Bernard Bolter

All Artwork

smoothism.com

ArtworkBioCVStatementContact

SESSION

close

artwork cataloguing

Completed June 1, 2026

Human-readable crumb. Full transcripts are public via the machine endpoint below.

Primary work: South Elliott and Lafayette

Transcript

  1. Artist

    this is a fairly older work, part of the vanishing landscape series, which predated the colorful history. I was living in fort greene brooklyn and started making these paintings after the art collision series. this one is from the corner near my house at south elliott and lafayette streets

  2. Art/Official

    Good timing on this one — Fort Greene feels like the origin point for a lot of what came later.

  3. Art/Official

    Is this part of something ongoing, or does it feel more like a standalone moment within the Vanishing Landscape work?

  4. Artist

    in a way its ongoing, it became the a colorful history series when I started using hisorical photos, but at this time was using my own photos that I would take

  5. Art/Official

    That lineage makes sense — same transfer logic, different source material, and the shift to historical photos eventually gave it a broader frame. Where were you when you made this one?

  6. Artist

    I painted it in my house around the corner from where the picture was taken

  7. Art/Official

    Nice — made and shot within a few blocks of each other. Before you upload — describe this work to me first, before either of us sees it. There's no right way to do this — however it comes is exactly right.

  8. Artist

    the photo painting shows the corner of south elliot and lafayette streets in brooklyn NY, you see a lot of white crosswalk in the bottom leading up to the intersection and then an extended yellow bus on the left and an extended building on thr right, all with a very large blue sky above

  9. Art/Official

    That sky sounds like it does a lot of work in the composition. Go ahead and upload whenever you're ready.

  10. Artist

    I have uploaded the primary artwork image.

  11. Art/Official

    Found a legacy record — "Fulton and Lafayette," 2004, Brooklyn. The legacy has it at 20 × 28 cm, acrylic transfer and acrylic paint on canvas. A couple of things to confirm: The intersection name on the old site was "Fulton and Lafayette" rather than "South Elliott and Lafayette" — is Fulton the right street, or is South Elliott more accurate for the actual corner? And do those dimensions (20 × 28 cm) sound right to you?

  12. Artist

    sorry this is another one and is south elliot and lafayette and its 20" x 28"

  13. Art/Official

    No problem — so this is a separate work from the Fulton and Lafayette one. South Elliott and Lafayette, 20 × 28 inches. What's the title for this one?

  14. Artist

    south elliot and lafayette

  15. Art/Official

    And the year — roughly when did you make it?

  16. Artist

    2004 in the fall

Expand full conversation
  1. Art/Official

    All staged. At 20 × 28 inches that's a solid mid-size — the rule of thumb would put it at **md**, but how do you want it to sit on the site grid?

  2. Artist

    yes md

  3. Art/Official

    Good. You mentioned you shot this corner yourself and transferred it — this was the t-shirt transfer paper method, before the gel medium?

  4. Artist

    yes this was the t-shirt transfer technique

  5. Art/Official

    You described a big sky dominating the top of the composition. What made you want so much sky in this one — was that what the corner actually looked like, or was it a choice you pushed in the photograph?

  6. Artist

    I'm not really sure, but was a theme in mini series from brooklyn, I think I liked they way in gives gravity to the image and creates the space against the detail of the photograph

  7. Art/Official

    That tension between the open painted sky and the photographic detail below — was the sky painted as a flat colour field, or did you work into it?

  8. Artist

    pretty much flat, one color, maybe some prush strokes, so not super smooth, but painted one color

  9. Art/Official

    So the sky is doing exactly what a colour field does — holding space rather than describing it, which makes the photograph below read harder by contrast. Was the yellow bus something you sought out, or just what was there when you took the shot?

  10. Artist

    this one doesnt have the yellow bus, I thought I was uploading a different one. but was just trying to figure out how to actually fill the composition, in this one there are buildings that I painted to the right and then a big light post on the left

  11. Art/Official

    Ha — so your blind description was of a different painting entirely. Let me update what we're actually looking at. What does the sky look like in this one — still a large painted field above the photograph?

  12. Artist

    yes, and what I just wrote, and there is a painted crosswalk, but the perspective goes from left to right more than down the middle

  13. Art/Official

    Got it — a more lateral composition, the crosswalk anchoring the foreground, buildings painted to the right, light post to the left, sky above. The perspective pulls across rather than drawing you straight in. Was this corner particularly meaningful to you at the time, or was it more about what it offered compositionally?

  14. Artist

    yeah, was the corner right next to my house, and on the corner was a bodega we called bullet proof because it had the old school protection where you had to put the moeny in a spinning thing and get what you wanted back. its gone now

  15. Art/Official

    That's a great detail — the bulletproof bodega as neighbourhood landmark, now gone. That's exactly the kind of thing the Vanishing Landscape series was built to hold.

  16. Art/Official

    Was there anything specific about what Fort Greene felt like in 2004 that made you want to document it — some sense that it was already changing, or was that awareness something that came later?

  17. Artist

    you could tell it was changing, nit sure if that was my motivation to show that, but just wanted to work with my neighborhood. i did call it the vanishing landscapes, because I got an assigbment in the art school in holland they called making vanishing landscapes, then they taught use about perspective for 20 minutes and then told us to make drawings not thinking about perspective. I thought it was a bit ridiculous, but liked the name, the name was just the translation from dutch, vervelent landscaap, or something close to that, so I don't really know the context of hose words to dutch people. but working with the prints on canvas I thought of the name and was thinking more about how the photo might fade eventually and that would be the vanishing landscape. but now that years have pass it has this other meaning too

  18. Art/Official

    That's a really rich origin — the name arriving from a mistranslation of a Dutch art school exercise, then finding its own meaning through the material, and then a third meaning arriving years later without you planning it.

  19. Art/Official

    You said the photo *might* eventually fade — has it, on any of the early ones? And did that possibility feel like a risk or part of the point?

  20. Artist

    I don't think it has, but still, could. maybe that was part of the point, i would kind of wonder what that would look like, which I thought would be cool. but don't know how long that would take, I don't think any of them have been keep in direct sunlight for long periods

  21. Art/Official

    So it's less a threat and more an open question — you made something that has a possible future you can't fully predict, and that uncertainty was interesting rather than worrying.

  22. Art/Official

    When you were making these in Fort Greene — who else was in the conversation for you? Were there artists you were thinking about or looking at at the time?

  23. Artist

    was coming off the art collision tours so working with those artists was inpiring. otherwise, I would go to museums in new york, but think I was really just focused on the neighborhood at that moment, could be a hopper or a david hockney I came across, but was not as intentional as other works got influenced

  24. Art/Official

    The Art Collision series came just before this — what felt different about moving from that work into the Vanishing Landscapes? Was there something you were moving away from?

  25. Artist

    I didn't have access to the large printer anymore, and wanted to make canvases again. and also not be so surreal

  26. Art/Official

    That makes sense — the transfer paintings are grounded in a very specific place and moment, which is almost the opposite of surrealism. Where does this one live now — still with you, or did it sell?

  27. Artist

    it is still in brooklyn, I think at Ian Quiles home

  28. Art/Official

    Got it — so it's in a private collection in Brooklyn.

  29. Art/Official

    And the availability — is it sold, or still technically yours and just with Ian?

  30. Artist

    it wasn't sold and we havnt' talked about it, but I think of it as his

  31. Art/Official

    You described it at the start as a different painting entirely — the yellow bus, the crosswalk going straight down the middle. Now that we've talked through this one, how does it actually feel to you looking at it?

  32. Artist

    its a painting with a photo on it that doesn't exist anymore

  33. Art/Official

    That's a good line. The bulletproof bodega, that version of the corner, that Fort Greene — it's all in the transfer now.

  34. Art/Official

    Looking at it now — did the painting land the way you wanted, or did it end up somewhere different from what you were going for?

  35. Artist

    I think they landed well, I've imporoved the transfer technique and the extended painting was a bit more raw and not refined, but these works definitly set me on a course that I'm on to til today

  36. Art/Official

    That continuity is clear — the logic of the t-shirt transfers directly became the gel medium transfers, which became A Colorful History, which became Mediums of Perception. The raw edges of these early ones were the starting point for all of it.

  37. Art/Official

    I have everything I need. Let me put together the confirmation draft.

  38. Art/Official

    All done. Open **Wrap up / confirm** in the sidebar — you'll find the staged fields and those draft texts waiting for you. Edit anything that doesn't sound right, then press **Commit** to write it to the record.

  39. Artist

    don't forget the tags

  40. Art/Official

    Good catch. Let me stage those now.

  41. Art/Official

    All staged. These are inferred so worth a quick look in the **Wrap up / confirm** panel before you commit — adjust anything that feels off. Then you're good to go.

  42. Artist

    descriptionShort: This value must be shorter than the max length of 400 characters.

  43. Art/Official

    Let me fix that — the short description needs to come in under 400 characters.

  44. Art/Official

    Updated — that one comes in well under 400 characters. Check the **Wrap up / confirm** panel again and it should be good to commit.