Artist Statement: My obsession with Coney Island is well documented in my sketchbooks from the mid-1980’s until today. I have always been enchanted and mystified by this surreal landscape in my hometown of Brooklyn. Coney Island holds for me many memories of my childhood when my father would drive his 1960’s Oldsmobile down to Surf Avenue and pick up a bag of Nathan’s fries that we would devour in the backseat. I would gaze out the window of that old car watching this landscape flicker past me. When I returned in the 1980’s, Coney Island was in a more threadbare state, it was dangerous and seemingly falling apart. It was in this disheveled landscape that I brought my sketchbook and my father’s 1950’s Polaroid camera. The imagery of Coney Island has been burned into my memories and colors my dreams. My design this year pays homage to many of the iconic attractions of Coney Island including Luna Park. The title of my piano, of course, is "LUNA."
Christopher Spinelli is a life-long Brooklyn resident who has been creating art in Brooklyn for over 30 years. He studied art at the Brooklyn Museum and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan where he received his BFA in Media Arts and Illustration. His journey through the world of art began at a young age when he first decorated his parent's bedroom set with colored chalk. Spinelli's work has been exhibited from Brooklyn to Berlin, and he recently painted a piano that was shipped to Athens, Greece as part of a Sing for Hope project to bring art to refugee camps. . Spinelli has worked extensively in chronicling a New York and particularly Brooklyn that he feels is slipping quickly into the past. He has been the Visual Arts Instructor for the REACH Program that serves academically gifted yet economically disadvantaged students at Regis High School since 2011. He lives in Marine Park, Brooklyn with his wife Gena, and sons, Christopher and Alexander.
