nmah5659.xml

nmah5659.xml

born-digital

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2003-09-07

September 11, 2001
Ground Zero

Miriam and I began the development of our Ground Zero stained glass project after September 11, 2001 as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City and the impact it had on my family and me. My sister, Joyce still lives in Manhattan where she lost her business along with her life long girlfriend to the attack. Miriam my wife wanted to have a copy of the photograph taken of the firemen raising the American flag at the WTC site to remember all that had happened. To get the photograph we contacted the Record, which sent us one of the copies that were distributed across the nation. Miriam framed the photograph and wanted to know if I thought it could be made into an stained glass art panel.

Looking at the photo caused me to have a lot of memories and I began to wonder if it would be possible to do the photograph in glass. As time passed and I thought about what had happened I was filled with a lot of anger and rage regarding the attack to the WTC and our people. The rage in me was driving me to take some kind of action as it was building in me to an extreme level. People were asking why here, why now, how come there is so much hate toward the US. My past experiences gave me a better insight I felt then others were able to see. The concept is not about love and hate it is about power and the future. We are at the threshold of a new future one that could lead us towards the concept of understanding the differences between people and grasping the idea of respecting those differences no matter where or who that person may be. Or, we will be dragged back into the world of the dark ages of barbarism and ignorance only to see a future driven by those who hunger for power to control people and who would not accept their view of life and the world. I feel that we as the human race are at the crossroads where we are moving out of our adolescents towards our adulthood beginning our growth to maturity. The people and beliefs that would drive us back to the dark ages fear the growth of change for it would give every person the ability to think for themselves, to understand, and most of all allow them the ability to say no to those who would tell people how to live, love, think, and worship.

Faced with the feeling that I had to do something I thought about the Ground Zero photograph and decided to make an stained glass art panel depicting the event. In mid-October 2001, I start the process off by contacting the North Jersey Media Group who own the newspaper the Record. The general counsel Jennifer Borg and I began negotiations so that I could receive a legal copyright agreement to reproduce the photograph in stained glass. It took from mid-October 2001 until mid-February 2002 before the general counsel and I could reach an agreement.

Once I received the copyright agreement, Miriam and I started contacting glass manufactures across the nation in order to get access to different glass samples. The glass manufactures were most helpful once they learned what I was doing and that I had a copyright to reproduce the photograph in glass. The selection of glass proceeded from mid-February 2002 until the end of April 2002. After all the glass was selected the necessary order was placed in May 2002 and we had to wait until the glass started being delivered around July 2002 and completed by the end of September 2002.

Miriam and I began working on the glass project by building the necessary structures in July 2002 and developing the needed photograph layouts so that I could establish the pattern and glass cutting lines. Our serious work began when we started to receive some of the glass in July after which I began to cut and assemble the panel. The work progressed slowly through the months as we had to handle may different items during this time. As this project began to grow we received much encouragement from friends and associates to keep plugging away as they were very supportive of the work selected.

We completed the glass rendition of Ground Zero in January 2003 and extended and invitation to the City of Plano Fire Department to display the stained glass art panel to public at the fire departments main headquarters in Plano, Texas. Deputy Fire Chief Kirk H. Owen viewed the work in late January 2002, and he said he would ask the Fire Chief and City Management for permission to display the work. After receiving permission we placed the stained glass depiction of the flag raising at the Plano fire department for public viewing. We have also received an invitation from the State Fair of Texas to place the stained glass panel on public display in the Creative Arts building during the fair. Miriam and I are very grateful to the State Fair of Texas in allowing us to place this stained glass panel on display during the fair.

I feel that we have dedicated this art work to the lives lost, citizens, firemen, policemen, and solders then, today, and tomorrow whether given on the fields of battle or on the streets of our cities and towns is the price that must be paid for the one thing we all need to learn and hold in our hearts. Those who stand at our gates looking into the fires, crime, and wars give to all of us that ability to seek the what we need to keep in our hearts. Some have called this freedom, others our rights, and others the American way, however I feel that what we really need to hold in our hearts is the respect and integrity for others. How else or why else, would someone, anyone place their own life on the line to fight a fire, stop an armed criminal, leave their family going across the seas to seek out that which would see all this destroyed.

It took time for the Ground Zero September 11, 2001 panel to be completed. During that time my wife and I were able to start our own healing process from those events while at that same time being able to depict a single event that we will enable us to remember what happened on a sunny clear day in the City of New York.