The featured image here is my watercolor titled: HARBOR PATROL ON THE SHATAMUC (Lenape name for the Hudson River). I finished it earlier this year (2024) and submitted it for Brooklyn Museum’s 200th Anniversary open call to Brooklyn residents for a special exhibit. I tagged it as my “Manifesto of the Neo Hudson Valley”. However, this painting was not picked. There was a bit of writing required for the submission which I have reproduced below. Welcome, to Neo Hudson Valley, where we may “turn on a dime”.
HARBOR PATROL ON THE SHATEMUC.
- Shatemuc is the Lenape name for Hudson River. The indigenous Lenape lived on Manhatta enjoying the rich bio-diversity in the waterways and shores of the the Hudson. Then came the European invasion and a distorted version of history.
- Painter Thomas Cole and his followers were drawn to painting the Hudson valley as “God’s wilderness.” It was gorgeous and ripe for the settlement of white farmers. All Native Americans were absent, either exterminated or ‘removed’. Cotton ginneries springing up the Hudson were expanding the African Slave trade rapidly. At the same time, it became one of the escape routes for ex-slaves attempting to reach Canada and freedom. Painting primal nature became a summer pastime for the rich while forests continued being decimated for building. I lived most of my adult life in NYC and traveled up and down the Hudson Valley. Many things and peoples were unseen and missing that did not meet the eyes. I am an artist and an immigrant with a vivid imagination. Through painting, I tried to re-calibrate phenomena. I wanted to visualize a more acceptable order of things. The idea surfaced to name a ‘Neo-Hudson Valley School’ of visualization. It is my homage to America’s indigenous spirits and people. I see it as an alliance between humans, the incredible power of nature, and the ancient spirits of the land. All of ‘Reality’ is an interdependence and co-dependence of all entities. No one entity is more important than the other. This comes from a need to see an equality. It aims to ‘reset’ my adopted homeland. It integrates the great diversity that we are.
- Gratefully, my ideas started modeling themselves around all forms of life being interconnected. I see my submission as a ‘Manifesto of the Neo-Hudson Valley’ school.
100 words about what is HARBOR PATROL ON THE SHATEMUC
Harbor Patrol on the Shatemuc: A doorway to Neo-Hudson Valley in New York Harbor. Bridges connect Long Island to Manhatta, Lenape name for their island homeland. Hudson, was Shatemuk which means ‘river that flows in both directions’. NHV is guarded by Whales, a Turtle, a Beaver, a Coyote and Bald Eagles scout the airways. SS Baltic, loaded with hidden cargo and crew, steams for Fort Sumter to start the Civil War. A Monkey’s Fist alludes to the awful cotton picking slavery days. We celebrate, along with the indigenous people, the return of the White Bison. A long barge glides north bearing reconstruction materials. A radio telescope simultaneously examines both the past and the future. It processes data for comprehensive distribution in the building banks below.
