The Flashing Muse – Dots on Broadway

In Greek Mythology, the Muses were goddesses who provided inspiration for artists and intellectuals as the source of all relative knowledge.

Today, artists often find connecting with a “muse” a source of divine inspiration; one that’s essential for the creative to interpret and transmit via variant artistic mediums. For this opening entry of The Flashing Muse, I’m going to share a recent experience of baiting the muse that inspires my abstract photography, only to have her emerge where I wasn’t expecting.

World Trade Center – 1977

With my current collections composed in South Florida earlier this year, I was looking forward to finding something decidedly urban with an upcoming summer in New York.  It’s something I’ve been returning to ever since I initially met my muse in the late 70s, a teenager captivated with street photography specific to the Big Apple.  But I learned upon meeting my muse, that my focus would be in abstract reflections of ordinary life. As such, I recently restored an image that I shot way back in 1977, capturing the view from the original south World Trade Center, looking out a window at the north tower with the sun setting over New Jersey in the reflection of glass.  Abstractly turning an ordinary scene extraordinary would be my calling, and the prism through which my muse shows me the world.

After arriving in New York, I set out one day to 125th Street and the Hudson River. It’s there where I’ve used public sculptures as props to frame views of the mighty Hudson and George Washington Bridge.  While I found the sculptures, my muse was not to be found, as the light was rather unfavorable for an effective capture.  Feeling a little dejected (we creative types are sensitive), I strolled down the river to 96th Street, then over to Broadway.  After pausing for essential New York nourishment (pizza), I continued north only to pause up around 99th Street, where I turned and noticed non-descript white dots laminated to the plexiglass walls of the bus stop enclosure.  My muse was calling.

What started with an existential tap on the shoulder has become a collection of abstract photography that transforms city bus shelters into a looking glass for impressionistic views of New York City: Dots on Broadway. What began on Broadway will take me to bus stops throughout the city, keeping me occupied for the balance of my summer in New York.

As always, I’m grateful for my muse, and the sensitivity required to hear her call.

See progress in Dots on Broadway series.  And follow the play-by-play action by following me on Facebook and Instagram.

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