Custom Piece made by Gillian Bates

As I said , I loved Gillian Bates' work. When I decided to contact her with an idea for a custom piece.

I told her my idea and sent her some pictures of art work and photos representing the Bliss St station in Sunnyside NY. (guess where my store name came from?)

Cornelis Verwaal had this picture "Queens Noir" of the station stairs at the far end. He also has some beautiful photos on his site of NY

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Simon Donikian who painted "Under the Bliss St Station" is one of my favorite queens artist. As luck would have it I met him at the Sunnyside Art Fair the weekend I contacted Gillian.

After seeing the pictures and hearing what I wanted Gillian asked for more photos of the station and arches.

I went to the Art fair over that weekend and took photos of the subway station.

Of course it was after I got home that I realized I took a picture of the wrong side of the station! 

Really what self-respecting coffee snob wants starbucks in a piece of art work? 

The opposite side in the same position is Alpha donuts, a place that means more than a few random meetings with family members. 

If you duck your head in there when my Father in Law is in town you are bound to find him with a donut (tsk tsk) and a cup of coffee. Knowing all to well that he shouldn't have the sugar his defense is almost always " I had a feeling I would run into you today, here I bought you a donut" To remedy matters I sent a picture of alpha donuts and asked Gillian to replace starbucks.

The blog sunnyside adventure supplied the picture and has some interesting pieces on the neigborhood.

ok so it doesn't look impressive on the outside, but it was voted one of the 10 best donut shops in NY. They apparently have superb French crullers. (note to self: buy one and tease Father in Law over phone)

So not long after that Gillian wrote that she finished the piece and mailed it out. A few days later, record time for a transatlantic package I received her creation.

What is not to love?

Bliss St Station By Gillian Bates @ Etsy