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Paris Stupide - Sirocco
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5cm) #97004Here is a Paris existing in the path of a hot, dust-laden sirocco from North Aftrica. Pyramids grace the hills of St. Cloud & Buttes Chaumont and overlook a maze of Arabian medinas.
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Paris Stupide - Forbidden City
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5cm) #97005Paris as the capital of The Middle Empire. The Han chose this spot as their capital, and each subsequent dynasty built its own new "Forbidden City."
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Paris Stupide - Tropical
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5) #97001The borders of a Tropical Paris -- somewhere in Africa -- are constrained by the distance women can carry the water from the river. For centuries, this nightmarish sprawl of overpopulated villages has been defined by its only source of water and its lack of technological advancement.
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Paris Stupide - Equatorial
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5cm) #97006Paris as a newly-appointed state capital carved out of the Amazonian rain forest.
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Paris Stupide - Rust Belt
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5cm) #97002Paris as an American Nineteenth Century industrial giant that stumbled into Twentieth Century industrial decay, white flight and urban blight.
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Paris Stupide - The Wall
1997 (Color pencil on paper/21.5 X 29.5cm) #97003A map of Paris itself in a not-so-distant future, post-World War III. The great conflict between the Western and Muslim worlds ended here when the Americans (yet again) landed and stopped the advancing troops. A wide swath was cut through the city to build a dividing wall.
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La Serenissima (Jamaica Bay)
2004 (Ink on vellum/27.5 X 34.5cm) #04001The geography of Jamaica Bay in Queens, NY, has always set my mind wandering across the Atlantic to the Laguna Veneta of “La Serenissima” (that long-time term of affection for Venice). The environments are very similar. Jamaica Bay has its tidal flats with its suburbia-on-a-sandbar known as The Rockaways to protect it. The Laguna Veneta has its tidal marshes and islets protected by the sandbar of the Lido. I decided to recreate a similar historical background in Queens, where Long Island begins, which would give rise to another glorious Venitian civilization out of the marshes of Jamaica Bay. I used black ink on vellum drawn with a US Geological Survey map as a base. When finished, I replaced the USG map with a white background, resulting in the lace-like quality.