Retro New York City

The work is about my perception of life when I was younger and the love and affection I had for everything New York despite never going there. This perception of hope and a special, unique atmosphere influenced through film, television and music is observed through aged photographs from those eras but viewed in the present day with the objectivity of the real life situation back in time. Images of austerity and decay, grime, crime, graffiti, drugs and an excess of establishments offering adult themed entertainment littered the streets of the city... yet all I saw was freedom, expressionism, hope and inspiration. 

In my paintings I like to combine all aspects of reality and actual realism and objectivity of the original photograph but I strive to give them the atmosphere, excitement and different perception they would have had if I had viewed them as a child.