In the 1958 B-movie “The Blob,” a thick gooey substance from outer space threatens the peace and tranquility of a small Pennsylvania town. The campy sci-fi/horror flick gained a cult following in the 1970s, and has been widely parodied in film and art ever since.
Secaucus artist Bobby Travieso puts a local spin on his own homage to “The Blob,” and to B-movies in general.
“I’ve done a number of paintings that are set in Secaucus and the Meadowlands where there’s this scary thing encroaching on the town,” Travieso explained. “I see it as a metaphor for overdevelopment.”
While many artists have interpreted the Meadowlands – often as a lonely, desolate place – Travieso may be among the few to take a tongue-in-cheek approach to the region.
One painting, “Swampman from the Meadowlands,” has a green character in the foreground trying to enjoy his backyard. Xanadu, the vast sports and entertainment complex currently under construction along Route 3 in East Rutherford, can be seen in the background. Another painting features “Ooze – The Secaucus Monster” menacing Paterson Plank Road.
Both paintings mimic old advertising posters for B-movies. (His other more whimsical pieces include a series of paintings he has done of famous people on cereal boxes.)
“I’m commenting on things that I see going on,” said Travieso recently. “But I don’t want to be too serious. I want to be funny. Some people [in Secaucus] get it; some don’t.”
Art born from tragedy
Travieso grew up in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood during the community’s rough and tumble ’60s and ’70s, before the current wave of gentrification swept through the area.
Once known as a high-crime area, the gritty streets there would claim the life of his father, a pivotal event which ironically led him to art.
“I had all these bottled up emotions that eventually had to come out somewhere.” – Bobby Travieso
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“When I was 7 years old, my father was murdered,” Travieso recalled. “He was killed in a hold-up. And back then, in 1970, they didn’t have all the counseling they have for kids in schools today. There was no counseling after traumatic events, at least not in the school I attended. So I started drawing and that was like my therapy. I had all these bottled up emotions that eventually had to come out somewhere.”
He said he initially drew cartoons, using pencils and markers, before moving on to acrylic on canvas.
Although many of his pieces are humorous, and use humor to impart commentary, Travieso has paintings that are haunting.
“The majority of my art is funny and is intended to make you smile,” he said. “But I do have art that’s dark. So those old emotions from childhood still leak out once in a while.”
Perhaps his darkest works are the ones he calls his “abstract body imprint” paintings. For these pieces, Travieso covers his body in paint then “throws” himself against a canvas, leaving behind a slightly harrowing imprint of his profile. Two paintings from this series also include imprints of railroad tracks. To get the track imprints, he said, he applied paint to the rails by Harmon Cove, then placed his canvas over the tracks. (The Secaucus police, suspecting he was up to no good, caught him and chased him away. But it was too late; Travieso had already completed the imprints that he needed.)
Another painting titled “Snowstorm,” is similar. It has a tire track going across the canvas under Travieso’s body imprint. The painting could be interpreted as roadkill.
Travieso noted, “Sometimes I like my art to be a little raw.”
‘Late bloomer’
Travieso has sold several paintings and said he exhibits as often as possible. Last month he participated in a group show in Jersey City, and in March his work will be exhibited in town at the Secaucus library.
This wasn’t always the case. Travieso said he drew and painted throughout his childhood and early teens. But lacking encouragement from those close to him, and lacking confidence in himself, he largely abandoned his art by the time he went to college.
“I was a late bloomer,” he admits.
An advertising major at Baruch College, Travieso said he didn’t consider a career in art until after graduation.
“I still felt like I didn’t know who I was, and I still had a lot of issues to deal with, so I returned to my art after college, for therapy. That’s when I started taking it more seriously than I had before,” Travieso said. “I noticed that I could make people laugh, and I noticed that through my art I got a lot of attention, which I had probably been craving since I was a kid. The art turned into an ice-breaker because it drew people to me.”
He soon found himself living in New York City’s Greenwich Village during the height of the art renaissance of the 1980s. At the time, artists like Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and David Salle were creating the art that would eventually make them famous. Travieso said the Village scene became his art education and further fed his interest in his own work.
“That scene fed who I was becoming and helped me find myself,” he commented.
Travieso moved to Secaucus 11 years ago when his wife inherited her parents’ home here.
Although he has friends in the Hudson County arts community, he said he has to leave town to find camaraderie among his peers. Most of his arts friends, he said, live in Jersey City or Hoboken.
“I now find myself struggling to find an art scene on this side of the river,” he said. “You can find it, but you just got to be a little more proactive.”
Travieso’s work will be exhibited at the Secaucus Public Library and Business Resource Center from March 1 through 31.