Archive 1979-2

Robert Flinkman
Astor Place, New York
oil on canvas
14" X 17"
1979
copyright 1979 Robert Flinkman

November 29th, 1979 Thursday

I went off to Astor Place, there, for one hour and a half, worked on my new canvas. And I worked well, covering much of the canvas. Tomorrow afternoon I will do the same. Strange, how more people seemed to pay attention at what I was doing than ever before. I found that that distracted me little, concentrating more on my work. And thank goodness, the policeman who did come by, looked, and continued on his way.
About 8:30 I began packing up and hopped on the following train. While placing my supplies on the ground, a young man walked up to me. He began to say, "Aren't you.....?" At first I thought it to be a depositor from the bank, as once in a while I will meet someone from the bank and exchange greetings. I replied that I unfortunately could not recollect his name, and right then it came back to me, mentioning Syracuse and Chris! It then struck me - Rex! We were both so surprised! We then began to go over our recent pasts and futures - where we live - work, people seen and so forth.

December 3rd, 1979 Monday

I had a pleasant evening with Rex last night. He came over about 8:00, and we had dinner at the Flying Tiger Inn. Afterwards to Cafe Chiara for cappuccini and more talk.
After that, we came back here and Rex viewed my painting - the Astor subway scene......Upon viewing the subway scene, he made some usual compliments, yet I felt I could trust him more.....He enjoyed the both works, the painting and the writing. As I have grown to know Rex and remember him from earlier, he is definitely not one to bestow compliments easily. He can be critical far more easily. Yet one knows that he does mean what he says and he is sure of it. He said, interestingly enough, that there are no useless strokes, or words for that matter, in my work. Every stroke says something, every word means something. Nothing is superfluous. I never noticed that. I know, though, that I was gradually aiming for a more direct approach to communication in my work....