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Art - Baltimore - Jerry Breen www.newbreen.com 410-683-1562 newbreen@comcast.net

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JERRY BREEN

Graphic Art

Illustrations / Posters / Murals

Cover Art for new CD by Kelly Bell Band!

This is one of 2 pieces of cover art I just completed for a new double-cd album by the Kelly Bell Band, one of America's best blues bands. Check them out at www.phatblues.com ! I tried to paint this in the style of the great painter of the 20th Century African-American scene, Archibald J. Motley, Jr. (Google him, too!)

Jerry seems a bit perplexed as he begins work on a special project - a very unusual collaboration. Check back occasionally and view the work as it progresses.

Haagen-Dazs Murals, Baltimore

In December 2007, I completed 2 murals for the Baltimore Haagen-Dazs ice cream parlor owned by lacrosse legend Alex Smith. The larger painting, 8 feet by 15 feet in size, depicts the view looking north on President Street in downtown Baltimore. In the foreground is one of Baltimore's newest landmarks, the Polish monument to the Katyn massacre in World War II. The smaller mural is a caricature of Alex in his #11 University of Delaware lacrosse jersey. (Alex rewrote the NCAA record books for face-offs during his college career at Delaware.)

The Tompkinsville Paintings

View of Tompkinsville (1996) (acrylic on canvas, 3 feet by 5 feet) - This large painting depicts the view from the 2nd floor of my boyhood home at 416 Westervelt Avenue, Staten Island, New York, circa 1979. The neighborhood was so hilly that our front door was 60 steps up from the street and we looked down at the telephone poles (as you can see). Even the sidewalk was about 5 steps up from the street. Around the corner on Corson Avenue, the sidewalk was 2 flights up from the street! (There were concrete stairways built into the embankment. I know this is difficult to picture, but just take my word for it.) I had lots of shoveling whenever it snowed, and lots of weeds to cut with a sickle every summer. (You couldn't use a lawn mower; it would've fallen down into the street!) That's Tompkinsville in the foreground, and Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the distance beyond lower New York Bay. Notice the full oil tanker (riding low in the water) on its way to the oil refineries in New Jersey.

Horton's Row Rooftops (lower Manhattan to the north) The Hall Stairs

Squeaky Bridgey at the Window Jerry & Corey

Baltimore Paintings

Old Lombard Street

The original version of this view of Baltimore's legendary "Corned Beef Row" in the early 20th century hangs on the dining room wall of Attman's Deli, one of the few landmarks remaining from the old days. Mr. Marc Attman, the current proprietor of the beloved Baltimore institution, commissioned the painting. Jerry based it on several photos depicting Lombard Street over the years, as well as research into old city zoning maps. It represents a kaleidoscope of the neighborhood over the years, featuring many of the street's most memorable businesses, not all of which were in operation at the same time. Mr. Yankelov the Chicken Man (far left) is prominently featured. Many Baltimoreans (and former Baltimoreans) who remember Lombard Street's glory days as the center of the city's culinary scene have ordered prints of this nostalgic scene. Matted prints are available in a range of sizes. Call 410-683-1562 or email newbreen@comcast.net for pricing and ordering information.

Pimlico and Jones Falls paintings (c) Reisterstown Road Plaza

Harlequins

"Coco Flambe"

One of Jerry's ongoing projects is a multimedia celebration illustrating the highlights (and lowlights) of the career of the showgirl par excellence, the fabulously fallacious, delectably delusory diva-of-all-divas Coco Flambe. (For a brief overview of the Uberdiva's life, see "All About Coco" below.) A few samples from the Coco ouevre: