Woodside Press

Open House NYC is an annual event where buildings and sites in the city that are usually not accessible to the public are opened up to visitors. Last year, it coincided with the end of my time as a Visiting Artist at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Although I'd had access to the Yard for months, I hadn't actually been inside many of the businesses. So I spent much of that day drawing inside Kings County Distillery and Brooklyn Roasting Company. At the very end of the day, I was wandering through Building 2, visiting various shops and studios, when I came across a room full of old printing presses. It was Woodside Press. All the old machines looked so cool, but it was the very end of the day and there was no more time to draw anything, and I wasn't able to make it back before the residency ended. So when Open House rolled around this year, I made a return trip to the Yard and made it a point of dropping by to sketch. It is a traditional letterpress printing studio that produces business cards, posters, stationary, etc., and does book-binding. They sometimes host tours and workshops.

These are just two of the presses they own. They are Chandler & Price platen letterpresses, dating back to the mid to late 1940's. This post from another printmaker, Tiny Dog Press, has a good step-by-step demonstration of how these presses work.

Chandler & Price founded in 1884 in Cleveland by Harrison T. Chandler, an Illinois banker, and William H. Price, son of a builder of printing presses. The company came to dominate the market through the 1960's, when offset duplicating led to the decline to the letterpress. The company went out of business in 1964, but its machines are still in use by printmakers today.

Below are two process pictures for the above drawing. First, down in 2H pencil. This was done very fast, and rougher and looser than I usually do, because of time. Then, finished in ink, mostly with Micron pens. I relied heavily on photo reference I'd taken for some of the machine details. Then applied the color with watercolor and Derwent Inktense pencils.

History of Chandler & Price: C & P - Pressman's Favorite

The last batch of Navy Yard drawings

Here's the last batch of drawings I did during my time with the Visiting Artist Program at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I spent nine months, from April through December, of 2018 at the Yard, drawing every corner I could get to. There were four other terrific people in the group: Filmmaker Mark Street, artists Niki Lederer and Amy Lemaire, and poet Gerald Wagoner. Over these nine months, I produced 96 finished drawings. I have done series of studies of a place or theme, but this was, by far, the longest sustained project I've done. It's taken me almost another year to get everything scanned and posted. I tried to batch them by location or theme or subject, but this last bunch is just in the category "Miscellaneous."

At the start, I did not have a specific agenda; my plan was to just draw everything. As time went on, I found myself focusing most on the smaller remnants of the Yard's past - unused structures, discarded equipment, old street furniture, rusted machinery, century-old canons, and the like. These objects were almost like characters, silent observers of the bustling activity around them. I also thought of this phrase "industrial palimpsest" to describe my focus. "Palimpsest" refers to manuscripts, scrolls, or paper which has been reused; the original writing having been erased, but traces of which are still visible beneath the new text. This is the fascinating thing about a place like the Brooklyn Navy Yard; it is full of active businesses, many of whom are quite high-tech and modern, but everywhere you look are remnants of an industrial past, from the 1940's and sometimes even much further back, pushing through the modern veneer.

First Ave. doesn't exist anymore. It's shown on a 1904 map, but by the 1943 map it is gone, a large building which I think is now the NYPD Tow Pound in its space. I guess they just never got around to taking down this sign. In the background is the Sand Street Gatehouse.

Building 20, originally the Machine Shop and Auto Repair shop.

A security booth. I don't remember why this caught my eye at the time. Sometimes something strikes me visually, and later I can't see what that was. One interesting note is that I visited the Navy Yard again a few weeks ago, and that green fence and concrete barrier are gone. It's now open to the entrance to the gigantic WeWork building on Dock 72.

Giant satellite dish for Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network, outside Building 292. HITN is the largest Spanish-language network in the United States.

FDR

Monument of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. I did this piece as an entry for a contest. It wasn't selected as a finalist, but here it is anyway.

The original bust was sculpted by Jo Davidson after his first election in 1933. In 2012 it was scaled up from 18" to 6' and poured in bronze by Polich Tallix foundry for installation in the park.

Opposite the bust is a plaque quoting FDR's Four Freedoms speech:

In future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want . . . Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear . . .  Anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. 

FDR Jan 6 1941

I've been reading Jill Lepore's  history of the United States, These Truths, and just read the section on FDR's era. I was surprised at how many things - universal health care, civil rights, wealth inequality - things current in today's political debates, things deemed by many as recently-thought up pipe dreams, have in fact been on the agenda for decades, for over a century. I hope the tide turns in 2020, and all these things are no longer the vision of a distant millennium.

Mercury Comet Caliente

1964 Mercury Comet Caliente. It's been parked down the street from my apartment for months. I've never seen it moved, even for street cleaning. I don't know how it avoids being ticketed. It's full of bike parts and straw hats.

Draw a thon

Last Saturday I went to the Draw-A-Thon at the High School of Art and Design. It's a seven-hour drawing session that's a fundraiser for the school. I've heard about it for some time, but this is the first time I was able to make it. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend for about two hours, so I was only able to do a little bit of work.

Dry Dock No. 4, The "Hoodooo" Dock

I am almost done posting all the Navy Yard drawings, almost a year after completing the visiting artist program. Here, a number of drawings done around Dry Dock 4. This dry dock has an overall length of 723', and could receive a vessel 717' 3" in length with a draft of 32' 5 1/2". The most distinctive feature of Dry Dock 4 is the remnants of two giant Orton cranes which I did several studies of. Like the Orton cranes, this dry dock is now defunct. It's just a long, stagnant rectangle of water, separating a qaudrant of the Navy Yard from the rest. As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be a plan for it. Around its perimeter are unused remnants and relics of the past.

The tour guide from Turnstile Tours (which I recommend) claimed that this was the smallest building in the Navy Yard. It's the dry dock pumpwell dating back to 1914.

Standing forlorn in the weeds near this building, an old capstan. These motorized devices rotate on a vertical axis, for hauling ropes and cables.

Laying on the ground near the second, mostly-demolished Orton Crane, a seemingly-discarded block hook.

The view from the edge of Dry Dock 4, of a pier at the junction of dry docks 2 and 4. In the far distance, you can see the top of one of the World War II-era radio antennas, and to the left is the edge of the giant new office building on Dock 72. This building was meant to be a giant WeWork space. I wonder what's going to become of it now that that company's demise seems imminent.

Here's some photos of the dry dock in its heyday. First, the USS Utah, the first ship to utilize the dry dock, circa 1912.

Photos via Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives

The battleship New Mexico, 1918.

Library of Congress

Dry Dock #4 was authorized by Congress in June 1900, with a budget of $1,000,000, to accommodate the new dreadnought-style battleships that were in development. Construction began in 1905, and lasted 7 years. Located near Dry Dock #1, contractors encountered the same problems that plagued that project; a tidal marsh with very soft and sandy soil, crisscrossed with underground waterways and quicksand. The first contractor, George Spearin, quit after just 18 months, having severely underestimated the scope of the project and seriously underbidding the cost. Under the second contractor, the project was beset by regular setbacks and accidents, resulting in delays, hundreds of workplace injuries, and between 8 and 20 deaths, earning it the nickname, "The Hoodoo Dock."

The NY Naval Shipyard Buildings Historical Review chronicled its long journey:

April 12, 1907
Spearin [the original contractor] had stopped work in August 1906 over a dispute about who should pay for a repair job to a broken sewer which threatened to drown men working in the dock. It was the confident belief of government officials that Spearin would never resume work at the dock; that he decided to quit, realizing that he can only lose money by continuing. 

Aug. 4, 1908
There was talk of abandoning the project of building DD#4. . . Not only quicksand, but subterranean streams have been contributing to the general apprehension. 

Jan. 30, 1909
Navy Department stated it may be necessary to annul the contract due to the unsatisfactory completion of the work. . . .  Quicksand in the dock foundations was the cause of all the trouble. 

Jan 31, 1909
The first concrete for the foundation of the big basin was laid amid great jubilation. There is now hope that it can be finished. 

Aug. 26, 1909
Williams Engineering Co, was reported "sick of contract", having stopped work on the weak excuse that one of the cable towers that operates one of the orangepeel buckets is said to be weak. . . . The contractor never had more than 200 or 300 men on the job at one time, whereas at least a thousand should have been employed. 

Nov. 4, 1909
It was decided that, with Williams Construction Co. out of the picture, that this dock will be finished, either by the government by use of day labor under the direction of the civil engineer, or by a contractor. . .  Two contractors already have forfeited their jobs. The government was plunged into litigation in an effort to recover damages . 

. . . An agitation was commenced to have the dock completed by day labor, with local Navy Yard officers in charge. This would mean the employment of hundreds of Brooklyn men who have qualified through the labor board of the Navy Yard, instead of cheap European labor, such as had been employed by the contractors. 

Dec. 2, 1909
Drydock 4 became known as the "Hoodoo" dock. A landslide occurred which practically wrecked the dock. 

Dec. 16, 1911
On 15 December 1911 the drydock was flooded, intentionally, for the first time. This marked an important milestone in its construction. 

May 9, 1912
Drydock No. 4 which had just been completed was given its first real test when the battleship UTAH was towed into dock and the water pumped out. Thus the drydock was finished at a cost of approximately $2,800,000, 400 men injured, and the number of workers killed variously reported from 8 to 20 men.

I think it's hilarious that this government document official Navy document is so bitchy and side-eyed!

Dry Dock 1

Dry Dock 1 is the oldest dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the third-oldest in the United States. It is now the last dry dock operating in Brooklyn, now operated by GMD Shipyard, and one of very few in the area.

The site was first surveyed in 1826, with construction beginning in 1841. It was completed in 1851 at a cost of precisely $2,146,255.36. It is constructed from 23,000 cubic yards of hand-cut and hand-sanded blocks of granite excavated from quarries in Connecticut, Maine, Staten Island, and upstate New York.

Though modest in size by today’s standards, at the time it was a major engineering feat, being the first large project to use a steam-powered pile driver, and utilizing the largest pumping engine built at the time. Over the 20 years it took to construct, the project ran through at least three civil engineers and had to contend with a variety of setbacks, including 75’ deep quicksand, underground springs, and a faulty dam design which flooded the worksite.

Ships built and serviced there included The Niagara, which laid the first transatlantic cable; Halstead’s Folly, the prototype of the first submarine; The Maine, the destruction of which triggered the Spanish-American War; and The Monitor, the first iron-clad, steam-powered warship of the US Navy during the Civil War. It was declared a New York City Landmark in 1975.

There are several working docks and piers at the Navy Yard, most of which are off-limits to enter and not easily observed, but there's a handy viewing platform overlooking Dry Dock 1. It's the one spot where you can view the goings-on pretty up close and personal. 

Ships are no longer built there, but it is still used for maintenance, repair and inspection of tugboats, barges, and other smaller vessels. Two ships were serviced while I was there; the tugboat Evening Light and the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Dauntless.

Here's a cool time-lapse video showing this dry dock in action.

Inktober Week 3

Week 3. I missed a day in there.

Inktober 2019 Week 2

Week 2

Strange & Unusual Aquatic Beasts And Other Ancient Secrets And Mysteries Of The Deep

Last Christmas, my wife got me a sketchbook from Brooklyn Art Library as part of The Sketchbook Project. The Art Library is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and they'll send you a blank sketchbook that you fill as you please, return, and is incorporated into their collection.

It took me awhile to think of what I wanted to do with it. I knew I wanted to do something different than my usual urban sketching. Eventually, I decided to do something related to mythology. Something made me think of depictions of sea serpents on Old World maps, and that expanded to various water-based mythological and folkloric creatures from various cultures. The result was Strange & Unusual Aquatic Beasts And Other Ancient Secrets And Mysteries Of The Deep.

Here's part of it. You can see the entire sketchbook here. If you're in Williamsburg, you can see the actual book at their library, and I just heard that it's part of the collection that's going on tour to Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.