Brooklyn Hope
Brooklyn Hope began after a period of upheaval. My family and I had crossed an ocean, changed cities and started again. After years of illness and uncertainty, I found myself looking forward with a new sense of optimism.
Brooklyn became part of that. The energy of the city, its colour, contradictions and relentless sense of possibility. Most of all, what it might offer my family. A chance to build a life here and see where it takes us.
The paintings capture that energy through moments and symbols. A cardinal landing on our terrace. The aftermath of a Knicks game. Flowers pushing through the city. Cycling everywhere, avoiding the subway, discovering neighbourhoods and feeling the freedom of moving through Brooklyn above ground. The huge skies overhead. Ordinary things that somehow begin to carry more meaning.
The work is vibrant and optimistic, but it carries the marks of what came before. Paint is built up, damaged, sanded through and rebuilt. Colour breaks through older layers. Images emerge from abrasion and disorder.
Dad’s Drawer looked backwards, into memory, family and the things we carry with us. Brooklyn Hope looks forward.
It is about a city we have fallen in love with and the possibility of what comes next.
Brooklyn Hope : Knicks Aftermath
2026
Oil & Acrylic on board
18 in x 24 in
That spring, New York felt charged. As the Knicks kept winning, the energy seemed to build across the city. Warmer nights, crowded bars, people spilling onto the streets. For a moment, millions of people seemed caught up in the same thing.
Then the game ends.
I saw this lone fan sitting outside, exhausted, as the noise and celebration disappeared around him. That quiet figure felt like the other side of all that collective energy. A small moment after something enormous.
Brooklyn Hope : The Brownstone
2026
Oil & Acrylic on Canvas
18 in x 24 in
54 × 72 in
Every morning, across the street from my children’s school, stands this brownstone. Solid and unmoving, with generations of families behind its door.
For me it became a symbol of our new life in Brooklyn. The summer heat rising from the stone, the light, the children spilling out of school. A sense of permanence in a city that was still new to us. A place to belong.
Brooklyn Hope : The Cardinal
2026
Oil & Acrylic on Canvas
60 in × 72 in
A female cardinal landed on our terrace and stayed in front of us for a while.
Unlike the brilliant red male, the female is quieter, more muted. She stays through the winter, even when conditions become difficult.
I kept thinking about her after she left. At a time when our own lives had been through uncertainty and change, this small, unexpected encounter felt significant. She became a symbol of resilience and of hope.
Brooklyn Hope : Citibike
2026
Oil & Acrylic on Board
18 in × 36 in
We bike everywhere. It’s become one of my favourite ways to experience New York. Above ground, moving through neighbourhoods, taking wrong turns, discovering streets you would otherwise never see.
This Citi Bike sits in Dumbo, surrounded by the colour, noise and architecture of Brooklyn. For me, it represents freedom and the simple pleasure of getting to know a new city by moving through it.
Halfway through painting it, I fractured my hand cycling on one. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
