Pulitzer Fountain

Sculpture at Pulitzer Fountain at Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, across from the Plaza Hotel.

Designed by architect Thomas Hastings, the fountain was built in 1915-16 and funded by the estate of the publisher Joseph Pulitzer. This sculpture was carved by Orazio Piccirilli, one of a family of stone-cutters who'd immigrated from Italy. The Piccirillis had a lineage of stone carving dating back to the early Renaissance, and the six brothers and their father had established a shop in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. The Piccirilli Family is responsible for some of the most well-known sculptures in New York City, including the Lions in front of the Public Library, the sculptures at the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, on the arch at Washington Square Park, the facade of the Brooklyn Museum, and many other recognizable landmarks. Their name is not well-known today, but they really left an indelible mark on the look of the city.

I'm not sure what this winged sea-goat creature is called, but the rear section is a Cornucopia, or Horn of Plenty, and relates to the sculpture in the center of the fountain, Pomona, the goddess of abundance.

Piccirilli Family History

Pulitzer Fountain History

One Week, One Hundred People 2021

 The One Week One Hundred Challenge was created by artists Liz Steel and Marc Taro Holmes. The name is self-explanatory: the goal is to draw 100 people in a span of five days. I did it for the first time last year. At the time, the pandemic was looming; I did the challenge a week before New York locked down. Looking back at it now, what I'm struck by is that I mostly drew faces. Almost no one was wearing a face mask. This year, I drew hardly any unmasked faces, except for my family at home.

Some people did this challenge using photos or video images, but I always want to do it all from life. I've been trying to level up my figure drawing, and this is a great way to motivate yourself to do very fast observation and really practice gesture drawing without getting bogged down in details or rendering.

RIP J. Baczynsky

I drew this a few years ago, and wrote about its history here. This store has been here in the Lower East Side of New York since 1970. I learned today that the owner, a Ukrainian immigrant named Julian Baczynsky, passed away this week at the age of 98. I didn't know him and I never shopped there, but have passed by it hundreds of times. Word is, the business will continue, which is good news.

Obituary via EV Grieve.com

West 53rd St. Central Substation

 

The NYC Central Substation on West 53rd St. between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Housed within this five-story building are the transformers that convert high-voltage AC electricity to lower-voltage DC to power the subway rails.

New York City originally had three separate train lines: the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT), Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT), and the Independent Line (IND). Eventually they were consolidated into a single system. The IND line was the last line built, and in fact was city-owned, in contrast to the other two lines, which were private businesses, so I'm not sure what was independent about it. The IND line was built in the 1930s, and each sub-station was built in the Machine Age style, a variant of Art Deco. The IND substations each had an individual design, and are all still in use today. This one, completed in 1932, was the largest of the substations at the time. It was designed by Squire J. Vickers, chief architect of for the NYC subway system who designed over 300 stations and buildings for the system. In 2006, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more on the IND Substations, check out this post on Forgotten NY.

Save Our Stages Interviews

My "Save Our Stages" series of drawings of performance spaces in the pandemic is complete. I was honored to be invited to talk about the project on the Urban Sketchers' USKTalks series on YouTube. It can be seen here. They'd asked me to talk about how people in the industry were faring, so I did this parallel series of sketch interviews to accompany the theater drawings. Thanks to Poe, Daisy, Maria, Christopher, Justin, Ana Mari, Eva, Kia and Janet for taking the time to speak with me.