Artist Alex Russell is a talented artist who inherited his abilities from both of his parents—his mother a portrait artist, and his father an engineer and inventor. With his special gifts, he created an illustrated map of his neighborhood in Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
However, this isn’t just an ordinary map; it showcases the local businesses, parks, waterways, and restaurants—but with the style of it being drawn in the Middle Ages.
If you look closely, the maps might remind you of the ones used in the past, when people drew them by hand. Very detailed and not that colorful, the artist used only several colors in his arsenal to bring it to fruition.
“The Great Map of Greenpoint began as an effort to drive business around the neighborhood,” Russel shared on his website. “As a restaurant owner in Greenpoint, it was to draw attention to everything this great little area had to offer. It was a symbol of community and support of one another.”
In autumn 2019, his map was inducted into the New York Public Library Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division as the first and only archived map pictorial of Greenpoint, Brooklyn in their collection.
If your path one day takes you to Russell’s neighborhood, don’t forget to check out his illustrated masterpiece!
