Oak Echo
2018
Digital painting on vinyl banner
4 x 40 feet

For the Interim Flood Protection Measures Mural Project, the NYC Mayor's Offices of Climate Policy and Programs and Emergency Management commissioned artists to design banners to beautify 700 feet of semi-permanent HESCO barriers (sandbag walls) in Red Hook, Brooklyn.  The barrier structures have been deployed in segments along Beard and Reed Streets with various openings to allow for normal vehicle and pedestrian traffic. When a storm surge from a coastal storm is forecast, the barrier walls will be connected with quickly deployable inflatable walls (Tiger Dams).  


The barriers and artwork are on display indefinitely. My mural in on Reed Street between Van Brunt and Conover.
Live oak landscapes are instrumental in preventing and controlling erosion. This digitally rendered design evolved from a painting of light and shadow shapes traced as sunlight sifted through an oak tree canopy. The painting is affected by the clouds in the sky, the rotating of the Earth that causes the shadows to shift and stretch, the breeze moving the leaves and fabric, and the pace at which I see and trace each light and shadow shape. The completed painting was photographed, drawn, scanned and manipulated digitally to arrive at a design that embodies both the Red Hook landscape and the purpose of the HESCO barriers. Like the vulnerable Red Hook landscape, the painting is affected by weather and human action. The layered pattern mirrors the coastal beauty and potential threat as it flows and ripples like water. The arboreal source material mirrors the functionality of the HESCO barriers to protect the land from water damage.