Made In Brooklyn
2007 - 23.5"x14"x1" Acrylic, colored pencil, charcoal, oil pastel, newspaper on found wood.
Finished with two coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish #1312
(Available - Inquire For Price)

This is a view of Manhattan from an area in Brooklyn called DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). Originally, it was just a view of Manhattan, and the Brooklyn Bridge wasn't there. On 9/11, my wife and I went to the park to see the light beams shining in memory of the twin towers. The next day, I added the bridge to the painting.

The Egyptian section on the right was inspired by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum. They have a lot of great Egyptian art there, but the temple in the large room with windows overlooking Central Park, was specifically the inspiration for this section. What's also interesting about the carvings in the temple wall is the graffiti from the 1800's. A number of people had carved their names into the walls with dates. You can barely make it out in the picture, but I mimicked this above the Egyptian writing; "J. Livingston, Jan 1, 1818". I'm not sure this is exactly what's carved into the temple wall, but it's close.

The blue rectangles in the sky are Chinese paper lanterns; sort of symbolic for Manhattan's Chinatown. The newspaper clippings were taken from a Village Voice paper, and my only criteria was that the clippings represented NYC. I scraped portions of the white paint off with a razor blade, exposing previous layers. I really liked the look, so it was done pretty extensively.

I named the painting "Made In Brooklyn" for a few reasons. The idea for the title first came from an article in the paper about a local Brooklyn artist, and in the photo she was wearing a Made In Brooklyn t-shirt. I live in Brooklyn, and made the painting here. It's a view from Brooklyn. Original artwork seems like one of the few things left on this planet that's not made in China or India, so it seemed like a rare opportunity to use the caption "Made In Brooklyn". I carved "Made In Brooklyn" into the bottom of the bridge, but it can't be seen in the above photo.

The painting was made on a 1" thick cutting board that I found on the streets of brooklyn.

Here is a larger photo: