"WAITING FOR TOYDOT" - LIRR Massapequa Station, Massapequa, New York, USA
in collaboration with Peter Drake
Working with all the folks at Peters Studios was a dream come true. I was assigned a master painter in Claus Happe, who demonstrated supreme skill in his handling of one of the most difficult mediums an artist can work with. Peter Kaufmann made certain that every aspect of our project was managed professionally and with astonishing craftsmanship. Working with a firm that has been producing some of the world’s most magnificent stained glass for four generations assured us that our project would deserve to be in the public eye for years to come.
– Peter Drake, Artist
DESCRIPTION: Drake used 1930’s miniature lead figures from his father’s model railroad collection to represent a group of people who appear to be waiting on a station platform for a train to arrive. “Some of my fondest memories of growing up on Long Island are driving to the train station with my family in the morning to drop my father off to work. He would make a big production of waiting to the last minute to jump on board. We returned every evening to pick up my father and even as a child I had the sense that this was his reward for working hard every day in the city.” Drake tips his hat to the Fitzmaurice Flying Field in Massapequa Park by including a Bremen airplane to reference James J. Fitzmaurice’s historic 1929 trans-Atlantic flight.