Artist Kerry Irvine lost a sister on 9/11, she heals by painting on 3 WTC's 80th floor
Record ID:
1639208
Artist Kerry Irvine lost a sister on 9/11, she heals by painting on 3 WTC's 80th floor
- Title: Artist Kerry Irvine lost a sister on 9/11, she heals by painting on 3 WTC's 80th floor
- Date: 29th September 2021
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 28, 2021) (REUTERS) STATUE OF LIBERTY SEEN FROM THE 80TH FLOOR OF 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER / VARIOUS OF ABSTRACT ARTIST KERRY IRVINE'S STUDIO (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, DESCRIBING HER PAINTING "CITY ON FIRE" FROM 2018, SAYING: "I had just come from painting at 120 Broadway, which was an older office space with a tiny window, but surprisingly I was doing tons of color. So this came with me and I unrolled it and I started painting all these silvery blues, so I just painted over the color and I was super frustrated, just couldn't stand it. So I started to razor it down and this started popping up in here and over here. And I stepped back and I looked at it and I thought, 'Oh my God it's 9/11.' And it was OK because I thought it looked beautiful and I wasn't frightened for that to be there." CLOSE UP OF "CITY ON FIRE" FROM 2018 WITH THE SKY AND THE HUDSON RIVER REFLECTED IN THE GLASS IRVINE'S PAINTINGS / IRVING LOOKING AT HER PAINTING "CITY ON FIRE" FROM 2018 ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER TO 9/11 MEMORIAL REFLECTING POOLS / IRVINE'S PAINTBRUSHES / PHOTOGRAPH OF KRISTIN IRVINE RYAN, IRVINE'S SISTER, WHO DIED DURING THE 9/11 ATTACKS 20 YEARS AGO (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "There were five girls in my family. She was number four right below me. Her name's Kristy and she worked in the South Tower. So it is pretty ironic that I'm here. It is not how I got in here technically, but it is why I'm here. I live in the West Village and I never came down here. It was actually still kind of terrifying to me. So when my friend invited me to come down and meet this artist, I was apprehensive and I got off the subway, I remember, and I was going to 4 (World Trade Center) and I turned around and I looked at the wall, the memorial, and I knew where her name was. And she was right on the wall behind me, smack in the middle, almost a direct shot to the entrance. So I sort of, you know, I took that for what it was. And I went up and I was strangely calm in this beautiful big space. And, you know, a lot of the scaries, were not there." PAINT BRUSHES WITH ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER IN THE BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "He's (Dara McQuillan, chief marketing & communications officer for Silverstein Properties) such an amazing person. I'm not quite sure what he saw, but he did. And that generosity has changed my life, absolutely changed my life. I do believe working in these studios, in these buildings has been the last step of my healing. It really helped to bring closure. This is not a scary place for me down here. I'm very at peace. In the morning I can touch her name, come in and work. My sisters have been able to come down here and feel the peace. My dad finally got here this year, September 9th, for an event. And so it's been closure for all of us." 9/11 MEMORIAL REFLECTING POOLS / PHOTOGRAPH OF KRISTIN IRVINE RYAN, IRVINE'S SISTER, WHO DIED DURING THE 9/11 ATTACKS 20 YEARS AGO (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "Kristy Irvine Ryan. She was married to her high school sweetheart in 94 days. My sisters are all my best friends, and she was my best friend who I lived with forever in the city. She was an equities trader and she was wonderful. She was fun. She was everything that I do hope to be. She let everything roll off her back. She did not sweat the small stuff and she was physically beautiful and she was also internally beautiful and had a spirit that everybody felt. She was contagious. She was like so many people that died on that day, you know, the best people you could want in your life." VARIOUS OF IRVINE DESCRIBING HER 8 FOOT BY 6 FOOT PAINTING "FORCE OF NATURE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "I knew I was only there for a limited amount of time (at 4 World Trade Center). And I thought after that, I would be off the island, going home. And that didn't happen. Dara scrambled and found me a spot and I went to 7 World Trade Center." WHITE FLASH KERRY IRVINE: "By that time, after being there for about three or four months (at 120 Broadway), this building was finished. So I came here and I was on 45 and then Uber leased that and luckily I was put up." WHITE FLASH KERRY IRVINE: "Three years joining Silverstein. So five studios in three years." IRVINE'S MANTRA READING (English): "HERE / Here is now / Here is hope / Here is the journey / Here is taking risks / Here is trust / Here is not always easy / Here is saying yes / Here is enough / Here is where I will myself to be / Not tomorrow / Not yesterday / Today / HERE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "I stopped painting after 9/11 for about eight years. It was really hard. It was really hard to be alone and to paint. I did little stuff, I would cut up my big paintings, old ones, and cut them up and draw on them a little and frame them and give them to people. But I really did nothing. It was probably what any therapist would have said to do to heal, but it was too close for me. And so, I just stopped. So it was about 2008, I picked up a paintbrush again because the market crashed and everything disappeared. And a friend suggested it and she started selling my work for me." VARIOUS OF IRVINE'S PAINTINGS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "I would say the last five years, maybe longer, I've been able to live off of my art, which is, I never, ever thought... part of being able to work here, the gift of it, is that I can paint really big." VARIOUS OF IRVINE'S PAINTING USING THE COLOR MAGENTA (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "Color really moves me, emotionally. When I start my paintings, the first thing I think about is a color story. Sometimes it's a color I've been having trouble with, so I want to master it. It's been magenta for a little while. I have a lot of magenta in my paintings. I had such trouble painting anything close to pink. It was too feminine for me, too pretty. So I thought, 'but I am a girl, so let's conquer this.'" VARIOUS OF IRVINE'S PAINTINGS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABSTRACT ARTIST, KERRY IRVINE, SAYING: "It's really interesting to see what people see in my work. And if I can move somebody emotionally, I've done my job." EXTERIOR OF THE OCULUS, PART OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TRANSPORTATION HUB / 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER / ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER
- Embargoed: 13th October 2021 15:59
- Keywords: Dara McQuillan Kerry Irvine Larry Silverstein Silverstein Properties artist artist in residence rent free
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Human Interest/Brights/Odd News,Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001EWRX4K9
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PLEASE NOTE: FOR ARTIST TODD STONE, WHO PAINTS ON THE 71ST FLOOR OF 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER, PLEASE SEE EDIT 3189-ART-RESIDENCY/NEW YORK-STONE
Overlooking the Hudson River and the Statue of Liberty on the 80th floor of 3 World Trade Center, abstract artist Kerry Irvine paints rent free in a massive section of 40,000 square feet of unleased space. Several artists have studio spaces in raw, unleased floors of 3 World Trade Center, thanks to billionaire real estate mogul Larry Silverstein and Silverstein Properties chief marketing & communications officer, Dara McQuillan. Once the floors are leased, the artists are shuffled to another floor or another building.
Irvine, 52, lost her sister Kristin Irvine Ryan on the morning of September 11, 2001, when two hijacked planes slammed into New York City's World Trade Center. Kristin was in the South Tower when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the building.
Irvine was a stylist for Ralph Lauren but had always painted in her spare time because her mother was also an abstract artist.
"I stopped painting after 9/11 for about eight years," she said. "It was really hard. It was really hard to be alone and to paint. I did little stuff, I would cut up my big paintings, old ones, and cut them up and draw on them a little and frame them and give them to people. But I really did nothing. It was probably what any therapist would have said to do to heal, but it was too close for me. And so, I just stopped. So it was about 2008, I picked up a paintbrush again because the market crashed and everything disappeared. And a friend suggested it and she started selling my work for me."
About five years ago, Irvine became a full-time artist.
"I've been able to live off of my art, which is, I never, ever thought... part of being able to work here, the gift of it, is that I can paint really big," she said.
In 2018, Irvine visited an artist friend who had a studio at 4 World Trade Center.
"I live in the West Village and I never came down here," she said. "It was actually still kind of terrifying to me."
Irvine looked for her sister's name etched into the South reflecting pool of the 9/11 Memorial.
"She was right on the wall behind me, smack in the middle, almost a direct shot to the entrance," she said. "So I took that for what it was. And I went up and I was strangely calm in this beautiful big space. And a lot of the scaries, were not there."
Irvine contacted McQuillan to ask if they were offering free studio space. McQuillan emailed her back the next morning and offered up a space at 4 World Trade Center almost immediately.
"He's (McQuillan) such an amazing person," she said. "And that generosity has changed my life, absolutely changed my life. I do believe working in these studios, in these buildings has been the last step of my healing. It really helped to bring closure."
Over the course of the next three years, Irvine went from 4 World Trade Center to 7 World Trade Center to 120 Broadway to the 45th floor of 3 World Trade Center to where she is now, the 80th floor of 3 World Trade Center.
"So five studios in three years," she said, smiling.
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, Irvine started painting in magenta.
"Color really moves me, emotionally," Irvine said. "When I start my paintings, the first thing I think about is a color story. Sometimes it's a color I've been having trouble with, so I want to master it. I had such trouble painting anything close to pink. It was too feminine for me, too pretty. So I thought, 'but I am a girl, so let's conquer this.' It's really interesting to see what people see in my work. And if I can move somebody emotionally, I've done my job."
(Production: Roselle Chen, Andrew Hofstetter) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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