Year 13 of my 20-Year-Guggenheim Series called for something special… but I found myself rudderless. That is… until I spotted a brilliant photo on the Guggenheim Museum Twitter account… snapped by @NYCLOVESNYC — aka, Noel Y. Calingasan.

Today’s #FrankLloydWrightFridays illustration is by @nyclovesnyc—“I made this image to depict this white 'temple of spirit,' a respite from the fast-paced New York life represented by the bright red light trails on 5th Avenue.” pic.twitter.com/f4t0qW9KC5

— Guggenheim Museum (@Guggenheim) September 18, 2020

I’m sure you can see why I was so taken. As it happens, I reached out to Noel, and he graciously allowed me to use his photo as the source image for this painting.

And thanks to Noel, “Bright Lights, Big City Guggenheim” was born — named, with an obvious nod, to the brilliant Jay McInerney (a gent I spotted at Elaine’s a few times, back in the day).

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