NYC 9/11 exhibitions, include works by artists and photographs who witnessed terrorist attacks

John Coburn went to ground zero days after the Sept. 11 attacks and began sketching, moved by the acts of “love and care” of New Yorkers and recovery workers. Coburn was compelled to illustrate the compassion — rather than the destruction — and compiled his work into a book he gave to victims’ families.

EJay Weiss was in his Tribeca art studio when the first plane crashed. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and ran outside. His hands shaking, he could see inside the burning towers as thick acrid smoke filled the sky. A few days later, he began 9/11 Elegies: 2001-2011, mixing the ash from the site into the paint he used.

Todd Stone, another downtown artist, ran to the rooftop of his studio as the towers collapsed to photograph, draw and paint “the day the world changed.” Over the next two years, he created a tribute to those who died with “Witness,” a series of 15 watercolors into which he rubbed the dust that settled over his studio.

All three artists are showing their works in exhibitions commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. At least two dozen other Sept. 11-related museum and gallery exhibitions also are being presented throughout the city.

Stone also has been chronicling the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site since about 2003 with “Downtown Rising,” which includes dozens of large-scale oils and watercolors. During the past 18 months, he’s worked from a perch overlooking the 16-acre trade center site on the 48th floor of the new 7 World Trade Center at the invitation of developer Silverstein Properties.

“I never thought I would be able to approach the ground zero site as anything but the saddest place on earth,” he said recently from the site, looking out at the rising 1 World Trade Center tower outside his window. “But it’s not like that anymore. The strength of our city and country are manifest in the work force of thousands of men who are here every day making this incredible construction before my very eyes.”

The city is in discussions with Stone about donating his paintings to the memorial museum slated to open next year. Several of his “Witness” 9/11 paintings are in a multimedia show at LaGuardia Community College opening Sept. 10 that includes 13 other New York City artists who witnessed the attacks.

Coburn’s “Healing Hearts” pen-and-ink sketches even survived a fire at his Toronto studio in 2006. Singed, but largely intact, they include one of St. Paul’s Chapel, which for months served as a shelter and refuge for recovery workers, volunteers and victims’ families. Another portrays George Cain, a firefighter who perished in the attacks, alongside images of his mother, Rosemary, the pastor of the nearby Trinity Church and other first responders.

“The drawings put you right in the heart of the place,” said Rosemary Cain, who met Coburn while working at ground zero as a volunteer for the Salvation Army.

The original drawings are being shown publicly for the first time Sept. 1-15 in the Wall Street boardroom of Sciame Construction.