The Three Graces Ride the D Train

The Three Graces Ride the D Train, wax resist on paper, 1984; 12 x 12 in

In the last half of 1984, I was living in the Bronx and riding the D train on a daily basis. One day heading home, I saw three teenage girls grabbing and releasing a subway pole while shifting their weight in a manner that resembled a choreographed dance. I immediately thought of Sandro Botticelli’s 15th century painting of the Three Graces in his “Primavera”. Since I was using silhouetted figures and had embarked on a modern-day version of Greek mythology in my paintings at that time (i.e., a painting from 1983, “Venus Visits Manhattan” was the first I exhibited in NYC in 1984), the scene had to become inspiration for a resist painting. The painting itself is wax crayon on paper, with an India ink wash resist.

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