Happy New Year from NYC

Out with the old, in with the new?

"Pinwheel 1"
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 inches
Sold

This old woman was in her window, looking down at the goings-on in the street below, in this case 9th Avenue. I really enjoy the 9th Avenue Food Festival, and for many years I would see this same woman, in her window, with this brightly colored pinwheel stuck in her flower box. As the years passed, the bright colors on the pinwheel faded and finally it disappeared altogether.

The same can be said for the NYC urban landscape. Scenes like this one are harder to find and for me, it captured the New York of my childhood days. People hanging out on stoops, window ledges or copings. If you don't know what copings are, they were low brick walls surrounding the apartment houses where I and my friends grew up and played. Residents would come out and sit on these copings, chatting with neighbors while they watched their kids play in the street, games such as skelly, "You're It", and hopscotch. In the summer they'd wait for the Good Humor truck or Steve the ice-cream man drive up the block, ringing his bell for the kids who came running, quarters in hand, for that Italian ice or popsicle. This painting brings back those kinds of memories for me and for many others who have grown up here.

This is the time of year that I take a few moments to look back and remember, the year just passed and the years gone by. I also look forward to the year to come and think about the paintings I want to paint and what I hope to accomplish as an artist. I've been plugging away as a painter for many years now and I still love what I do. And I love my hometown. It is not an easy place in which to live. It's become more and more expensive to live here. So many changes, some good, some not so good. But this is where I want to be and I'll keep painting what I see around me for as long as I can.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and sending you a big thank-you for following my blog. See you in 2011!