Apt 4D (2015) | Cabrini and 187 (2014)
Ten years on from NYC
Right about 10 years ago now, we left NYC to move back to our native CA. Our 7 years in Manhattan were amazing. We met wonderful people, took in one of the world's great cities, availed ourselves of so much art there and in the surrounding states. Despite being fairly introverted, I made efforts to involve myself in the illustration community through the Society of Illustrators' many events, and got to spend time with so many amazing people and artists in a variety of capacities.
I ran countless miles along the Hudson River Greenway uptown, starting at the Little Red Lighthouse under the towering George Washington Bridge, watching the golden sunsets reflect off the river, a few times going the entire shoreline down to the Battery (and back, on a couple of occasions!).
I definitely miss the deep friendships I made while there, and those runs (but not the humidity or winters!). I miss Doughnut Plant and Xi'an Famous Foods. I miss going to see artwork at Sotheby's and Christies--amazing works that briefly popped out of private collections before disappearing into other private collections.
So many who were there in those years have dispersed across the country: NYC is like that, temporary community sharing a fugitive moment that will never be re-lived or re-created. There are those who make their entire lives there of course, but even for them it is a constantly changing series of people coming and going.
As I prepared to leave I wanted to paint something to help me process the experience, and I landed upon a rather private and prosaic image. Our tiny ~500' studio apartment where we lived and I worked with a cat who is now just a fond memory—despite the place being so tiny, was still a home we welcomed people in to. Everyone who we had a chance to invite up, found us within this otherwise anonymous apartment door. We stood before it countless times in all our comings and goings. The peephole and apartment marker therefore became a subject that I painted in those last weeks, as I meditated upon everything we experienced. I painted it and slipped it into my files, as its main purpose was a vehicle for consideration, while working. So I've never shown it.
In that last year, I did a few urban landscape pieces as well. Included among them was this corner image of our intersection of W187th St. at Cabrini Boulevard. While my actual apartment isn’t visible here, it was the point of the image to capture the street signs and the image from that corner. I may have shown this, but really, is another piece I basically haven’t shown.
Life moves blindingly fast. I will never get a chance to fully digest all the life we lived there, even as I am not able to make full sense of the life we've lived in the decade since, here in CA. But I will always enjoy the opportunities I get to reflect further and come to greater understanding of it.