It could be the warehouse on the corner or a wall abandoned by time … And the hands of a street artist, but as an optical illusion it is enough to move away a little to discover an unexpected reality that this Puerto Rican has invented to stop time in version miniature.
“It is not a New York where I grew up and where many friends grew up, a lot is changing and that is why I try to capture that image of New York in the nineties and eighties in my art,” explained Danny Cortés.
Kiosks, wineries, that marked lives and with their traditional ice boxes … these streets bring great memories in replicas of a New York on the way to extinction.
“Because each piece has its story from the thrown cigarette, the gum on the sidewalk, everything tells a story,” added Danny.
Danny Cortes painstakingly seeks to generate a great feeling: nostalgia.
“If I can give you two seconds of nostalgia, I did my job.”
The same nostalgia that took him back to childhood memories surrounded by crack and gangs in a corner of the Bronx … when the only thing that kept him from a harsh reality was building sidewalks and buildings with cereal boxes.
“And thank God that when I went to the room and created this miniature I could go further … then with the cereal boxes I created my world in my room,” Danny revealed.
Then life made him forget about his most beloved childhood game.
“I was you know, doing many disasters, doing many things that I should not do. A case with the law came only because I was behind money in another way and thank God that today I do not have to be thinking about that”, Danny said.
And it’s amazing to see how the two pieces look alike, the only thing that changes is the size but more incredible to discover that these tiny works of art have put a great, great twist on Danny’s life.
In 2019, in the middle of a divorce and cleaning a homeless shelter, she searched for a new escape with her hands. After 30 years he returned to playing with boxes.
Everything started with a box.
“The hours passed, I didn’t think about anything, neither problems nor anything. Focused there and that was what helped me.”
One day her daughter was amazed at her father’s hobby that she did not know … she told her that she would have to show it on social networks.
In a matter of seconds and to the rhythm of a Tiktok it was filled with followers and clients.
“I never imagined that I was going to be an artist.”
-And you had zero expectations
“Zero .. it was only for me.”
Danny can now happily live off his art.
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“I don’t have to be thinking about depression or that I’m going to be arrested. Art saved my life,” Danny said.
Some of his clients have come from Hollywood studios, they are renowned artists who don’t pay for a piece, they pay to feel what moves Danny’s soul: nostalgia.
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