Draw-A-Thon

 Went to a drawing session this past weekend, a Draw-A-Thon fundraiser for the Arts & Design High School. It's been a long, long, looooong time since I've done any live model drawing!

Moribund Churches

 New York is a city of constant change, and every week brings news of another historic building being torn down. But there's one category of building that's in particular danger: churches. There are lots of these old, very big buildings sitting on prime real estate all over the five boroughs, and the fact of the matter is that many have shrinking congregations, and/or are not wealthy enough to maintain those buildings.

One such church is West Park Presbyterian on West 86th St. and Amsterdam Ave. The church has a long history of socially-progressive activism as far back as the 1880s, when it invited in Chinese immigrants at the peak of anti-Asian hysteria, and later was active in the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War protests, the anti-nuclear arms movement, homeless services, and relief during the AIDS epidemic.

The initial building was built in 1854, which was then incorporated into a larger structure in 1890. Built in the Romanesque Revival style and faced in deep red sandstone, it was landmarked in 2010. You might think that its landmark status would protect this building from demolition, and usually it would. But in a twist, it is the church itself that is asking for its landmark status to be revoked so it can be sold to a developer.

Some members of the congregation, including the pastor at the time, had opposed the building being landmarked in the first place. Landmark status doesn't just prevent a structure from being demolished, it also places responsibility on the owner to preserve and maintain it, which can become a significant burden. The West Park congregation has dwindled to about a dozen, and it simply can't afford to maintain the large building, which has significant deterioration. Of course, there's a lot of local opposition to having the church torn down to be replaced by what's sure to be an ugly and soulless (and unaffordable) glass tower, but those persons don't have to come up with the money to restore it. A non-profit arts organization which currently rents space in the church is trying to raise money to purchase it, but that seems like a stretch.

Another church whose demise seems imminent is this one in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It was originally founded as St. Matthews Lutheran by German immigrants. Built in 1895, it was designed by Laurence B. Valk and son Arthur, who were responsible for several other Brooklyn churches. Over the years, the building changed bands several times, becoming St Matthew-Emmanuel Lutheran, then the non-denominational Marantha Temple, and then sold in 1985 to the Mission for Today Holy Tabernacle Church.

Originally the steeple was topped by a pitched roof with a metal cornice featuring gargoyles, with shutters on the steeple windows, and natural buff-color bricks. At some point, the metal cornice, gargoyles, and steeple roof were removed, and the building was painted deep red. I'd guess those changes would have prevented it from ever being landmarked, and now it is pretty run down. It's unclear to me if it houses any congregation now. It looks like there's a pre-school in operation there, and some other community-based organizations. While it's not know what is being planned for the site, demolition plans are already on file.

The Church in 1944, with original cornice and roof. (Source: Brooklyn Public Library)

More info:

Landmarks Commission History of West Park Presbyterian

Gothamist: West Park Presbyterian Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side Faces a Mortal Threat: The Wrecking Ball

Brownstoner.com: Building of the day: 306 Sixth Avenue

Patch: Demolition Permits Filed For 126-Year-Old Park Slope Church

Inktober 2022 Finale

 Last three days of Inktober 2022, Cat Edition.

Inktober 2022 - Week Four

 Cats Cats Cats

Inktober 2022 - Week Three

 Week three of Inktober Cats.

Inktober 2022 - Week Two

 More Cats

Inktober 2022 - Week One

I'm doing the Inktober Challenge again, where you're challenged to produce an ink drawing every day for the month. I did this challenge last year, but just realized I never posted them on this platform. Oh well . . . This year, for no particular reason, my theme is Cats. The animals, not the musical. I'm doing them all in brush in an attempt to finally level-up my brush skills. And since the untimely death of Kim Jung Gi a few days ago, I've decided to further challenge myself by not doing any preliminary pencil sketches. I was always amazed watching that man produce these complex compositions straight out of his head, straight with ink, without any preparatory work. I have a long way to go before I get to that level!

Before It's Gone: Papaya King

 

Another day, another vanishing NYC icon. Papaya King has sold hot dogs and tropical juices on the corner of 86th Street and 3rd Avenue since the 1940s. But last year, the lot where the restaurant sits was purchased by Extell Development for $21 million. While the eatery has not yet been evicted, demolition plans for the building have been filed. Extell is known for building high-rise luxury towers, such as the Central Park Tower, the tallest residential building in the world.

The business was founded in 1932 by Gus Poulos, a Greek immigrant (hmm, funny how many of these histories feature immigrants). Originally, Gus just sold tropical fruit drinks, which he'd developed a passion for while on vacation in Florida. However, the largely German population of the neighborhood didn't know what papayas or guava even were. As his son, Peter, explained in this interview, "People did not know what these juices were. So he had to spend a lot of time and money giving away these juices every day to the public - and literature, trying to educate them what papaya is, what this fruit was, that fruit was." Eventually, Poulos added something to the menu that Germans did know - frankfurters - and thus Papaya Dog was born. Its success spawned a number of similarly-named restaurants, such as Gray's Papaya and Papaya Dog.

The business was passed on to Peter Poulos, Gus' son, who sold it to another owner in the early 2000s. Now that the end of Papaya Dog is near, Poulos sounds sanguine about it. "It's too valuable of a corner to make it a one-story building. It's like everything else. Everything has to come to an end eventually."

Process Pix:

Virgin Islands Sketchbook

A couple of weeks ago, me and the family went on vacation to the St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I figured I wouldn't have much if any solo time for the long-term, labor intensive sketches I usually do, and I've been wanting to try something new anyway. So I bought a small, inexpensive sketchbook and a small watercolor kit. The book was 3.5x5.5 inches (8.9x14 cm), much smaller than my usual 9x12 sketchbook, and the color was all watercolor. All drawn so much faster and looser than I ever do. It's how most urban sketchers work, but it's pretty alien to me. I need a lot more practice and technique, but I liked how some of them came out.

Creque Alley is one of a series of narrow passageways near the shoreline in Charlotte Amalie, the main town of St Thomas. These warehouses once were notorious for housing pirates' loot; now they house restaurants and lots and lots of jewelry stores. It was also the namesake of a song by the Mamas and the Papas, (they added an 'e' in the title of  'Creeque Alley'). Supposedly they wrote the song while crashing with hippies in this alley, though the song doesn't mention the Virgin Islands at all.

The view from our hotel overlooked the bay where the cruise ships docked.

Magen's Beach is probably the most famous of the St. Thomas beaches, so it was the first one we hit. It was great, but actually not our favorite of the trip.

The observatory at Coral World Ocean Park. When you go downstairs, you're under the water and can view all the sealife swimming around.

It immediately reminded me of the Hall of Doom from the old Super-Friends cartoon.

We spent one day on neighboring St. John's Island and made a stop at the Annaberg Plantation, The remnants of this slave plantation are now part of the Virgin Islands National Park. This structure is the ruins of the windmill, standing 38 feet (11.5 m) high.

There is another, similar plantation windmill ruin that stands at the top of the Peace Hill trail.

This is not my favorite painting of the week, but it was my favorite beach, Secret Harbor.