Creedmoor Psychiatric Center,Queens Village, Queens, New York

The sprawling Creedmoor campus was constructed in 1912 in Queens Village as the Farm Colony of Brooklyn State Hospital, one of hundreds of similar psychiatric wards erected at the turn of the century to house and rehabilitate those who were ill equipped to function on their own.  Musician Lou Reed and jazz pianist Bud Powell were treated at Creedmoor.  Legendary folksinger Woody Guthrie, who had been institutionalized for years while suffering from Huntington's disease, was transferred to Creedmoor in June 1966 and died there in October 1967.

Palladian window a nod to the ancients.  Art Moderne railing is Art Deco.  Clear delights unencumbered by decay.

Living Museum at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, Queens Village, Queens, New York

The Living Museum is an art studio dedicated to presenting the art produced by patients at the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, the largest state psychiatric care institution in New York City.
The founders of the Living Museum were two scholars, Bolek Greczynki and Janos Marton, who sought asylum in the United States in the early 1970s. Their idealism, influenced by ongoing studies of the work of André Breton, Jean Dubuffet, Meret Oppenheim, Hans Prinzhorn and Leo Navratil, led them to start the project of an ever growing refuge of Art Brut in New York City. Dedicated to beauty, the arts and healing, in collaboration with self-taught artists who had experienced the burdens of the world, the project space was initiated as a conceptual performance “taking place in the formless and fleeting (vergaenglich) sphere of trust in the patient, the prejudice of the spectators and the actual work of the artists in the space.”  The Living Museum became, for several decades, a space where each participant could develop a sense of ownership and foster their inherent creative talents in any sphere of the Arts.

Pink Floyd "The Wall" painted on straitjacket, John Tursi, artist

Gallery entrance

chatting with Hungarian founder of Living Museum, Janos Marton

remnants of kitchen ovens

Issa Ibrahim

Issa Ibrahim

Picasso knockoff, John Tursi

John Tursi

John Tursi, horses, male well hung

John Tursi

John Tursi, French curve motif

relic dental chair

skyview, from2nd floor balcony

Fountain Gallery exhibit (Jan, 2010) brochure

one last look

Movie Stars' Homes, Bayside, Queens, New York

During the 1910s and 1920s, movie stars of the silent screen gravitated to mansions on Little Neck Bay in Bayside, close to Astoria, the Hollywood of it's day.  Producer Joseph Schenck and his movie-star wife Norma Talmadge were most notable.  Buster Keaton, Gloria Swanson, and W.C. Fields were also regular fixtures.

Schenck compound

Gloria Swanson guest house, Summer 1923

boxer James "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, Corbett Rd.

Alley Pond Environmental Center, Douglaston, Queens, New York

Founded in 1972, over 700 acres.

bird observatory

Crocheron Park, Bayside, Queens, New York

Park situated on a bluff overlooking Cross Island Parkway, Mickle Pond adjacent to highway.

military vehicle rally

remnant of Pearl Estate