Brooklynites see the Gowanus Canal as a grimy, smelly waterway that has served as an industrial dumping ground for more than 100 years. But this local artist sees it as paint.
David Eustace creates his masterpieces by allowing acrylic spray-painted canvases to sit in the murky water for a month at a time.
“I see this as a play on the classic man-vs.-nature story,” Eustace said. “Except in this case, ‘nature’ happens to be a large industrial canal.”
Each month, the changing tides determine what form a painting will take. That, and the time of year. A canvas that is hung in December is almost whole when pulled out of the icy waters, while one that spent September in the same spot has large swaths eaten away by little aquatic critters and decay.
“Often they come out of the water covered in moss, but one had tiny shrimp and marine life . . .,” the artist said. “My girlfriend was freaked out. But I just let it dry and then brushed all the moss off.”
What remained on the canvas was a garish green stain where the shrimp colony had taken hold. But Eustace doesn’t mind the stain. He said it’s part of “a conversation between what I know about the canal and the actual experience of it.”
With a grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the former fine arts printmaker is displaying his Gowanus canvases through May 18 at the BAG Gallery in Park Slope.
The nearby Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club will be lending rowboats to those who want an up-close look at Eustace’s latest work, now suspended in the canal by ropes.
The artist hopes to repeat the works soon in the waterways of Paris. Eustace expects he will have to get some kind of official permission first, something he never needed in Brooklyn.
“I’m a big fan of the theory that it is better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission,” he said.