18” x 12.5” oil on mdf panel - edged framed in black satin finish metal

I took the reference shots for this piece late one afternoon while on a tour of the new Freshkills Park. A small group of us had been invited to photograph, observe and learn about the incredible environmental/engineering project underway to create a vast natural, rejuvenated space...an ecological pendulum swing from what it once had been.

Though I often paint scenes embracing gritty reality settled in with natural beauty or just an oddly appealing familiarity, I have never been compelled to document the landfill. It was too devastatingly sad and ever-worsening.

This new iteration as Freshkills Park has much hope, ethics, technical advancement and the forces of nature in unison.