Eldridge St. Synagogue
| Manhattan's Lower East Side has been home to waves of immigrants for at least one hundred-fifty years. I had the good fortune to live there during the late 1980s and early 90s. The daily pagent of different cultures was a great inspiration. Here I painted a landmark synagogue, at the time boarded up, though bound for eventual restoration. My area was a Puerto Rican neighborhood which was giving way to a trickle of Mexicans and waves of Chinese. Who knows what the area will look like in twenty years... |
Eldridge St. Synagogue |
Many of the oldest buildings have people and creatures carved on their facades
Face Building, oil on canvas 20" x 30" |
32 Saint Marks Place, oil on canvas 20" x 24" |
I used to lived in large rented loft at 84 Forsyth Street on the second floor, over the Po King Trading Company. The space was over sixty feet deep, at night it was a black cavern, with the trees of Sara Roosevelt Park lit by the street lights. Below right, is the outside, my cat in the window.
Loft Interior, Night, oil on canvas |
84 Forsyth Street |
The Lower East Side is
full of all sorts of food vendors and industries,
from fish mongers to
people selling watermelons on the street
Fish store on Christi Street, oil on canvas 24" x 18" |
Watermelon Truck, oil on board 16" x 20" |
History's hand lies heavy on the area, in abandoned building and the ghosts of demolished buildings...
Ruins on Forsyth Street, oil on canvas 30" x 24" |
Canal Street Wall, oil on canvas 18" x 24" |
...and even older history in hidden burial grounds, not active for one hundred fifty years.
Portuguese Jewish Cemetary
oil on canvas 18" x 24"