As a child from the suburbs in the 1980’s, everything between the Detroit city limits and Downtown was kind of an enigma. Once we hit the city limits, we didn’t stop until we got to the city center. The freeway that led there was often slightly below the surface of the streets, so I would have to look up, out of the car window at a limited viewpoint of abandoned clusters of houses surrounded by empty lots and weeds, houses with facades falling off or with bullet holes in them, broken windows, empty factories, potholes… Now, when I say there were abandoned houses, let me give you an idea: according to Wikipedia, the population of Detroit fell from 1,850,000 in 1950 to 680,000 in 2015. That leaves a lot of empty space.
To me, the city was kind of a forbidden territory as it was the nation’s murder capital, so I didn’t really know much about the city itself other than downtown and the main tourist attractions. Even there, we felt like it was only safe to a point, that you didn’t want to find new paths or stray from the main events going on. At least, that was my impression as a child.
My dad grew up in Detroit, and saw the beautiful city it was at one time. There is a great variety of architecture, but for me the really unique thing about the city is that it was an urban center where most people lived in individual houses instead of apartment blocks. It was a large city of beautiful residential architecture and gardens and trees. By the time I was born, many of these were deteriorating and abandoned, but there was something mysterious and exciting about it to me. I started drawing these urban scenes with their broken windows, burned out cars and entire city blocks, trash piles, brick textures and bullet holes. Sometimes I would throw in a new building in the middle to reflect what Detroit has always had: hope that someday the city would make a comeback.
One day while driving down the freeway in Detroit, my dad pointed up to a Mid Century Modern style lounge with a Googie sign and a yellow awning, (at least that’s how I remember it) and he mentioned that he had played bass in a jazz band there. From that moment on, I linked jazz with the urban center; old brick buildings, neon signs, Beatniks, etc. This may be far from reality or not, but that is what happened in my mind.
My Made in Detroit and Other Places series is an expression of these childhood memories and the sophisticated mysteriousness of the American inner city. This is right when the summers started to heat up and break old records, so I remember spending hours drawing these urban scenes trying to keep cool during the summer days, or to keep busy when it was too hot to sleep at night. I would spend a lot of time drawing in the cold Michigan winter, too. These drawings are, above all, pen and ink coloring pages inspired by Detroit and other American cities. The buildings are caricatures and combine typical architecture with imagination, so they may not be recognizable images of places you know. Instead, they provoke a feeling of the American urban experience I remember from growing up. These images are just a part of my downloadable collection, which you can find on the Digital page of my shop. They are also available to my patrons as montly downloads, so you can enjoy them instantly by printing them out and adding your own color and style. When you are finished, sign your name next to mine so we can be co-artists!
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Here are some examples of my middle school urban drawings.
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