Outpost, painting in tribute to the third centennial commemoration of the capital city of Albany, New York, 48in. x 72in., oil on canvas, c. 1986.
In the southeast corner of Albany is a collection of early Dutch-Holland brick buildings, referred to as The Pastures---originally cleared for pasture during the period of the first European settlers. Over time, it transformed into an area of more than a dozen city blocks . . . only to be eventually ignored by the surrounding municipality. By the time I arrived on the scene, the quality of abandonment, which on the surface appeared mysterious or sometimes threatening, I found to be graphic and entrancing---inciting behavior entrusted to artmaking. The visual attraction to such an impoverished urban condition was captured through a hundred drawings and watercolors produced over two years on site.
