Boston Redux

22 in x 22 in

05/2023

I have a friend named Paul who is the father of one of my daughter's oldest friends. Politically, we're on opposite poles, but we're still friends nonetheless. I offered to do a painting for him, and he told me he wanted a Mondrian-style subway map, mostly in blues and greens... a tall order, and one that required much thought. I ended up reminiscing about Boston, the city where Sarah and I lived for ten years, taking the "T" almost every day. As it happens, Paul grew up in New England, so paying homage to Boston seemed to make sense in a painting for him. The main lines on the T are the green line, the blue line, the orange line and the red line (the one we took most often). So I found a map of the T in the central Boston (so that the subway lines could be appropriately magnified in the context of the piece), and chose to make the colors actually a moving blend rather than one color for each line - my goal was to convey a sense of motion. The background had to be white, much like almost every subway map I've ever seen. And then I added small black circles to represent subway stations. Next came the "silver" bus routes that paralleled the subway lines. Finally, I added abstract representations of water (flowing blue circles) and green spaces (speckled square shapes) to honor the beauty of the water in Boston (Charles River, Boston Harbor) and the tremendous parks (Public Garden, the Common, the Fens), and also to honor Paul's request for "mostly blues and greens". I hope he likes it!