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New York City

36" x 36" Acrylic on canvas. 2009 Sara Achilli

In keeping with recent themes, I present the above. It’s difficult to describe what comes to define different cities for different people. I snapped this digital photograph (top) somewhere south of 14th Street in 2005. I can’t even be sure about that date – but the somewhat vague location is accurate. There wasn’t much thought for content or composition; I just raised my palm sized Canon Powershot over my head and fired. The result was more or less an accident, and could never be confused for Ansel Adams, or anything warranting much of a second look. And yet every time I looked at the photo, something about it registered as unmistakably New York City. It could be something in the light or the buildings or the sky, or even more likely, something that was circling my brain that particular spring day.

I lost the original file and had only a shoddy, low-res one on my hard drive.  I always dug the picture on some oddly personal level, and I asked my friend Sara to do a painting for me from the original photo. In the middle of working on it, her boyfriend asked her what the significance of this particular shot was. She replied “Don’t ask me – it’s Rick’s deal,” which I thought summed it up rather nicely.  Her fine effort is represented in the lower image.

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3 Comments

  1. melody lambelet wrote:

    Sounds just like Sara. It turned out well, but then I’m prejudice. I happen to think most of her work, art and photos are exceptional!

    Sara’s Mom

    I hope you enjoy it!

    Monday, January 26, 2009 at 3:08 pm | Permalink
  2. Paul Tognotti wrote:

    Beautiful job, Sara!

    Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 11:41 pm | Permalink
  3. Erin Neville wrote:

    Sara showed me when she was in the middle of the painting. And yep…that’s what she said to me too. I don’t get it but it came out beautiful. Each to their own. 🙂

    Monday, February 16, 2009 at 5:47 pm | Permalink

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