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Behind the Painting
I had big plans for the 2026 New York City Marathon. Multiple locations, multiple boroughs, hit all those miles that I’ve never painted before. None of that happened. Lucky for me, the marathon passes just a few blocks from my apartment. I stayed close to home and found a spot in the middle of it all, standing on the Fourth Avenue median, right between the Mile Seven markers.
It was pretty special to see the street that I walk down on my way to the studio every day transformed by crowds of people cheering, rattling drums, blasting music, holding signs, sprinting out to greet their friends and partners the moment they passed by. I looked south towards the 4th and 9th Street subway stop, buildings rising on both sides of the street, footsteps falling on both sides of the median.
I got caught up in painting - drenching the canvas with color, scrubbing it out, trying to blot on the foot of one runner, then dab in the bib of another - that by the time I looked up, most of the marathoners had gone by and all that was left was a few intermittent walkers plowing steadily along, 19.2 miles left to finish.
