The Gowanus Canal has always been a little creepy, sometimes more so than others. Yes, I have found a body floating in the canal. Yes, I have seen every kind of nastiness on its surface. Yes, it smells like both of those morbid comments. But it was magical when the light was right.
If I were a Hollywood director, I would have used it for the Walking Dead a long time ago. It even has its own toxic super hero. Tales of the Night Watchman Presents: It Came from the Gowanus Canal started off as a quirky idea from writer David Kelly. “The series itself is about baristas who fight monsters,” he told news12 Brooklyn. “In this particular issue, they go up against a sludge monster from the canal that sort of collects bodies that have been dumped into it and takes on their auras.” You can read it here!
So many of my favorite spots are gone, lost to time and developers. MoversNotShakers on 9th Street disappeared in 2023, the site of two of my Gowanus Canal exhibits in The Green Gallery, using reusable green plastic bins as the gallery walls within the warehouse. Pig Beach was a jewel beside the Union Street bridge, serving barbecue at picnic tables along the waterfront. In a short timespan, everything changed as the landscape was ravaged. Was COVID the catalyst? No, Rezoning was. But COVID made it easier to take down buildings while no one noticed. READ Gowanus is Dead, Long live Gowanus in my blog.
This area will be a gleaming, shining example of incorporating a new city upon an apocalyptic landscape. The grittiness is gone, the graffiti is gone. I’m not sure which is better, but I know the old Gowanus is gone with the wind.
Looking for a special image for your home, office, or building lobby? Contact me through my website contact page. Available on metal, acrylic and print in my Fine Art Print store.
Available on metal, acrylic and traditional print in my Fine Art Print Store where you can BUY NOW, use our room display preview, and see more of Mark D Phillips portfolio of images.
The links below go to the specific image to PURCHASE NOW and can also be accessed from the enlarged image above.
- END TIMES: New construction abounds on the shores of the Gowanus Canal.
- Gowanus Canal Apocalypse: Benson Metal crane loads a barge at sunset.
- Old and New: Cobblestones and the 1889 Carroll Street bridge tender building dwarfed by 365 Bond condominiums.
- Low Tide Junk: Dumping site at the Carroll Street bridge, 1997.
- Diver’s End: Repairing the flushing tunnel, 1999.
- Gowanus Gone: Site of the Alex Figliolia Water & Sewer graffiti wall on the Gowanus Canal.
- Field of Dreams: Another warehouse gone and construction begins..
- Gowanus GOAL: The graffiti was only seen after other buildings were torn down, gone in a week….
- Final Relic: The closed Carroll Street bridge building is all that remains of canal history.
- Two Horses: First home to horses, then autos, then a restaurant, then gone….
- Goodbye Lavender Lake: Former Two Dan’s, torn down 2023….
- The Green Gallery: MoversNotShakers, home to two of my Gowanus Canal exhibits. Gone 2023…..
- End of an Era: Former location of MoverNotShakers…….
Available on metal, acrylic and print in my Fine Art Print store.
Looking for a special image for your home, office, or building lobby? Contact me through my website contact page.