During my morning and evening commutes I started to see a lot of tall buildings going up in Long Island City near my neighborhood in Queens. Every day, it seemed, there was a new one.

I wondered who would be living or working in these luxury properties I saw under construction, and how these dramatic changes might affect the surrounding neighborhoods, including mine.

Most of these collages are small, in contrast to the impressive size of the buildings in reality. My source materials are photograms I make of plants and flowers from my garden, as well as photograms of pages from the New York Times, often from the financial, real estate or home sections of the paper. I use pen and mixed media to complete the pieces.

To see videos of the construction that I recorded from the 7 train, as well as the work of other artists on the topic of luxury development and the changing neighborhoods of New York City, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZH7FJI6jGc (My section starts at min. 7:12).

Mary Pinto

Mary Pinto