Harlem — Living, Breathing, Growing

maecrawford
Aug 8
2 min read

Welcome to “Behind the Canvas,” my new weekly blog sharing stories from my adventures in painting and art.

The contemporary lounge area features a sleek green sofa, modern wooden furniture, and a vibrant mosaic-style painting created by artist Melissa Mae Kors, which brings color and artistic flair to the space.

In 2024, I was commissioned to create a large-scale painting for Harlem Biospace’s newly opened second location in the historic Mink Building of West Harlem. As an incubator that provides offices and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for both biotech startups and non-STEM enterprises, Harlem Biospace stands at the intersection of innovation, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. My brief was to produce a work that would visually articulate the beauty of scientific discovery while honoring the layered history of West Harlem.

The concept I proposed was to create a painting that fused an aerial map of West Harlem with the cellular structures of a plant stem viewed under a microscope. Following the proposal’s approval, I conducted an on-site study to determine the optimal placement for the 5′ × 12′ composition and to analyze the building’s interior color palette, ensuring the work would resonate with its architectural context.

The visit to the Mink Building sparked deeper reflection on the extraordinary microtechnologies emerging from Biospace’s laboratories. I envisioned the distinctive urban grid of Harlem, its storied streets converging with images of notable local architecture: Columbia’s Jerome Greene Science Center, the Data Science Institute, the Sweets Laboratories Building, and the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center. These landmarks, emblematic of the area’s intellectual and cultural vitality, informed the spatial logic and visual rhythm of the composition.

The final design emerged as a triptych: a curved map of West Harlem on the left panel, and microscopic cellular forms symbolizing scientific exploration across the center and right panels. Together, they celebrate the convergence of place, history, and scientific discovery.