Smallshaw meets Wertz aka 1961 meets 2017

I was thinking more about drawings, and remembered that I'd forgotten about Julia Wertz's magnificent 2017 book Tenements, Towers & Trash. It's a large, heavy, 284 page collection of her graphic novel style drawings of the buildings of New York City, all interwoven into a story of New York, with her story of living there making cameo appearances. It's an incredible work. And a bittersweet story. Over on the left, that's Earl Smallshaw's tenement project from the Nov '61 issue of RMC. On the right is Ms. Wertz's drawing of a 19th century tenement on Orchard St. in the Lower East Side. It's not too hard to image a hybrid work of modelling and drawing.