Cafe or Espresso my Friend?

Just down the street and around the corner from the wood shop I work at is a sweet little french cafe and patisserie. Upon entering the doors of the Richol Bakery one is overcome by the aroma of tantalizing tarts, croissants, and fresh baked bread. I have become quite close to the fellas down at Richol and even if I don't want to indulge my sugar or caffeine habits I still find myself stopping in for a good high five and a smile.

There wasn't much by way of decoration on the walls except toward the back of the cafe was this fantastically weird, life-size painting of a really short cowboy(really, its true). He looked lonely back there all by himself so I asked the fellas if they wouldn't mind me hanging some of my photographs, you know, to keep our vaquero company. I am still working through an edit of black and white work from the Sequatchie Valley in Tennessee so I decided to hang a selection from the series.

So if you find yourself on the bustlin' and multi-cultural corner of Atlantic and Nostrand Ave in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, please stop in for a pastry and a teleport to Tennessee. Tell em Shane sent ya.

So funny story... a couple years back when I was living in Chattanooga, TN, I was scouring the web for interesting photography galleries and stumbled on the Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco. The show they had up at the time was of the photographer Katy Grannan and her Boulevard series. They were hauntingly beautiful pictures, shot of these fringe-type characters in the bright California sun, exposing every human imperfection in alarming detail.

Fast forward two years and I now find myself working at a frame shop in Brooklyn, where we happen to frame all of Katy Grannan's east coast work. We recently framed close to 20 new photographs of hers which are bound for MoMA, the Frieze Art Fair, and who knows where else. My fellow college alumni and current co-worker, Hank the Stable Labeler, models off these new beauties for your viewing pleasure.

"Pow Wow" 2012-13

acrylic on translucent duralar - 56" x 44"

 "Renovated Rooms" 2013

 acrylic on panel - 10" x 24"

Winter in New York is slowly, slowly receding. And while I wait eagerly for spring to unpack her bags, I am thinking back on the many Saturday nights I spent with the gang from Prairie Home Companion, too afraid of going outside onto the bitterly cold streets, and quite content to be sipping on whiskey and working on some paintings in my lil' studio. My new blog header, as well as the two pieces above are a few things that grew out of the winter retreat.