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Summer Art Friday: Collagist Geoffrey Stein

For our last Summer Fridays feature, we chose the work of Geoffrey Stein, a New York-based artist whose collage — “NYC Sunset” — depicts that feeling of a fading summer day.How does the lawyer-turned-artist describe summers in New York? “Everything bakes,” he says.

Describe the piece you submitted to Summer Fridays.

For me there is an unrelenting heat to the city in summer. Everything bakes. I look up and see the sunset in the treetops, a building in shadow, a watertower. Storm clouds threaten to break the heat. I tried to capture this feeling in the piece. It’s a 10-by-8-inch piece created from acrylic and collage on canvas.

Explain your process.

This summer I have been making a series of small cityscape collages. The collages are based on photos I take or find on the internet. I begin the collages with acrylic on the canvas, and then I sand the acrylic and work back into the canvas with pieces of color cut from magazines and catalogues. I work back and forth between the acrylic and the collage until the color is right.

How did you end up making art?

I am a recovering lawyer who has been painting full-time since 2000. I am primarily a figure and portrait painter.

— Kyle Chayka
Every week of the summer, Tumblr’s Storyboard and ARTINFO selected a user to highlight from our Summer Fridays series.