And Still You Rise

MW19 - And Still You Rise image

"And Still You Rise", 2002
Marc Winnat, Artist
Acrylic Painting
Size: 36" x 24"

On September 1st, 2001, I was in New York City with my brother on one of our trips to look for scenes, which might become future paintings. On this day, we were exploring what was left of the old Coney Island, as my interest in the city focuses on areas close to major change, like Coney Island. It was a good day and I found some great ideas. So on our way back into Manhattan, we noticed that we still had much of the afternoon left to explore, before our train left and decided to walk around Chinatown and the Lower East Side.

We were on East Broadway walking north, when I decided to cross the street near Rutgers St. As I got to the middle of the street, I looked back and saw the scene you see above. For some reason, the twin towers looked really good that day, casting their awesome presence over the street below. So I pulled out my camera and took my last 2 photographs on my last roll of film, of this scene. It would be the last time I physically saw the Towers.

When the Murder happened and the country recoiled, there was an overpowering numbness in my world. The media was bombing us with the images over and over and it became a personal nightmare to watch TV. It was during this time, that I saw the package of the photographs I took on my last trip and opened them to find the WTC photographs I described earlier, at the top of the pile. This was spooky but it also gave me the spark for the painting. There was also a feeling of urgency to begin the painting right away. You see symbolically, if I painted the Towers that day on 09/11/01, then they would never have fallen. So that evening I painted in the grey sky and the 2 towers with very little detail, as it is their presence I wanted to capture.

Over the next 6 months, I completed the rest of the scene and added items, like the Fire Engine, the Police Car and the Ambulance seen on the Manhattan Bridge, as a tribute to those groups, who heroically made the ultimate sacrifice that day. And finally, to the left, I included the American Flag, flying proudly against the direction that the first plane attacked from, as a tribute to my country.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Contact:
Marc Winnat
P.O. Box 1121
Merrimack, NH 03054
grizz@lycos.com

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