-less, seat-less toilets, the mohawk-tressed punks and the elaborately-clad Goth kids whose attire blended indistinguishably with the nightmarish Halloween costumes of party-goers.

It is to these— and all the others who made CBGB’s that special place—that this art-work is dedicated.

White-on-black of the late Hjalmar executed with “White-Out”

Colored Pencil drawing

Pencil portrait of the Founder of the American Conservative Movement, published on the occasion of his passing Feb 28, 2008

Watercolor portrait of my son, Dan, wearing FuBu hat, done about 1996