OLD BAY & NATTY BOH

©2011 CHARLENE CLARK
“Old Bay and Natty Boh and News”  2011
oil paint on board (16” x 20”)

As a collector of McCormick and other brands of spice tins, from time to time I like to compare the old to the new. The 1950 container of  Old Bay Seafood Seasoning (included in the painting above) features a crab, a shrimp and a lobster on the cardboard package topped by a golden tin lid. Baltimore Spice Company is given credit as the manufacturer since McCormick did not yet have the label. At some point the Old Bay label changed from “Seafood Seasoning” to “Seasoning for Seafood, Poultry, Salads and Meats." Look for yourself, it’s there on your pantry shelf now with a red plastic lid. National Bohemian beer bottles have changed, too. I have a few of the early rocket style bottles (one included here in the painting).  Mister Boh has evolved from a vague, one-eyed, yet fully mustachioed, character to a much bolder graphic version of himself. Even though our hometown beer, brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, moved out of state several years ago, the loyal following remains in Baltimore. In fact the Boh-mania among young people seems stronger than ever.  We just love our steamed crabs and beer !

INGLESIDE SHOPPING CENTER

©2003 CHARLENE CLARK STUDIO
“Ingleside Shopping Center” 2003
oil on board (40” x 30”)

I have many memories of this shopping center which launched the migration of Catonsville's Frederick Road Village commerce to Route 40 West. The first Giant Food grocery store in Baltimore, MD was located right here.  No longer were we shopping at the A&P or Acme or Heidelbach's all located very close to home on Frederick Road. Now we drove to the big parking lot on the busy highway. The friendly staff at the new Giant became familiar with our family and learned our weekly shopping habits. First stop was the produce section where the clerk always smiled at me as I waited in line to have him weigh the bananas. I loved that he wrote the price in black crayon on the biggest banana in the bunch. The kind lady donning her dutch-girl hat and uniform in the Heidi Bakery always gave us a delicious cookie to two. The big, clean store had a lounge located behind the live lobster tank. There you could buy a coke for six cents from the bright red vending the machine. Next to that were the restrooms where the toilet seats sprung to an upright position and were illuminated with bright white lights as if to kill all the germs. I avoided using this frightening facility. It reminded me of the  mysterious atomic energy fairs.
 Another memory about this brick shopping center was the Woolworth’s Ten Cent Store as we called it. I could buy a wide assortment of things for under a quarter. One time I bought a mermaid for my fish tank and more often I brought home a colorful slab of modeling clay which sold for 19 cents. Spending my allowance in Woolworth’s was a good way to pass the time while my mother was standing in line at the Giant getting her Top Value stamps at the check-out.

The precious Top Value Stamps were saved and redeemed  by  housewives for an assortment of domestic items.

Sweet Domino Sugars

©2012 CHARLENE CLARK STUDIO
“Sweet Domino” 2012
oil on board (20” x 24”)

Standing on the piers near the Baltimore Museum of Industry we can ogle the massive Domino Sugars Plant -- one of the last vestiges of Baltimore’s industrial heritage. Hardly a day passes by that a jumbo, hulking freighter is not tied-up to its docks as raw-sugar cargo is unloaded from the ship’s bowels.  The factory was opened for business in 1921 and has been refining sugar to deposit into the bright yellow Domino packages ever since . What grabs everyone’s attention is of course the over-sized, glowing neon sign that lights up our harbor every night. As neon signs continue to disappear, this one gets treated like the royal relic that it is. We all feel that this set of vintage neon tubes somehow belongs to us and that we must protect it.  As our cars zoom by on I 95 its radiant red flush across the horizon is a reassuring image that all is well in Crabtown for another night.

Some people have already asked me why I painted this building since I paint mostly things that no longer exist. Well my simple answer is that I had so many requests for it that I finally just did it. I  tried referring other artists' images since there are so many. However that did not seem to suit the collectors of my work. So I say thank you for your positive response to this one and please know that it was an enjoyable project. Now I want to tour the inside of the refinery.

LITTLE TUG THAT WOULD on CANTON PIER

"Dry Tug on Canton Pier" oil on canvas (8" x 10") 2012

When I saw this tiny tug boat named the Aqua I sitting there  atop the fractured Canton Pier in East Baltimore, she called out to be painted on my canvas right away. I don't know anything about her only that she seemed forlorn but not forgotten on that sunny spring day. She appears to have some repairs in progress but not recent ones. Aqua I has a mammoth companion nearby named the Savannah who gets a lot of attention from those who desire to tour a de-fueled, nuclear-powered freighter. Savannah was commissioned during the Eisenhower administration's "Atoms for Peace" campaign. Her 1950's mess hall is one of my favorite rooms on the big white ship. (More on her to come so return to this blog later).  Where Aqua I waits, old rubber truck-tires protect her concrete dock from being pounded by stray debris and runaway boats. I hope to return one day soon and see that Aqua I has received some further courtesy and repairs. Otherwise, I might have to fix her myself and chug across the bay while merrily singing "Sailing Down the Chesapeake" to her.

"Savannah" sits on the Canton Pier without her nuclear power. But she keeps Aqua I good company.

DORSEY SPEEDWAY - Elkridge, MD

Dorsey Speedway, during its 34-year life span, was located off Route 1 near Elkridge in Howard County, MD.  Occasionally our family who enthusiastically embraced a wide range of cars and  commercial trucks went there on summery evenings.  We sat in the grandstands eating delicious french fries and watching the stock cars race around the red dirt track. I remember the dizzying figure 8 shape of the track, too. There are stories about serious race car drivers named Will Dilks and Johnny Roberts who drew from a large fan base. But the racing was secondary to my love of the demolition derbies. Sometimes there was nothing better than watching old cars bang into each other until they could no longer move. It was real bumper cars for earnest adults thought this innocent pre-teen.

Vroommmm Vroooommmmm

PHILADELPHIA -Ferry Boat that worked on the Chesapeake

"Philadelphia Ferry Boat" oil on board (18" x 24") 2012

Who does not get excited at the sight of a ferry boat? The sounds of the cars and buses being loaded has the percussive, clattering rhythm of an island song for me.  The deliberate energy of the crew while hurrying the drivers to maneuver precisely into the compact space on board is exhilarating and nerve wracking. Like all public transportation, they run on deadlines. During the crossings there is always something to do. Perhaps you like to ogle the other passengers while enjoying the spume of the sea.  And then there is the anticipation of the destination at the end of the ferry boat ride.

 You  already know that I sure wish we had ferries back on the Chesapeake Bay. The double-ended ferry in my painting here is named "Philadelphia," but she has an important Baltimore connection. She was built at Chester, PA in 1899 for the Pennsylvania Railroad. They needed this beautiful  ferry boat for their crossings on the Hudson River at New York City. After a while, the Philadelphia served the Pennsy in Baltimore for the crossings to Love Point on Maryland's eastern shore. She was  called "Smoky Joe" as she made her three, daily, 24-mile trips across the bay from Light Street in two hours and 20 minutes. The upper deck had a restaurant which served fresh seafood from Kent Island. "Philadelphia's" last service was in 1948 for the Delaware-New Jersey Ferry Company. She is shown here with a final paint job before being scrapped.

MAGO-VISTA BEACH

In the days before air-conditioning, Mago-Vista Beach in Arnold, MD was one of our summertime getaways. My mother would pack us into the car with a picnic lunch and a one or two additional children from the neighborhood and off we’d go. I don’t remember if we wore our bathing suits or changed when we arrived.  The  friendly, family beach was  pleasantly sandy.  I loved the big silver raft that was anchored not too far from shore. We could wade out to it and jump off into the warm water. There was a dance pavilion that the grown ups used for night time dances. According to a web site devoted to Mago-Vista Mr. Benson began building the resort  on the Magothy River  in 1938. There was an amusement park  and houses to rent. How I wish I could recall seeing that. The image here is from my collection of Maryland ephemera. While I don't remember canoes, I do love the bathing suit on our paddler. Some have told me that the Mago-Vista of our youth is long gone and now, but of course, condominiums have taken its place.