Chinatown

Recent sketches from Chinatown.

Sands Street Gate

I've been accepted as a visiting artist at The Brooklyn Navy Yard. I figured a good introductory piece would be of the Sands Street entry gates, at the Western boundary of the Navy Yard.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard was established by the Federal government in 1801, and built ships for the U.S. Naval Fleet until 1966. At the height of World War II, it employed over 70,000 workers. Today, it still has working dry docks, but the bulk of it is devoted to various commercial and maufacturing businesses, and is in the midst of dramatic growth and expansion. One of the goals of my residency is to get down as much of the older remnants of the Yard as I can.

These gates were built in 1896. Old photographs show that there were originally a pair of eagles flanking the entrance, and additional faux-medieval turrets to the rear. The  buildings were modified, added to, and eventually subtracted from over the years. A 1937 photo shows a large addition which housed the Labor Board, and shows the walls and turrets covered in ivy.  At some point, the turrets had been removed and the entire structure encased in a plywood shell, as it became the main entry to the NYPD tow yard.

ca 1904. via Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives

1937. Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives

ca 2009, via Brownstoner

The gatehouses were restored to a semblance of their original state by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in 2015. The Gatehouse on the right now houses a coffee shop-by-day/whiskey tasting room-by-night run by Kings County Distillery, which is located in the Yard.

Clark Street Shoe Shine

This shoeshine station is outside a shoe/watch/jewelry repair shop in the entrance to the Clark Street Station of the 2/3 line in Brooklyn Heights. I've never seen anyone actually shining shoes there, but I don't frequent that station very often, so maybe I've just missed them. That repairman - who's called "The Shoemaster" - looks like he's been there a long while.

Pratt Draw-A-Thon 2018

Last week, I went to the Pratt Draw-A-Thon, a 24-hour drawing marathon with 18 models hosted by the Pratt Art Institute. I only stayed for about four hours, but that was long enough to produce a bunch of drawings.