New York Art Deco Buildings

Hi all
Many thanks to Rosemary for giving us such a juicy subject to dwell on. I have really enjoyed exploring several ideas and have 3 pieces on the go and several more possibilities that have evolved from it. Unfortunately getting ready to move house has interfered with getting all of them finished, but I have managed one! I decided to call it 'A New Dawn' as it reminded me of a spectacular sunrise.
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A New Dawn (front) Claire Passmore 2020

I'm sure you can see it is an abstraction of the top section of the famous Chrysler Building, probably one of the more famous Deco buildings in New York.  It is a 3D piece that is more or less 16 inches x 20 inches overall. It is double sided  and is made from several layers of thick interfacing that have been printed with a lino cut block.  It is formed from 10 sections (20 prints in total) each cut to shape and then stitched in layers with long straight stitches using Aurifil 12 weight cotton thread. These are the red, orange and yellow areas between the triangles. The sections were positioned to create a fan shape and finally stitched together. 
The thread was very kindly given to me by Auriful and was perfect for this piece as it provides the vibrant colour for the sunrise and great visual texture.

A New Dawn (back) - Claire Passmore 2020

The exploration of New York Deco buildings also led to another unexpected learning opportunity, the use of Trademarking. I am reasonable familiar with the law surrounding copyright, and early on in my explorations I thought it important to find out exactly the score was with these buildings. Generally speaking, buildings constructed prior to December 1st 1990 were not copyrighted,  but they can be, and often are, Trademarked. This opens up a whole new can of worms and caused me to delve deeper to make sure I was not going to land myself in trouble. Dorothy Raymond, a fellow SAQA member helped my understanding.  As the Deco buildings in New York are pre-1990 I thought I was on safe ground until I discovered that the Chrysler Building, my choice to work with, is a Trademarked building.  As ever, this is a complex minefield full of urban myth and complex language, not to mention differences in law between different countries. However, in a nutshell, this is what I discovered with regard to Trademarking in this instance:

A trademark is infringed when the mark (in this case a recognisable reproduction of all or part of the building) is used in commerce, without the consent of the owner, in a manner that causes confusion as to the source of the goods, service or brand. 

So as long as I don't try and put an image of my work onto plates, tea towels, greetings cards or such like and try and confuse people who may think it is official merchandise, I am safe!