New York City Gargoyles, Part V: Statues at the Brooklyn Museum Sculpture Garden

I was planning on having the next installment in my New York City gargoyles series feature gargoyles and grotesques of the Upper West Side. However, when I sat down to create that post, I was overwhelmed by the hundred photos I'd taken of architectural carvings from that neighborhood. On some streets in that neighborhood, you can't go more than a few steps without seeing another hidden creature peaking out from behind the trees. I need to sort those photos and figure out how to organize them.

In the meantime, there are plenty more interesting carvings from other neighborhoods. Two weeks ago I posted photos of the Faces of the Brooklyn Museum Sculpture Garden, which features carvings rescued from demolished New York City buildings. This week, here are some statues from that garden.

 —Gigi

New York City Gargoyles, Part III: Faces of the Brooklyn Museum Sculpture Garden

The first time I visited the Brooklyn Museum's sculpture garden, it was under construction. Overgrown ivy covered dozens of ragged stone carvings that had been rescued form New York City buildings scheduled for demolition. (You can see some of those earlier photos here and here.)

Since then, the garden has been cleaned up and renamed the Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden. There are fewer carvings there now, but the ones that are there are characters. Here are some of my favorite stone faces from this month's visit.

—Gigi

An Introduction to the Gargoyle Girl Blog

I already blog with a fabulous group of writers, the Pens Fatales, giving me an opportunity to talk about mystery writing and life. The reason I'm starting this Gargoyle Girl blog is to explore another side of mystery that's a part of me -- the art of mystery.

I'm a photographer who's drawn to mysterious subjects. Gargoyles make up a large body of my work, thus the name of this blog.

I've been meaning to do more with these photos for ages. This blog is a way for me to share these mysterious images with others who might appreciate them as well. What better way to motivate me to organize my countless old negatives and unsorted digital archives? I've announced my intentions, so there's no going back now.

But it would be boring to focus solely on my gothic photos, so you can also stick around for some mysterious musings. (Hint: My bookshelves are filled with fantastic books from the Golden Age of detective fiction -- with correspondingly cool pulp art book covers.)

Today, I'll leave you with a photo that gives a sense of the mystery I'm talking about: a fallen angel from the Brooklyn Museum's sculpture garden, a sanctuary where giant carvings that once adorned the historic buildings of New York now lie in overgrown, tangled ivy.


As of the last time I visited, the sculptures in this garden were all hand-carved pieces of art that were rescued from buildings that were demolished. How high above the city did the wings of this cherubic angel once stretch?

Whenever I find myself in a new city, I try to find time to seek out architecturally interesting buildings with stone carvings high above, and to walk through cemeteries of weathered sculptures. There's history -- and mystery -- in the stone.

--Gigi Pandian