Union Meeting, 1976. Oil on canvas, 28 x 47 inches.
Collection of 1199SEIU, United Healthcare Workers East.
Elliot Godoff was a friend of my parents, and like my mother was also a pharmacist working in the Israel Zion now called Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn. He was a beautiful caring person, devoted to improving the lives of his fellow workers by organizing them into trade unions in New York City and around the country. He went on to help organize the powerful Hospital Workers Union, Local 1199. In 1972 he died and the world lost a human being who cared more about the welfare of his fellow workers than about advancing his own personal ambitions. He was an important influence in my life, so I wanted to honor him by creating a painting about his work as a union leader. I used an old photograph to capture his image and had friends pose to simulate the look of a union meeting. The union bought the painting. It is now hanging in their New York headquarters.