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.”