Talk about a wealth of inspiration!
Young local artists charged with painting a massive mural inspired by the County of Kings for the Brooklyn Navy Yard said their subject matter was so thought-provoking that it nearly rendered the task impossible.
“With so many different perspectives of Brooklyn, it was hard to come together on one image,” said 16-year-old Williamsburg resident Timothy Daly.
But Daly said he and the 27 other 16-to-24-year-olds who lent their talented hands to the project eventually found the common ground necessary to complete the 150-foot canvas, which the artists unveiled on Wednesday inside a warehouse at the fast-developing commercial hub on the East River in Fort Greene.
“We realized it wasn’t about us, it was about the community,” he said.
The creative minds painted the sprawling piece — which features colorful depictions of foliage, subway cars and stations, and the borough’s iconic Brownstones — under the direction of Creative Art Works, a do-good organization that gives young adults paid summer gigs making public artworks throughout the city under the tutelage of more-seasoned professionals.
The final image will give non-local viewers a better sense of the borough’s vibrant culture, something Daly and other Brooklynites already fully appreciate, he said.
“I think they only think about the glitz and glamour of Manhattan,” the teen painter said. “The mural is going to show people what Brooklyn is really like.”
The colossal canvas will be permanently installed inside the 300-acre parcel near Dock 72, a 16-story building on the banks of the East River steps from an in-the-works stop on the citywide ferry service that will house a branch of shared-workspace provider WeWork and other offices when the complex’s construction wraps, which could happen as soon as this fall, a Navy Yard spokeswoman said.
Bigwigs at the companies erecting Dock 72, which include Boston Properties and Rudin Development, commissioned the artwork, according to a rep for the building.
