By some strange coincidence, a small chain store in Brooklyn called “Connecticut Muffin” got a hold of my number and was anxious to get some of their store windows painted.

The young lady I worked with at this store  requested images of snow and winter instead of any particular religious holiday theme.  Then they don’t have to wash the windows once the December holidays have passed and can keep it up longer.

It was late in the window painting season so I was only able to paint two of their five stores.  The first one I painted was  in Park Slope, Brooklyn on 7th Avenue.  It was a bright sunny day but bitterly cold.

I always find it interesting how local residents respond to seeing live window painting.   In an upper middle class, white collar neighborhood, such as this one, most of the adults are reserved and if they have kids they quietly point out to their children, “Oh, look.  The artist is painting the window.”  Which is very nice.

However, I have to say I love the kids the best.  As I was finishing up this window  I saw a young boy about ten years old, walk by with his dad.

Seconds later, like the superhero Flash,  he suddenly re-appeared in front of the window-wind in his hair, big smile on his face and thumbs in the up position.  Children have no reservations about expressing their likes and dislikes, which is why they are so awesome.

The next window was Woodmont Pizza in Milford, Connecticut.  Small business owners here in the nutmeg state are either still struggling from the recession or not interested in this kind of holiday advertising like the New York crowd.  (I think it is the former.)

Marcelo, the manager of Woodmont Pizza, is one of my most enthusiastic clients.  He likes the traditional Santa and reindeer.

The owner used to have two pizzerias, this one and Honey Spot Pizza in Stratford.  But with the sale of Honey Spot, Woodmont Pizza is my only client locally.

It takes me about four hours to do a window like this but I had to stop, go pick up my son, and drive him to work at a local Michaels store; then go finish painting.

He doesn’t like when I take pictures of him at work.  What is it about the feeling of triumph and satisfaction that comes when I have an opportunity to annoy my 16 year old?  I wonder if that make me a bad parent?

In this pic he is putting stuff back to their appropriate place.   The first time he did this he couldn’t find where googly eyes went.

On the final day of window painting I did two more stores.  The second of the Connecticut Muffin bakeries and Metropolitan fish market.  Connecticut Muffin #2 is located in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn on Myrtle Avenue.

Not that long ago this  area of Brooklyn was part of the “hood” and is now gentrified.

It is a beautiful area with lots of brownstones.

Clinton Hill is next to Williamsburg, Brooklyn which makes sense that it’s gentrifed because Williamsburg is bursting out of it seams and seems busier than Grand Central Station at all hours of the day and night.

Here are a few pictures of the Clinton Hill-Connecticut Muffin store.  BTW, the muffins are made at a local Brooklyn bakery, making me wonder what Connecticut has to do with these muffins.  Very tasty muffins though, not to mention the soup.

A before and after picture.

It was an amazingly warm day for mid-December.  Everyone is happy on days like these.

The last and final stop on the 2011 Holiday Window Painting trail was Metropolitan Fish Market on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The owner, the infamous Pat Zollo, was one of my first customers way back in 1992.  What I consider some of my best work was done at this store back in the 90′s.  (I did get a chance to upload some of them to my web site).  www.theresakasun.com

This year Pat didn’t want much on his windows – just some red and white trim and snowflakes.  In the spring he wants me to come back and freshen up the all the windows.

This is only one piece of the many Christmas decorations Pat puts up each year.  Yep, this 3/4 life size Santa was staring at me all afternoon.  It was a little creepy.

It’s true, there are Live Eels here but don’t worry, they are behind glass.

Even if you are not here all afternoon painting windows inside the store, you smell like fish when you leave and the ambient sound that accompanies a trip to the fish market is continuous bubbling noises.  (I think some people buy tapes with these sounds on them  to help them go to sleep.)

The lobster doesn’t get much fresher than this.  Years ago he used to have live soft shell crabs in an open barrel on the floor.  They would crawl out and come at you.  Pretty funny to watch them go after small children.  Don’t worry they were my children and they all ran away.  I only wish I had a camera on me at the time.

Make no mistake!  This is the best place to buy fish.  Just about every restaurant in the surrounding area buy their fish here.

A smile for every customer.  Can’t beat that kind of service.

And that concludes the 2011 window painting season!  I rewarded myself by purchasing airline tickets for my kids and I so we could spend Christmas with my family back in the great state of Nebraska.  Go Big Red.

The following day I did a double again.  I started my day at Sal’s Pizza on Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

It was a warm sunny day.  The temperature was above freezing.  This is the best time to paint on glass windows.  If it is below the freezing mark acrylic paint does funny things like bubble up and crack.

I’ve known Dominic, the owner of Sal’s Pizza, for 19 years now.  He was my third customer that first year back in 1992.  Through the years I’ve heard about his daughters who are now college students, and in return he has heard about my children and personal ups and downs, always had a kind word and is a loyal customer.

Each year he has a special request for the one lone window on far side of his pizzeria.  It usually pertains to some personal neighborhood joke with his friends like the year I drew rats wearing Christmas hats drinking tequila.

One of the first jokes we played was on an elderly gentleman who lived down the block.  Dominic asked me to call him and say that I just saw a “for sale” sign on his car and act like I was interested in buying it.  It was really hard to keep from bursting out laughing with Dominic and the rest of the crew behind me snickering and trying to hold in their bursts of laughter.

“How much do you want for the car?” I asked.  ”What?” came a distressed voice from the other end of the phone.  ”I’m not selling my car.  Where did you get the idea that I’m selling my car?”

“There’s a for sale sign on it and I want to know what you want for your car.” I reiterated.

This poor man became more distressed the more I asked about his car but then he heard all the laughter in the background and knew exactly who it was.  This is the kind of fun we have over here at Sal’s Pizza.

This year the special request for the lone window was for the troops, “Bring them home.”  December 2011 was the month the U.S. Troops officially left Iraq.

Images of the green army men from toy story came to mind.  My middle child used to always set up little green army men when he was younger.  (Now it’s Xbox live with army action games.)

Next I drove over to Middle Village, Queens and painted the windows at Metro Diner.

He is a steady customer for the last four years.  I started about 4 and finished up about 8pm.  This is what the windows look like inside after dark.

Two more holiday window posts to go!

What do Cooper Town Diner and Bay Ridge Carpet have in common?  Nothing except for the fact that I painted the two businesses on the same day.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Bay Ridge Carpet is on the edge of Brooklyn, (this part of Brooklyn lies in the shadows of the Staten Island Verazzano bridge) and Cooper Town Diner is on the East side of Manhattan.

This year I had to double up on painting store windows because I was running out of time and couldn’t even paint every place that called me.

I left my home base good and early, about 6:30am, to beat morning rush hour  traffic.  Those who know me, know that I am not a morning person and this is a small miracle for me to be in my car driving on the highway at this ungodly hour.

Richard, the owner of Bay Ridge Carpet requested these specific images.

When he asked me to paint the wise men in the other window I thought fine no problem.  I’ve been drawing scenes without reference materials for a long time, but I drew a blank when it came to how I should draw the camel.

Should I draw it with one hump or two?  Kind of like a cup of coffee with sugar…one lump or two?  To solve my dilemma I threw a wise man on the camels back.  You can decide if you want one hump or two.

Next was Cooper Town Diner on 1st Avenue off of 19th Street.

Michael, the owner of the diner was very warm and friendly and insisted I sit down and eat before I started painting.  (For some reason Greek men are always trying to feed me.)  Since I just ate pizza in Bay Ridge I only had room for a hot chocolate.  Just what I needed on a rainy day like that day.

Michael liked how my window painting was visible from both the inside and the outside.

Even Santa takes coffee breaks.

There were lots of friendly people in the diner that day.  I finally finished up around 7:30 and headed home.

As a licensed artist I know that you are supposed to get permission to replicate someone else’s image.  Cinderella is no exception.  She is a Disney icon.  I normally don’t paint licensed characters, even though I have upon request from some clients in the past.  I made an exception in this private home in Queens. 

They are big fans of Cinderella.  The daughter, who is in her early twenties, is getting married next year and from what they tell me it is going to be a Cinderella extravaganza.   

I worked on the downstairs living room windows first.  It is a set of four bay windows facing directly south.  Perfect for sunlight to shine through for most of the day.

When I finished in the living room I headed upstairs to a duplicate set of windows just above in the master bedroom.  The only request was to put in a Santa. 

It really is a lot of fun painting these windows.  Here’s what it looks like on the outside.

Their house is beautiful both on the inside and out.

GST Pharmacy is owned by Muhammad, a young man who received his pharmacy degree at St. John’s University and recently opened a store at this location- Grand and Manhattan Avenues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

He saw me painting at Fortunatos earlier in the week and asked if I could come down the block and give him a bid on his store.  I squeezed him in on a Sunday.  He was telling me that he has a lot of problems with people stealing despite the location.  To his surprise they stole laundry detergent the most so he moved all the bottles to back near the register. 

 You can get a flu shot here!  Muhammad was interested in keeping the painting up past Christmas and New Years and liked the snow men at Fortunatos so icicles and snow men were the order of the day.  These windows took about 4 hours to paint.

Pizza and Pasta Delight is located in lower Manhattan on Fulton Street, just a block or two from Wall Street, the World Trade Center and Zuccotti Park. 

They also own a Picasso Pizza in Battery Park City, which is on the west side of lower Manhattan but it is temporarily closed for renovations.  (I helped pick out the tiles for that project and I can’t wait to see it when it is done.)

So this year I only painted the one pizzeria.  Micheal, the owner, likes to put a traditional Santa and reindeer on the window.  His father, Michael Senior likes that as well. 

2004 was the first year I painted his two pizzerias.  He was trying to get my number for a couple of years before that  from his friend Joe who lived near Fortunatos.  For some reason his friend wouldn’t get my number for him so Michael made a trip into Brooklyn to find me.  I didn’t know that. 

To fill out the other windows I put in some traditional snow man designs.

This is Michael Senior.  He was about 18 years old when he came to America from Italy.  I like when he tells me stories about the “old days.” 

I never leave this place without a boat load of food!  Michael Senior makes me a minimum of three large pizzas and two or three trays filled with pasta and chicken cutlets.  I don’t have to cook for the next five days!  I am not a cook and don’t pretend to be one, so free food for me and my not so little crew back at home always makes me happy!

I got a late start this day so it was dark outside when I left.  Here are a few picks of what it looks like from the outside at night.

Stay tuned for the next set of windows!

The next stop on the window painting trail was a pizzeria on 110^th street and 2^nd Avenue in upper Manhattan.  This is the beginning of Spanish Harlem.  How did I find this place?  They found me.

Believe it or not the owner, Joe, was 17 when I first painted his dad’s Pizzeria windows in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  He is now 34, married and has two kids of his own. 

I haven’t painted their windows in over 15 years.  They remember me as a new mother with a little baby boy.  That little baby boy of mine is now 16 and over six feet tall!

The first year I painted their windows they were in a small shopping area in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.  That property was sold and replaced with new high rise condos.  They moved their pizzeria to Broadway on the south side of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and after painting those windows for a year or two I didn’t hear from them anymore.

So out of the blue Joe calls me and said he just took over a pizzeria in Manhattan and wanted to have his windows painted.

I finished the windows at Fortunatos in a record two days, Wednesday and Thursday, so I could paint Joe’s Pizzeria on Friday.  Traffic from New York to Connecticut is a nightmare during rush hour and Fridays are the worst; making it the best day to take the train.

 I parked my car in Bridgeport, hopped on the Metro North and got off on 125^th Street. 

I decided to walk several blocks down 125th Street, since it always has interesting things to look at, and then took a right on 2nd Avenue and headed on down to 110th Street.

After asking him what he would like on his windows I started the outline. 

We decided that a traditional red and green Christmas would be best. 

I painted a Santa with a box of pizza and lots of red and green bows and candy canes.

The pictures above are photographed from the inside and the ones below are taken from the outside.

My style of window painting simulates stained glass; you can see the images from both the inside and the outside of each establishment. 

My friend Marjori met me at the pizzeria when I was just about finished.  She walked me back to the trian stop on 125th Street and showed me her favorite food places in the neighborhood.  We made plans for me to come and shop on a day when our kids were in school and I didn’t have to rush back home. 

The Christmas lights lining 125th Street were very beautiful.  The view from the elevated train station is a definite stop for en plein air painting when warmer weather comes back.

The bridge in the distance is the former tri-borough bridge.  It’s now officially called the RFK, or Robert F. Kennedy bridge.  It connects the Bronx to either Manhattan or Queens. 

What can I say about the infamous Fortunato Brothers located on Manhattan Avenue and Devoe Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn? How infamous is this Italian family who originate from Naples, Italy? 

Let’s just say that when they make the New York Daily News it’s not a story about cappuccinos, marzipan or pastries.  (Although, these items are quite delicious and infamous in their own right.)

This is Marzipan shaped into differnt fruits.  It’s a sweet textured almond pastry.

The pastry chefs in the back are so talented.  You name it they’ve probably made it with marzipan.  One year, Antonio the marzipan master walked over to me and said, “We have lunch in the back, come get some hot dogs.”  I thought this was very strange because all the years I had painted their windows no one ever offered me lunch.  So I walked  back to the kitchen to get one.  Hot dogs and french fries drizzled with ketchup were lined up on the table. 

I reached over to grab one and he started laughing at me.  It was his maripan masterpiece that year-hot dogs and french fries.  I should have taken it and eaten it anyways but I didn’t.   Antonio left last year and opened a bakery in downtown Brooklyn.  I have yet to get down there and paint his windows.

You can see the windows from both the inside and the out.  I like when the sun hits them.  They seem to glow.

The first time I painted at their Patisserie was in December of 1992.  I had just finished graduate school at the New York Academy of Art.  Wow that seems like decades ago, wait, it is! 

This year was the first time I painted all 21 windows in two days instead of the usual three day affair.  It took a couple of late nights and in the mornings on those days I pulled out my handy dandy crock pot so dinner was available when anyone back at the homestead got hungry. 

Having known this family for two decades I have seen a lot of interesting things.  I’ve seen the children of these dozen or so brothers grow up into adults.  Some of them have followed in their parents footsteps and some do very different things. 

Local customers have been drinking espressos and eating gelatos much longer than the 19 years I’ve been coming around.  Charlie, the retired NYC Police Captain, faithfully drinks a cappuccino every morning.  I hear how he gets hundreds of donations for the NYC Police toy drive every December. 

Mike Fortunato, being the second youngest of the brothers, practically grew up with the many nieces and nephews of his older siblings.  As long as I can remember he spoke of how he doesn’t want to have kids.  This year I used a picture of his sixth month old son as a reference for the baby Jesus in the nativity scene and he’s getting married.  I’m not sure how old he is but someone told me he’s 62 and another person told me he’s 56.  Either way-you go Mike!

I enjoy coming up with new ideas every year.  Their only request is Santa and the Nativity.  I decided to do a “Winter Wonderland” theme on this year’s windows.

 This is a daytime picture.

 This is what it looks like at night. It felt kind of magical.

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night”

As long as the food in the fridge dwindles with the passing of each day, I know they are eating; and those strangely tangled bodies sprawled out on my couches as I walk into the house at night are not scary monsters but two sleeping teens and one tween.  I guess they don’t want to go upstairs to bed until mommy is up there with them.

I like the night time in our house.  (I’m sure a million other parents are on board with me on this one) But there is something so wonderful and comforting when they are all tucked in safe and sound despite how big they are or what age.

Ok, with that said, I am going to start with Middle Village construction.  I painted them first thing Monday morning, back in November on the 28th.  (Doesn’t November seem so long ago?)  The owner Anthony, wasn’t there but his wonderful secretary Maria was and she was answering phones and chatting with me.

This office reminded me of a castle.  The entire office, from floor to ceiling, was tiled with all style and manner of bricks.  It was a feast of earthy colors and textures.

As usual, I drew everything out…

Then colored it in.  The one thing they requested was a Santa.

As soon as I finished Maria dialed up Anthony on Skype.  She took her ipad and showed him my work.  Guess where he was?  He was upstate in a tree with a gun.  Hunting is his favorite hobby.  You’d be surprised how many native city slickers like to hunt.  It ain’t just country boys.

Here is what it looks like on the outside.

Then I moved on to my pal Gaspar in Bay Ridge Brooklyn.  I arrived at his pizzeria about 3pm and jumped right in.

I finished about 7pm and again, it was dark.  The nice thing about the windows when it’s dark outside is that they light up real well from the inside.

It was a pretty quiet evening on Monday.  This is not what a small business owner wants.  Gaspar thinks people are still not doing well in this economy.  As a small business owner I’m sure he is the first to feel it.

I made a big sign to advertise his holiday catering.  My window paintings can be more than just decorations.  They can be advertisements.

They can change the entire store front.  In this area of Brooklyn there is a lot of foot traffic and a near-by subway.  As I paint, I see people hurrying by who suddenly stop, converse with who they are with and then come inside for a slice.

This is my favorite picture.  Gaspar is hanging up a sign and it looks like his head is a great big red and white C.

Merry Christmas!

This day was black Friday and it was filled with tourists.  It became so crowded that people were moving my paints over on my table to have a place to sit and eat their lunch.

I had left my cell phone on top of a napkin holder at my paint table.  When I made my way back to get another color I casually said to the young men sitting there, “Hey did anyone call me?”  They looked up at me as if I was crazy.  No one even cracked a smile.

Then one of them in broken English said to me,”We are students.”  (That made me feel better because I know my American sense of humor may not make sense in another language)

“Where do you go to school?” I asked and another one in broken English spoke up, “We go to school in Florida but we are all from different countries.”

And so evolved the international Happy Holidays theme at Little Italy Pizza!  I wrote Merry Christmas in 7 different languages and Happy Hanukkah in Hebrew, so that makes a total of eight for the holidays.  This first one is Japanese.  He said I wrote out the characters better than he does.  How sweet!

Can you guess the other languages?

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Starting with the Santa mirror and moving to the left  it goes like this: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.  The mirrors on the other side are Japanese and Hebrew.

And the last one on the end is English.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!  On to the next window…