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.