John Hartman, The Thames from Swiss Re, 2005
"As I looked out of the airplane window while circling over Manhattan to land, I saw a breathtaking vista unfolding below. The estuary of the Hudson River was bathed in warm afternoon light and as far as I could see the city spread before me – wharves, ships, bridges, tunnels, railroads, office towers and apartment buildings.
I decided I wanted to paint all of this and spent the next few days walking, looking and sketching. At ground level the city is visceral – all smell and sound and movement. I began to see New York as a pulsing body, its roads as arteries, its buildings as an armored skin, the moving water and the sky as a breathing lung, an open space of intense light."
–John Hartman
