Soon I will look back with nostalgia on the last 20 years of painting scenes around the Gowanus Canal, where Commerce and Industry dominated for over a century. My paintings depict the unique attractions the Canal has had for me: low, old buildings giving way to big skies, often with dramatic cloud formations reflected in the fetid waters of the polluted Canal; old-school utilitarian architectural details that articulate structures; trees and shrubs sprouting where Nature has miraculously re-asserted itself; and an air of disarray and disuse; which result in wonderful, spontaneous arrangements of colors and shapes.

The Disappearing Gowanus series has a “special” attribute: these paintings showcase views that already or in a few years will no longer exist due to the recent re-zoning of a large portion of Gowanus. It has been truly astonishing how rapidly buildings are disappearing.

[Of the four views above, only one - the green building by the Canal, remains intact as of December 2022.]

Most of the neighborhood within a block or two of my studio will soon be filled with large, shiny, high-rise apartment buildings built by developers who envision a cleaned-up waterfront with orderly promenades. The skyline will bristle with towers and will shade any remaining low-rise buildings and the sidewalks. My Gowanus - the beauty of its expansive skies, rag-tag structures, random vegetation - will be gone.