7 Train Series

Floating World of the 7 Train (High Noon)

Floating World of the 7 Train (Winter Celebrations)

Floating World of the 7 Train (Summer Rain)

2020, 40” x 60”, silkscreen and gouache, edition of 10 each

made possible by a New Works Grant from the Queens Council on the Arts

Floating World of the 7 Train series

During the Edo period in Japan (1603-1867), a school of woodblock prints called Ukiyo-e flourished. Ukiyo-e means “from the floating or fleeting world,” and the prints depict bustling urban scenes in which geisha, sumo wrestlers, samurai, and townspeople engage in a world of play and work. Using these prints as aesthetic and compositional inspiration, I make silkscreen prints and gouache drawings that represent modern, abstract, fleeting worlds.

My worlds begin with an ever-expanding dictionary of shapes based on people and imagery observed on the aboveground 7 Train in Queens, New York. When I look out the window of the 7 Train to see the sky, I am reminded of the gradated backgrounds of Ukiyo-e prints. I observe my fellow riders and collect shapes in my sketchbook, including hairstyles, eyeglasses, collars, mustaches, textile patterns, masks, t-shirt logos, and video game graphics I see on people’s phones. These shapes embody the  vibrancy and individuality of the passengers, and I organize them in different ways: as a graphic taxonomy—almost like a menu—or as an abstract mashup of one shape on top of the next, as if they are made of translucent colored glass (as in the recent Circus Rorschach drawings). The transitory world of the 7 Train, packed with different cultures and styles, is eclectic, joyful, and hard working. There is a sense that even though people might be strangers, there is a collective feeling of dignity and hustle that hangs in the air. My work seeks to capture the spirit of these crowds that come together in passing.