Gowanus Canal Boat Yard?

Along the Gowanus Canal, on the hard behind the Tom Ottterness studio, lies a 20-something foot sloop. While not the first sailboat we've seen along the Gowanus, this is much more peculiar because a crane was needed to pull her out of the water. From our vantage point, we could see that the boat is fully rigged with a mainsail and a relatively new outboard. She appeared to have decent bottom paint. We know the boat has been out of the water for at least six months.

In the water is what appears to be a Boston Whaler. It is conceivable that this Whaler is used to commute and for pleasure or even a run to Fairway.

Perhaps Otterness knows the story of the boats.

Onshore Activites: Awesome New Store in Gowanus

We bring our first blog of the Spring season onshore, specifically at the corner of 3rd and Bond Streets in Brooklyn's Gowanus neighborhood, where a unique new retail store has opened up.

We rode by the PictureBox Departmental Store and immediately noticed that Gary Panter had put his unique signature on the store (we've been huge fans of Panter since the early 80s). Panter, a Brooklyn-based artist, is well known as the creator of the cult comic Jimbo, the iconic Screamers logo and as the Emmy award winning set designer of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Not only are the windows designed and painted by Panter, but we've been told that Panter also designed the display cases, shelving and painted the interiors.

PictureBox, which describes themselves as a "Grammy Award-winning art, music, photography, and comics publisher," opened its Departmental Store on March 22. The store specializes in artists’ editions, prints, books, zines, comics, prints, and international oddities. Among those, are the the Gary Panter Deluxe anthology, which is published by PictureBox, a Gary Panter skateboard (not a full board, just the deck), shirts and other unique items from around.

While their hours are limited - Friday 3-8, Saturday 12-8, Sunday 12-5, or by appointment - we really hope that people visit and support this place.