Notes From The City: An Abundant Life

In the days when I lived in SoHo, I walked everywhere the same way that I do now. I lived in a seventh floor walkup, and I'd drop down on the sidewalk and go about my day, not wanting to go back up those seven flights unless I really had to until it was time to go home for the night. SoHo was still a neighborhood then, and you'd see people you knew on the streets walking around doing ordinary things - I used to joke with friends that when I did my laundry on the corner I could imagine the announcers on the double decker tour buses that drove by pointing out the local woman with her laundry basket in the way that a tour guide in the rain forest would point out the flora and fauna. In those days when I walked around, my travels could take me down to TriBeca to my favorite pub or to the TriBeca Grand for a more upscale event, over to Chinatown for fruit and vegetable and fish shopping and up to the Farmer's Market in Union Square all in the same day. I might go up to Bleecker Street to Ottomanelli's for steak or chicken, to the old Murray's Cheese shop and then the new one when it became more upscale, to Rocco's Pastries, or perhaps across Spring Street to visit with my friend Kurt who owned the old Bell Caffe, or over to another favorite pub nearby.

My travels always took me on journeys that I loved to wander on, and on occasion I'd see this very cool and hip looking young man who I thought must be a designer or a photographer or some kind of artist. He always looked very happy whenever I saw him, and he had a crown of curly hair that shone like the sun even on dark and rainy days. Then one day as I was wandering on my daily adventure, I saw this young man in several different places all over the place wherever I went. The third time I saw him it was near my apartment, and I stopped him to say that I'd seen him before and now three times that day and I just felt like I had to say hello. He was as friendly as he was joyful, and he gave me his card, and when I got home and sat down to email him, I saw that he was a photographer and his name was Tommy Flynn. I had told him that I worked with different types of Artists and so I sent him more information about myself, and one day he invited me over to his studio to talk about having me help him with some PR work for an upcoming gallery show and some other projects he was working on. He lived just a few blocks away from me in Tribeca in a building right next to where a friend, a Director from Circle Repertory Company, lived, and it turns out they knew each other, so we ended up running into each other at that friend's parties on occasion too. He ended up helping me in a very big way one day when I met the Belgian photographer Jean Claude Wouters in Paris who created a silver gelatin print portrait of me on archival paper that he sent to me rolled up in a tube. I had no idea how to handle it, never mind who to show it to, and so I sent an email to Tommy and explained what was going on, and he recommended I visit with a friend of his at Duggal who turned out to be one of the top Executives in the business and who in turn helped me mount the photograph and recommended me to the Ariel Meyerowitz Gallery. That recommendation led to Jean Claude's first New York show, and paved his way as a Fine Art Photographer in America, and it was all because of a generous recommendation made by Tommy Flynn.

Because of his goodness and generosity, making a recommendation like that was a simple thing for Tommy, but the reality is that his word is worth gold because of his long history of hard work, craftsmanship and integrity. Originally from Dorchester, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Art Institute of Boston in Photography and Sculpture, and he received scholarships for his work in Photography for two consecutive years. His work has been exhibited extensively in New York City and around the world, and it is stunning, with every photograph an intricate work of art that can stand alone or be put together in pairs or small groups or a larger gallery wall. His attention to detail and eye for the immaculately perfect image made him a success in the advertising world and a successful entrepreneur, and led to his being a member of the team of trusted builders and painters of Sol LeWitt's pieces over many years. His kind heart opens his studio to help street artists photograph and document their work for affordable fees, and his connections with businesses and galleries like gallery onetwentyeight on Manhattan's lower East Side are long term friendships that have been developed over time and sustained because of the excellence and beauty of his work.

There was another project we worked on together, one with a much more serious tone. Because of where he lives, Tommy had a direct bird's eye view of the former World Trade Center and he would go up to his roof and photograph it in all kinds of weather. The photographs he created were all masterpieces, and he had put them together into a poster. It was a popular poster because of the beauty of the photographs, and after the towers came down on September 11, 2001, he began receiving even more orders for it. Not wanting to make a profit from it because of what had happened, he decided to give proceeds of the sales to the 9/11 fund for firefighters and other first responders in New York City. I helped him write the press release and announcements for that gift he was giving, and he gave me a copy of the poster that is one of most meaningful of treasures I have.

The last time I saw Tommy, he had been working on a new project, "Sliced Open". A home gourmet chef with an always inquisitive sense of the visually intriguing, he was seeking out exotic varieties of fruits and vegetables and using Takamura Chef's knives to cut them in half, then photographing them in ways that brought to life the intricate designs within. It had been a while since I'd seen him, and then one day a few years ago I was walking down Prince Street and I saw some prints that looked very familiar, and there was Tommy Flynn himself at the table. In addition to the fruit and vegetable prints he had some lovely pieces that used different types of shells and starfish and seaweed photographed in a variety of ways, and one print that I had a postcard of from years ago called "Hand In Vortex" of a hand underwater seemingly reaching for and meeting what looked like a tornado within the water. I took some photographs of him and posted a short blog post, and then just recently I was reminded of his photograph "Hand In Vortex" because of an Instagram post I saw from a filmmaker friend showing a video of a hand playing in colorfully lit water. I happened to be in SoHo right after that reminder, and so I decided to take a walk down Prince Street to see if Tommy was around. There he was at his table, and we set up a time to meet at his studio, and so one day shortly after that I found myself walking through SoHo on West Broadway on a beautiful spring day, and continuing down into Tribeca to visit my old friend.

I had the amazing feeling that day of having the thought, "It's good to be home," and though I love where I live now and don't want to go back to my tiny seventh floor walkup, I loved having the feeling of being in a place where I could still know my way around like I belonged there. It's one of the beauties of having lived in Manhattan for so long that whenever and wherever I go there, as much as some things have changed, there are so many memories of people and places and things that I used to do and go and see that when it's a beautiful day it feels good to be there. As I walked up the steps to Tommy Flynn's studio, so many memories came rushing back, and as we visited that afternoon, so many new ideas started flowing. We shared some freshly brewed fresh ginger tea he made while we talked, and after visiting and spending some time with his sometime muse and cat Tono who will be 17 on May 2, he took me to see the studio below his that belongs to the Artist James Bishop who has lived there for even longer than Tommy has. Now 95, his former neighbor of many years now lives in Europe, but he keeps his studio there "just in case" he ever decides to move back. Being in Tommy's studio and visiting his neighbor's gave me that comfortable sense of being back where I belonged. It's a good feeling to find yourself where your soul feels like it's home, and if home is where the heart is, when you're with someone as full of goodness and joy and creativity as Tommy Flynn is, you'll feel just how good life can be.

Tommy Flynn In Tribeca

New York City

https://slicedopen.com/

https://tommyflynnphoto.com/home.html

https://www.facebook.com/tommy.flynn

With His Cat Tono
Who Will Be 17 On May 2