Hand-me-down jeans. For the past 15 years, I have swapped with Ben Bloomstein, who is my partner in the Green River Project. His younger brother’s name is Nicky Blumstein. They’re from upstate New York and they’re one of the rare people who has passed down generations of work clothes. People always think I bought them at a fancy Japanese vintage store, but they’re just things made by those brothers. There’s a pair of Carhartt jeans that were taken from this amazing sculptor named Oscar Tuzon and then given to his brother, named Eli Hansen, who is an artist and he works with glass. And he sold them in exchange for Ben’s rifle. Ben no longer wanted to own a gun, and so he traded his rifle for jeans. Then Ben had the jeans and I wore them for a while and then I took them from Ben. I’ve had them since then, probably five, 10 years. For some time now I have been exchanging things with them, mostly bodas, for old pants and jeans and things like that. I wear them when we do interior projects at work and work around construction. I wear these as little lucky charms.
The newest thing I have and love:
Sam McInnis’s portrait of Emily. that was amazing. That was also a business. Our mutual friend, Caitlin Phillips, is great. He put forward this idea. I thought it was great for Sam to draw. He got some really amazing Bode pieces, and then we sat on it for a few years, and let everyone think about it. Then Sam sent a photo, and it was basically ready. They found an image – part of their process is to find images that are in popular culture and take them and make them their own. It’s the most amazing white color, its background. I believe that white is a really difficult thing for artists to achieve. It is never just white. It’s Naples yellow or something. I think the way the light plays and descends into shadow and volume behind the picture with this kind of pink Naples yellow – for me, it was very exciting to see. Eventually they had Emily come to a studio to do the eyes, which was great. He left it till the end.
My favorite tie:
Emily’s grandfather’s Yale tie. He was at Yale, then he went into the Navy. This tie was for one of the alumni dinners. Emily’s father has a collection of perhaps 70 Brooks Brothers ties. One time, around his 70th birthday, we were in his closet, me and Emily and him, and he was just giving me shirts and jeans and a tie because he didn’t wear ties anymore. So I have all his connections, which I cherish, and they are good. They’re from different ages – they get skinny, and they get wide and all that.
