My mother, Bernice (Erickson) Hesslein in Greenwich Village at twenty years old. There is significant family painting history in the Village, where my grandmother, Blanche (Nathan) Hesslein and my mother, Bernice (Erickson) Hesslein painted and exhibited over the years in Washington Square Park.

Many of these photographs were shot in and around MacDougal Street and MacDougal Alley in Greenwich Village, a favorite atmosphere for them to work. They displayed their paintings in exhibitions in the park and streets of the Village. Both worked together in a shared studio on MacDougal Alley.

Blanche and Bernice spent considerable time painting outdoors in the lush park with trees swaying and birds flying in the middle of that public square in New York City. MacDougal Alley is a dead-end off MacDougal Street, between Waverly Place and West 8th Street. The Alley was established in 1883 and from 1949 to 1950 Jackson Pollock lived at Number 9 in the alley and was the final Manhattan street lit by gas lamps.