Rose BK Skywalker Print

I create watercolor landscapes that layer elements of nature into the urban scenery of Brooklyn’s Navy Yard and surrounding neighborhoods. My work explores both the history and present reality of human industry and architecture, and explores the decay and evolution of this geographic space. Having engaged in the diverse cultures and populations of Brooklyn since 1999, my work reproduces familiar human-made shapes in gouache while layering on natural and astrological elements in watercolor and ink to place this urban landscape in a timeless setting of sky and organic evolution. I walk through the Navy Yards and the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, and DUMBO, where I live and work, and take original photographs of the industrial areas, buildings, and structures. I then select and print photos in a large format, and use them as a pattern to outline and replicate the forms and shadows in a city landscape. The purpose of the selected buildings or structures is to evoke the feeling of being in a human-made forest, like the old-growth trees of the Oregon Cascades, where I was raised. Some pieces combine structures in new ways, others highlight one structure and remove all surrounding buildings. After painting the sky in watercolor and the structures in gouache, I add sky scapes and star patterns, or asterisms, into the background with ink pen, gold leaf, or splatter watercolor. I work to reposition the city and her structures in a way where the viewer is reminded that even surrounded by concrete, glass, and brick, we are part of the natural world, influencing it, and being influenced by it.