By John A. Barry And Bill Carmel
E-mail John A. Barry And Bill Carmel
About this blog: John Barry is the creator of trAction Painting, a process/performance genre in which he applies paint to large surfaces with bicycles, roller skates, and other wheeled conveyances. With Bill Carmel and other associates, he has bro...
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About this blog: John Barry is the creator of trAction Painting, a process/performance genre in which he applies paint to large surfaces with bicycles, roller skates, and other wheeled conveyances. With Bill Carmel and other associates, he has brought trAction Painting events to local schools and summer camps. He also creates visual puns. His works are included in several private collections. John has authored/coauthored a dozen books, including Technobabble and Sunburst: The Ascent of Sun Microsystems. John can be contacted at jobarry33@comcast.net or 925-918-7882.
Bill Carmel has 35 years' experience as a professional artist. His fine art paintings, sculptures, and designs are included in private, corporate, and public art collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia. After teaching at Humboldt State University and Southern Illinois University, he returned to the Bay Area, where he remains active in the arts by serving as a co-curator for the Lamorinda Arts Council's Orinda Gallery and by exhibiting throughout the Bay Area. Bill reviews exhibits at SFMOMA, the De Young and Palace of Fine Arts museums, and other Bay Area exhibition venues. Bill can be contacted at billcarmel3@yahoo.com.
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In
The Painted Word, published in 1975, Tom Wolfe wrote about the trend in art away from representationalism and toward reductionism and, ultimately, ephemeralism.
Forty years later, the art and graffiti on Carquinez Scenic Drive were reduced to pixelated pavement as the old asphalt was pulverized and used as the roadbed for a new paved trail.
The old stretch of road was potentially hazardous but funky and fun (you can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtsHG5IZu70 and here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhkyh5pys4). Plus it had an array of images ranging from celestial to surreal. Those images linger in the memories of the walkers, runners, and bikers who used to frequent the trail.
The new trail, although safer, is rather sterile and boring. I strolled a section of it a few weeks ago and lamented what used to be. I frequently rode the old road and was in the process of creating a giant trAction Painting on it when East Bay Regional Parks acquired the land, fenced off the road, and began the process of reductionism.
Another type of ephemeral art resulted from a demonstration of trAction Painting conducted by me and three associates recently at Stanley Middle School in Lafayette. On a 6 x 9?foot canvas with a fluorescent green and pink underpainting, we applied neon colors, employing skates, a scooter, and a bicycle as our "brushes."

Before we started, some of the kids affixed stencils and taped symbols and shapes to the canvas. (A section of the painting is shown here, with letter stencils barely visible under the many layers of paint.) After I tweaked it in my studio, with some associate assistance, I donated it to the school, where the kids will remove the tape and stencils to see what resulted. I'll have a photo in a later blog installment.
After rolling across that canvas, I plan to roll along the new Carquinez trail at the official dedication on November 8, visualizing all the lost art.