Painted Lines
Knowing my love of subway maps and transport architecture, my mom painted a glorious triptych—is there a more appropriate word in this instance?—for my San Francisco apartment on Lower Nob Hill, where I lived from 1992 to 1993.
She took inspiration from my trip photographs of stations in New York City, London and Paris, plus printed subway, Tube and Metro maps from each destination. The work, oil on collaged canvas, is a connected, abstract series, each unit featuring a dominant iconic motif—e.g.,The "51" on the NYC canvas recalls the ceramic tiling inside the 51st Street station near the Pickwick Arms Hotel, where I usually stayed on Manhattan visits.
I treasure it. It's hung in three separate San Francisco addresses, Los Angeles (1993-1994) and Santa Barbara (1994-1998).
Here's a video I took this morning, the second anniversary of my mom's passing.
Notes on the Paintings: At 1:20 of the video, you'll notice a neat set of dotted lines, painted at 45 degrees, joining the edges of the London and Paris canvases. After all, in 1992, the Chunnel was still under construction, so my mom wanted to reflect that. Cheeky, right? On the London Tube map, the Sudbury Town station along the Piccadilly line always tickled her because it reminded her of her maiden name. So it made the cut of "special stations" (e.g., West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village, Saint-Michel on the Left Bank) actually referenced on the maps, all near and dear to my traveling heart. Sadly, over time, the station names have faded on the Tube canvas. But not the connection.
Thank you, Mama.
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