8    “Shell shock”          2001          
Acrylic on canvas          72 x 48”     

Every   New Yorker who saw this piece remembers it.   I think I mentioned this thought to my friend Greg one day and he loved it.    I refined the writing a little bit and made it into a large painting.   The coloration was a no-brainer.   I wanted both the letters and the background to be sky blue.   I wanted it to be something that could be read, but not without trouble.   The thing about screeching tires is that no matter how many times you hear them, you’re always waiting for the crash at the end of the screech.   That’s how it had become with airplanes going over New York City.   Now people were nervous.   After planes started flying over Manhattan again, you could see the blasé citizens of NY stopping on the sidewalk and looking up it the engine was too loud.   Another attack?