Photos: A Mural Grows in a Crown Heights Apartment
Illustrator Steven Weinberg is a Brooklyn expat living in the Catskills, but something about brownstone architecture left a lasting impression, even as the scenery around him suddenly became very different. Speaking about brownstones, he writes in an email, “I just love their endless uniqueness. Even on the same block, if you look closely, you can see that maybe a certain homeowner wanted triangular crests over the windows, or scalloped details here, or god forbid they added one of those amazingly ugly aluminum entrance awnings. They all have so much character.”
Weinberg was able to satisfy his nostalgic hankerings recently as he painted a massive brownstone mural in a Crown Heights apartment. The final product is sprawling and vivid, despite its lack of color. Even more impressive are the time constraints in which he completed the mural, as Weinberg noted that the client he was working for needed the piece done pretty quickly.
The thing about murals is they have to happen in a certain time frame. For this one I only had one day where I could fit this in. The client understandably didn’t want me in and out of his house at all hours of the day. So not counting time I spent on preparatory sketches, I had a 9-5 shift to do it all. It adds a certain performance element to the whole piece, and though that is pretty stressful, it also adds to my fun.
Follow Sam Blum on Twitter @Blumnessmonster