Month: April 2018

John Patrikis is standing in the back of Ditmars Flowers & Gifts putting the finishing touches on a towering arrangement. John’s the owner of Ditmars Flowers & Gifts. He adds a couple of roses in strategic spots and stands back to assess his work. The Love Forever Tribute, which is 2 feet wide and 3 feet high and made of ruby roses and blood-red gladiolas, is destined for a funeral. John working on the Love Forever Tribute. John, who has been a florist since 1971 and who opened this…

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Don’t let the rocking chair fool you. Yes, Leonard Vogt is sitting in it, sipping coffee from a dainty China teacup rimmed in gold. Leonard is a retired LaGuardia Community College professor. Yes, he’s a bespectacled, 74-year-old retired college professor. But that doesn’t mean that he’s idle. Even his rocking is vibrant and vigorous. As he starts listing all the things he’s involved in, Phryne, his 4-year-old chocolate-color rescue dachshund, comes scampering into the living room waving…

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Standing at a silver slicing machine, John Gordon looks out at the crowd of customers at the counter and smiles. Sal, Kris & Charlie’s Deli, a.k.a. The Sandwich King of Astoria, at 33-12 23rd Ave. The stretching sun hasn’t even taken a bite out of the morning, but already hungry people are lined up, mouths watering, for the jaw-dropping, jumbo subs of The Sandwich King of Astoria, a.k.a. Sal, Kris & Charlie’s Deli. “My favorite thing,” he says, “is to stare at them when they…

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“My work,” says Alex Markwith, “is meant to inspire a conversation.” Alex grew up in Pennsylvania. Alex, who is dressed in all black, brings a black and white painting into his black and white and gray living room. He places it on the floor, artfully leaning it against the leg of his black and white desk. Alex’s . , which is what Alex calls this work, is a black canvas edged in blood red inscribed with a single word that is cut in half: CON TEXT. It has a double meaning – there’s…

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Michele Rothman pulls a coil of Bare Bright Copper No. 1 out of a plastic bin and holds it up to the unforgiving glare of the fluorescent light. City Scrap Metal is at 34-12 Borden Ave., Long Island City. “It’s gorgeous,” she says of the electrical wiring. “It’s scrap, but I consider it art.” As she’s admiring its gleaming beauty, a truck comes in with a delivery, and she rushes over to the table to help her crew remove the plastic insulation from the new cache of copper. Michele…

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