SR: Bob, Tell me about the origins of this piece.
Artist BP: What, are you being funny?
SR: For the interview, Bob, just say what happened.
Artist BP: All right, Lea. Brenda and I were setting up my booth at Lead East, dog tired (It was 10:00 pm), and Leatrice Lenz Dunham, the ever-energetic publisher of Still Runnin Magazine came to help us hang posters and reproductions.
SR: Yes? ... (LOL)
Artist BP: YOU then preceded to do the wonder-woman thing and set up the best display we’ve Ever had.
SR: Yes? ... (LOL) Bla, bla, bla. About the painting I asked you what you would be working on during the exhibit like you did the previous years and you said you had just finished a piece and had nothing started.
Artist BP: And you said ... it dazzles people when I do and “IT’S ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE!’’. So I went home and looked up the word “imperative” at 2:00 am, that night; since the definition hadn’t change since high school, I started a new piece. Brenda and I went through my archives of auto photos and picked out the “chrome-iest” picture. I showed up at Lead East the next morning with paint and a sketch on canvas and started painting.
SR: And people were dazzled?
Artist BP: Well, people did stop, stand around and watch. There were many oo’s and aah’s and compliments so I would say ‘Yes, Lea’.
SR: Yes, Bob
Artist BP: Thank you.
SR: No Charge.
Artist BP: Well, as it turns out, I was able to capture a major part of what I think is American sports history and use it in the “Reflections of America” series. Yankee Stadium, the house that Ruth built, is right there in the chrome reflected 4 times. A few weeks later, during the last week of the season, I went to the stadium to take pictures of it for the painting. I would have loved to take a picture with the car on location but I got it in there anyway.
SR: I have pictures of you working on the painting of the chrome at Lead East. Is it true that you painted the Stadium in at another exhibit?
Artist BP: Yeah, it was at Mr. J and Mike Frederick’s Franken-lines pinstriper’s display and trade show in Mamaroneck, New York where I started painting, the stadium .... That was kind of funny to me, pinstripes, pinstripers and Yankee stadium.