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https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/nyc-epicenters-911-2021

NYC EPICENTERS 9/11➔2021½, a four-part documentary essay produced and directed by acclaimed director Spike Lee (HBO’s 4 Little GirlsWhen The Levees Broke) is a rich tapestry of New York City in the 21st century, weaving together the stories, memories, and insights of those who were eyewitnesses to New York’s greatest challenges.

My work is about the importance of human life, and the time and ideas in which I live. For this reason I remain Figurative and immediate in my application. I rely on line and foreshortening in my technique. Form and color are the heart and soul of my compositions. My art is about feeling and expression. It seeks to enhance our culture and be a backbone of creativity in the years to come.

Stoller has this to say about his work:“Painting comes naturally. However I’ve always had to battle with images. To this day I struggle with my classic/romantic predilection coming up harshly against modern pessimistic reality. I always want to paint a nice picture. The artist doesn’t want to judge. The street does that. It waits and tells all. A muscle develops in the hand- an iron fist. No short cuts, no payoffs, no inheritances. The work must be done. Like scales on the piano/ like writing and rewriting and crumpling paper into the trash for ten years. There is a master at dusk tip-toeing on the edge of the sky. Be free, be fierce, beware.”

Jewish American painter and sculptor Steve Stoller and African American poet Etheridge Knight whose common expression brings to focus the beats and rhythms of a community in change and the direct and authentic vision of its inhabitants. Stoller and Knight, in their struggles, share a vision of the life force, laughter, humanity and essential dignity of those who too often have been silenced by an oppressive social system: prisoners, street folk, children, elderly, workers, lovers, artists, homeless, and those living on the edge of a human frailty and in the center of human strength and feeling.

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