For the past six years I have been doing paintings of a building in the Mission District which housed a commercial laundry. What initially attracted me to the building were the old steel hooks which hung from rails outside the loading bays. They would transport bags of linens and uniforms from the delivery vans into the cavernous laundry space within. These wonderful hooks (which reminded me of sharper versions I had seen in the Meatpacking district of New York) are featured in at least five of my paintings.A few weeks ago I was told that the laundry had finally closed. Yesterday I noticed that the hooks were gone! Today as I was walking past I saw men removing the rails which had held the hooks. I just had to ask....And now I'm now the proud owner of two old, heavy and greasy, red steel hooks!
Check out Trish Tunney's blog for great photographs of the laundry hooks.
Below are the five paintings shown in the order in which they were completed:
Urban Laundry (Diptych). 48" x 48". 2005
Urban Laundry # 2. 48" x 48". 2008
Urban Laundry # 3. 48" x 48". 2008
Urban Laundry # 4. 48" x 48". 2009
Urban Laundry # 5. 48" x 48". 2010 
What a great find! The paintings are better. ;-)
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