Belonging to a City That Isn't Yours — The Story Behind "Summer in Dumbo"
There is a particular feeling you get in a city that isn't yours, when for a moment it feels like it is.
We were walking the cobblestone streets of Dumbo in the summer of 2015 — Brooklyn's waterfront neighbourhood where old warehouse brick meets the steel geometry of the Manhattan Bridge. Locals were going about their day. Street life was humming. Someone was eating pizza on a stoop. The bridge rose above Washington Street exactly as it does in every photograph, but being there in person, in the warmth of a New York summer, felt different.
It made me happy. It made me feel included — not as a tourist looking in, but as someone briefly living the same afternoon as everyone else.
That is the feeling I wanted to hold onto.
I illustrated the scene in bold colour and a minimalist style that strips it back to its essentials — the steel blue of the bridge, the warm red brick, the light that only exists in summer in New York. Not a photograph. Not a postcard. A feeling, rendered as a place.
Dumbo has become one of the most photographed corners of Brooklyn for a reason. It is the kind of spot that makes you stop mid-stride and just look. This piece is for anyone who has stood on that street, or who wishes they had.
Some cities get under your skin. New York does it in an afternoon.
Bring Summer in Dumbo Into Your Space
Available as canvas, framed canvas and art print options.