I Heart NY is a collage I created from my grandfather's old t shirts. My grandfather died in 2017 and my prized possessions from him were his Yankees t shirt and his Iona College t shirt; memorabilia from his favorite sports team and his beloved alma mater. After keeping these shirts for so long, I decided to free up some space in my closet. I didn't want to trash the shirts, but I didn't want to wear them either. As a solution, I cut up the shirts and pasted them onto canvas to preserve them and change the original objects' form. I reworked the Yankees logo with pieces cut from the Iona shirt. I then created a heart from the scraps of the Yankees shirt to symbolize my love for my grandfather and used the Iona College scraps for the background. I settled on the name I Heart NY, paying homage to the iconic shirts you can find in any NYC gift shop.
