Museum Mile and Central Park
Doing this painting was a process of discovery, learning about so many amazing parts of what took place within the buildings, within the minds of the people I painted, being allowed to step into their world, and realizing my luck in being given entrance to it. I ended up with painting 105 people on this canvas, but I also carry a memory of each one. When I paint a resemblance, it is of people I have met and spent time with, and asked to hear their stories.
This painting took many months of work, gave me such joy, but writing about it meant a wait of 16 years and took until today in the year 2020, when our doing a website of my paintings, forced me to face the challenge.
What impressed me most about the people I met and painted, was their dedication to what they deemed important. I met Anthony Drexel Duke who founded “Boys and Girl’s Harbor”, Cousin Brucie who worked tirelessly for children’s causes, Ira M. Millstein of the Central Park Conservancy, the landscape workers, workers from the Plaza, Tiffany, the General Motors building, F.A.O. Schwarz and the staff of each museum on “Museum Mile.”
Each of the “up to now” paintings of N.Y. was a unique experience, but this one was unsurpassed and I can go back to those many months as if it were yesterday. Today I went through the 3 folders of materials I had collected during my time on this work,
I reread the notes and letters people had sent me, and I relive every moment with gratitude.