Autumn In New York is a well known jazz standard. September starts autumn here in New Jersey. At Raritan Valley Community College Arts building, there is a poster advertising a four year college that has many kinds of apples on it. I saw that and thought, The Big Apple, Autumn In New York, September 11. In Autumn, apples ripen and fall. Is there anyway I can link them together? The Big Apple has fallen and broken. Leaves fall in Autumn, in flaming colors. Like the color of the flames at the World Trade Center, which were still burning when I had this idea in October 2001. I have to show the Towers. What if, leaves spilled out from between the Towers, like flames from the buildings? And broken, twisted girders and wires were between the leaves? What if a passing cloud alluded to smoke? The apple tree is an old, gnarly Macintosh in my backyard. It was late December when I started to color the drawing outside. I was only able to work a half hour at a time because the ink froze. The most difficult part was how to end this drawing. I wanted it to be hopeful, not of endings, sadness or vengeance like so many September 11 artworks are. Vengeance is not my style. The Big Apple is broken. Hmm, apples break, seeds spill out, seeds root, seedlings, [Look VERY, VERY closely at the lower right hand corner for the seedlings, below the break in the apple]. Phoenix rising, cotylidons grow from seeds, out of the ashes arise something new, hope and future in Spring from a fiery Fall. At the memorial service for the 102 year old T'ai Chi Master T. T. Liang, his student, Paul Gallagher, read a Buddhist quote. “Direct affinity and indirect affinity.”. The Master was a direct influence on his students, and those students indirectly passed his influence and teachings on to others, encompassing thousands in his 102 years. As I listened to this, it occured to me that apple seeds, just a few, can directly become orchards, and orchards and those apple seeds can indirectly influence many, many things in their lifetimes. Such as pies, people and fires. How apples and orchards could be a metaphore for the people of New York. Part of my project was to ask people how they felt Manhatten was coming back. They all replied the same. New Yorkers were much nicer and they hope it stays that way. All it takes are a few Big Apple seeds, the nicer New Yorkers, to start an apple orchard, the direct influence of being nicer, which can indirectly influence everybody else who comes in contact with them. Direct affinity and indirect affinity. And, just how do I draw the Towers? I have a small collection of childrens books with wonderful illustrations. One of them is a book called Brooklyn Bridge by author and illustrator Lynn Curlee, Atheneum Books For Young Readers, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-689-83183-8. I adapted the style used for the Twin Towers illustration in the book. My Towers are far more colorful and 3-D. They remind me of the stones in standing stone circles, like Stonehenge. A powerful, megalithic symbol. The media for the drawing is pen and ink The size is eighteen by twenty-four inches on Aquabee Bristol Pad, plate finish paper. The A in Autumn and the descender of the Y in York are complete on the drawing. I had planned to use a computer script font for the type so it would be easy to modify and cleaner looking, but, I did not have a script font on my pc and I could not print any letters large enough for the drawing.

All photographs, the background and art, on these September 11 pages became part of my Autumn In New York September 11, 2001 project. The back ground is a remnant of fabric I purchased at Wal-Mart. It is bright red, white and blue with spangly silver stars. The fabric was scanned in and made transparent in Photoshop. Three of the following photos of my project on display were taken at the student show at RVCC in April 2001. I had a narrow space to work in, so a strong photographic image, the Wall Street Bull is at the top. This photo is at the bottom of the My Visit To Ground Zero page. The other photos had more detail in them and worked better at eye level. Only the very bottom is missing on the photo on your left. Tab down to see the feet under the flag. I got as far back as I could until I was up against a free standing wall of student work. A music stand with my September 11 Photo Project book, opened to my pages, is on your left. Under the Bull, is my Autumn In New York artwork, then, from top to bottom, left to right, are enlarged, printed, and mounted by me, black and white photos, all of which appear on the My Visit To Ground Zero page. They are the New York Stock Exchange and Treasury, The Winter Garden Theater, and Trinity Church graveyard. Everything is held up by clear acrylic thumbtacks.

Wooden clothespins, painted with white craft paint then red, white and silver glitter glue, weighed down the bottom of the fabric.

Ray's Sporting Goods in Watchung has a barrel of free used fishing line for the taking. The stuff is a bargain when you make mobiles, windchimes or need to add a string across the back of a photo to sew it into fabric. I used Sobo Glue to hold the fishing line on. Most of the time it worked. Two had to be glued to the fabric because the fishing line would not stay glued or the photo did not sit straight. I added a freebie red, white and blue bow pin I got at the Washington Valley Volunteer Firepersons pancake breakfast last February. The Manhatten Skyline photo was mounted and matted so it would stand out against the fabric. All the photo captions were set in type on the pc and printed out in alternating lines of red and blue on white paper and backed with matteboard. The photos all appear on my September 11 Photo Project and My Visit To Ground Zero pages. Top to bottom, left to right they are Manhatten Skyline, about 11AM on September 11, 2001, two from the closing reception of the September 11 Photo Project in SoHo on January 6, 2002, panoramic shot of the Fireman's Memorial in back of the Winter Garden Theater, two of Ground Zero looking towards St. James Church, the red, white and blue bow, panoramic shot of Ground Zero looking towards St. James Church, You'd never know my back was to Ground Zero, Rudy is here and the grand re-opening of the Marriot. And, now, THE feet.

The flag came from an abandoned orange cabinet at IBM/AT&T. Reports in there were dated 1986. I liked to decorate my cube for each holiday, so the flag was a welcome addition. While out on a lunch break one day, I stopped at Wal-Mart. I found the fabric remnant. My sister was interested in purchasing a stepping stone at a craft fair but found the prices too steep. Wal-Mart had a special that day. Stepping Stone kits $1.50 and concrete refills 50¢. The kits came in squares, circles, hexagonals, hearts and feet. I liked the feet because they were different and bought that one even though I knew my sister would want just an ordinary round stone kit, so, she would give the kit to me in the long run. She did, but took it back after she saw how nice my feet came out. I wanted to make the toe nails little Manhatten related scenes, with the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge spanning the two big toes, a bridge from the past to the future. I bought fake fingernails at a beauty supply store. I used craft paint and a 000 paint brush on them but could not get the lines fine enough. The Brooklyn Bridge did not quite work out, but The Chrysler Building is very recognizable. On the right foot, which is the left side of the photo, from small to big toe are the US Open, Chrysler Building, the New Years Eve at midnight ball drop in Times Square, The Empire State Building and The Brooklyn Bridge. This is a foot in the now and the future. The left foot, on the right, from big toe to small toe, are The Brooklyn Bridge, The Twin Towers, The Statue Of Liberty, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree and the gold god, and Flushing Meadows Worlds Fair grounds, with the hemisphere and mushroom shaped restaurants. This is a foot in the past. The paint chips easily from the toenails. I bought mosaic “sea foam color” glass pieces at Treasure Island craft store. Dad gave me a bright turquoise blue scarab beetle bead he brought home from Egypt. That is on the right foot. I found some cool little stones with words and bugs on them at Pearl Art and Crafts store. Each stone that has a word on it is encircled with red paint and a little green stem, alluding the the Manhatten nickname of “The Big Apple”. The left foot, in the past, has a butterfly, love, faith and joy. The right foot, Manhatten's now and future, has a lady bug, dragon fly, laugh and trust.

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