Postcards from Sheepshead Bay

1998 Sheepshead Bay (B, Q) New York City Transit

At the turn of the twentieth century Sheepshead Bay was a popular tourist destination. Historic sites and views from its past are portrayed in “Postcards from Sheepshead Bay.” The large mural outdoors is an oversized replica of a vintage postcard that nostalgically shows a couple fishing, a jockey on horseback, and a summer home - as well as a sheepshead, the fish for which the village was named. DeBorah Goletz fancifully cut out the couples' faces, allowing people to "stick their heads through for souvenir photos, just like the old boardwalk props," she says. Inside, another mural of turn-of-the-century people, and two smaller ones, capture quiet moments on the bay. Goletz created intricately patterned tiles with color gradations from green to blue and back to green. The results are rhythmic patterns that make one "feel" the water itself.