Proctor Park

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Date

ca. 1950

Description

Facing difficulty getting into work as a stonemason/bricklayer (the field he was trained in) due to union conflicts, DiSpirito eventually found work in a WPA project, creating dioramas that represented the history of the Mohawk Valley. This work led to his study of sculpture—prior to this, his interest in art had been in painting. He teacher pointed out that he knowledge of working with stone gave him skill as a sculptor, and encouraged him to try direct carving. DiSpirito eventually found work as a stonemason, and also worked very hard at his career in art, and often the two would overlap. At the Munson, in Utica, he worked on building the wall in the parking lot (and added a carving to it), and also exhibited his art there (they were the first museum to acquire his work). In this painting, he included stonework in Utica’s Proctor Park, which he also worked on building.

Type

Image

Region

Central New York, New York State

Era

Postwar United States

Topic

Immigration

Repository

New York State Museum

Identifier

H-2017.32.3

Source

New York State Museum

Rights

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