Artist Creates 33 Pieces in 33 Days

It started like this: Easton's iMiJ Shop needed an artist for an upcoming show, and contacted Tom D'Angelo. 

Throwing around ideas, D'Angelo said, “I’m turning 33, let’s call it '33.' Let’s do something with that number.”

That "something" turned out to be a plan to make 33 pieces of art in 33 days, for a show that opens Saturday with a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

D'Angelo -- who's one half of the "Our" in the Our Garage Space gallery on Sitgreaves Street in addition to be a landscaper/housepainter -- works with wood.

The pieces he's created for "33" range from paintings to sculptures to objects he's decorated -- an intricately rainbowed chair -- for example. He doesn't give anything a proper name.

"Everything I come up with sounds too pretentious," D'Angelo said, as he hung his work on the iMiJ Shop walls. "I'll call it what it is. "This'll be 'Tower of Plywood,' or 'City of Scrap.'"

Sure enough, one of the pieces -- the first thing to catch your eye inside the gallery -- looks like a city, with tightly-packed towers of wood.

And although it is just scrap wood, each piece is different. On one of them, in pencil, you can read the phrase "This is..." over and over. D'Angelo said he hd written it there as part of an idea for a series of abstract paintings: blank pieces that would just have a single sentence "This is a landscape," for example.

Mike Cabreza -- who says the show is part of The iMiJ Shop's transition from store/studio to gallery -- seemed impressed.

"We don’t feel like there’s any filler," he said, helping D'Angelo prepare.

Don't picture D'Angelo turning out a piece a day for 33 days. There were some days when he did more than one, others when he didn't do anything. 

"I still had to paint somebody’s house during this time," he said.