Coney Island c. 1940

Harry Shokler made this print of Coney Island using colour—it's a place of such heightened experience and intense feelings, isn’t it? I can imagine him layering the inks, colour by colour, the sky alive with streaks of light. In his process, the image would have emerged slowly, colour by colour, revealing its own logic and form. It makes me wonder if Shokler was trying to capture the essence of Coney Island as a place of dreams and illusions, with all its vibrant colours and exaggerated forms. I wonder if he returned to it again and again as a source of fascination and inspiration? The pinks, blues, and yellows create this vibrant yet slightly off-kilter palette, capturing that almost hallucinatory feeling of being at a fairground. That yellow line zig-zagging through the image – it reminds me of a serpent weaving in and out of a child’s imagination! It's those gestures that communicate such specific feelings and intentions. Ultimately, art is a way of having a conversation with other artists and with our own selves.