oil on canvas, 9” X 12”

From the Brooklyn Waterfront series that started with oil paintings inspired by views from my studio window. The studio sits at water’s edge in Brooklyn, the last building remaining from the Irving Bush shipping terminal. The windows of my third floor space face lower Manhattan and the New York Harbor. In the winter the trees, having shed their leaves, reveal the Statue of Liberty across the water. The landscape outside my studio windows provides endless inspiration. In this seemingly forgotten part of New York, millions of bananas used to arrive at the terminal from South America. Now the docks, large slabs of concrete falling between the old wooden pilings provide home to Canadian geese, small trees that miraculously sprout from the cracked concrete, and groups of young boys who come to fish and play.

The harbor is always busy; barges and tugboats do their mysterious dance, cargo ships await their turn, the orange Staten Island ferries glide back and forth at regular intervals. An occasional yellow water taxi sprays by and the seagulls wheel about and announce the coming breezes. Pure magic—where one would least expect to find it. This is my favorite kind of auspicious circumstance and I rejoice in being able to pay homage to every wondrous ordinary day there.