I’ve been thinking more and more where my characters go when they get off the subway. My childhood has always been a huge source of inspiration for my work and back then I spent a great deal of it exploring Central Park. Likewise, this painting was inspired by my friend Natasha’s daughters who spend as much of their time as possible there. Natasha always dresses them alike and they love rabbits so I thought it would be funny to have them together as rabbits in Central Park. I painted a smaller, less finished version of this composition which I gave to Natasha several years ago. I always loved the idea so I decided to paint this larger more resolved version with life size figures.

The dresses that they wore when they posed had an Indian pattern which I changed into carrots to go with the rabbits. They love Peter Rabbit so I painted in a stuffed animal version that the little one is holding. Their names are Diya and Maya so I carved their initials in a heart in the tree that they are sitting on. There is actually another heart hidden in the shape of the big one’s bent arm and the two heads. If you look behind the tree you’ll see Natasha searching for where her bunnies have hopped off to.

The title “Central Park Down” comes from my all time favorite story about rabbits: “Watership Down.”