BERGENLINE AVENUE TEXT

Vibrant BERGENLINE AVENUE-established, well-orchestrated- is the picture of the true New America. At the site I met Cubans, Mexicans, Argentineans, Puerto Ricans, Arabs and Turks. A clear concern is the preservation of individual identity, while participating in, and benefiting from, a collective community pride.  

With this complex tapestry of culture in mind, I take my part to highlight existing poetry. My intention is to leave the viewer with the resonance of harmony-the sense of well-being found through the balancing of beautyand significance.  

In this, the most populated square mile in the country, the people are accustomed to a full concentrate of stimulating input. Starting with actual local imagery, I polish the rough edges of reality into jewel to then fit inside a framework, a context. A painting within a painting. Refined multiple realities open the way to narrative paths so accessible that anyone can travel as protagonist in their own drama..

I.

Swirling pattern of the actual rock facing the river at the tunnel opening.  

The light rail is 'under ground.' Distant, closer, and speeding by.  

Captured jumping off trains in the tunnels of the Newark Subway with the garage foreman.

II. 

The bus is nearly actual size- to walk right up to, while a vaster vista draws the viewer into the panorama. This mural refers to the Manhattan skyline segment for orientation, while avoiding skyline cliché. The yellow street-line, as a true-in-life design element, "arrows" the eye upward. Most of the detailed painting work is at eye-level to be seen at close range. With distance, the depicted scene comfortably lives beside the real---the landscape around the corner...

III. A color-popping night on Bergenline Avenue is seen through the donut shop window. Enjambment to the first mural, the bus passes.

IV. 

Reality is 'peeled back' to reveal a view of the Meadowlands for orientation, framed by indigenous quaking aspens.  

The street scene shown in the center mural by night is detailed in the next by day. The building across from the station anchors the right side.  

Cultural contrast is quietly referenced with two figures- the bicycle rider, large in the foreground, do-rag, and a Marine crossing from the recruit center.