Croton Council on the Arts

Richard Eagan

In the late 70s, when I was a woodworker living in Brooklyn, I was visited by a series of dreams about my childhood days at Coney Island. My early work as an artist sprang from those dreams and memories of visiting, and later working at, Coney Island’s legendary amusement beach. I soon established the activist/artists’ group The Coney Island Hysterical Society, becoming active in Coney Island with projects and events during the mid 80s. The architecture, the signage, the visual chaos of Coney have remained key elements of my vision as an artist, even as my work has become more abstract.

My wife Liz and I moved to Croton four years ago- it wasn’t a “covid move”, rather more of an escape from the madhouse move. Oddly, after years in the New York art scene, moving to Croton has given me renewed career energy.

With new Croton artist friends we established a Painters’ Salon and met still more artists. What seemed to a new arrival like a sleepy small town four years ago was beginning to look more like a town with major talent and art energy.

I was chosen to be a visiting artist at Croton River Artisans in 2024, and curated the 2024 Pride Invitational at the gallery featuring that gorgeous quilt made by Harvey Fierstein. I’m more than honored now to have work hanging in Hudson Valley MoCA’s sixth juried exhibition, up until April 30. Those early years in Coney Island are documented in my forthcoming book, Hysterical Coney Island: An Art Memoir of the Coney Island Hysterical Society.

My primary workspace now is in the YOHO complex at Yonkers. A little over a half an hour, easy commute. With the new space, my work is changing yet again. I’m wading into the stream of pure painting, and the work is growing in size. My new work is in some part a product of conversation with my chosen old mentors: Johns, Rauschenberg, Newman, Rothko, and Kelly.

I love what I do. — Richard Eagan