Tuck-It-Away

Huge storage facility in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Actually, it's probably technically in Vinegar Hill, but I drew it sitting in DUMBO.

I work down in DUMBO fairly often, and I've seen this building countless times over the years and thought about drawing it. This often happens; a building or scene will strike me and stick in my head, but it may be months or even years before I actually get around to drawing it.

In the case of this building, I had always thought that that big diagonal chute was part of the storage building. But when I sat to draw it, I realized it was attached to a separate structure, behind the storage building. What I didn't realize, though, even after drawing it, was the nature of the smokestack. I had assumed it was on top of the storage building, but when I looked at the site on Google Maps to pinpoint the location, I discovered that it is in fact a third structure, also behind Tuck-It-Away, and even more enormous than I'd thought. The single perspective from which I'd been viewing these structures all this time had been completely misleading.

 

St. Mark's Church

St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. I've worked for the Danspace Project, which is located within this church, for years, and I never knew the full name was St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. Also, that it is New York's oldest site of continuous religious practice, and the second-oldest church building in Manhattan. Huh.

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day, two drawings of the Civil War Monument in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery.

These statues symbolize Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry. On the opposite side is one representing the Engineers.

And here is an older drawing of the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument in Fort Greene Park. It's a memorial to an estimated 11,500 troops who died on British prison ships in New York Harbor during the Revolutionary War. Some of their remains are in a crypt beneath the monument.

The Peking

Moored at the South Street Seaport Museum.

May The Fourth Be With You 2014

It's Star Wars Day, so here's a Star Wars drawing.

Like many people, I hated those Ewoks in Return of the Jedi. But thinking about a bunch of pre-industrial teddy bears overthrowing the Imperial Empire gave me this idea, which I thought was funny.

In case you're not a nerd and don't recognize the reference, it's an homage to this Frank Frazetta painting, "Conan The Destroyer."

May The Fourth Be With You

Animal Farm - The Final Battle

Last week I was reading George Orwell's Animal Farm. Although it's a classic and incorporated into many high school English class curricula, I had never read it til now. One night, when I was about 80% through the book, I had a vivid dream about it. In my dream, Benjamin the Goat was leading a revolt against the pigs. The farm lay in smoky, fiery ruins. Napoleon the Pig was wearing a mechanized battle suit, a la Iron Man or RoboCop. He had the goat pinned to the ground beneath his armored boot. It looked something like the image below. Needless to say, the next day I finished the novel and was sorely disappointed to find that this apocalyptic scene did not occur. I hope out hope that Hollywood will adapt it into a movie someday, in which case I'm certain it will end like this.

Fort Hamilton Stop

One of the entrances to my local subway stop, as seen from a corner coffee shop window.