PORTRAIT OF A NEIGHBOR: CECELIA M. SHOEMAKER

Editor’s Note: As part of a regular West Side Rag series, artist Michelle Hill will interview and paint/draw an Upper West Sider. This is the second in that series. To see the full series, click here.

By Michelle Hill

Meet Cecelia Shoemaker, born in Spokane, Washington. Drawn with oil pastel.

When did you move to NYC?

I moved to NYC in 1972, right out of college. I had had a scholarship for singing and acting, so of course I wanted to come to New York.  My first apartment was at 222 West 72^nd St above the Famous Dairy Restaurant.  I would see Isaac Bashevis Singer and Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara there, so of course for a kid from Spokane, Washington that was thrilling!

The neighborhood was very dangerous, a woman did not go out at night alone, and you certainly did not get on a subway by yourself at night.  If you did either you were considered adventurous!

Did you always live on 72^nd St?

Then I moved to West 56^th Street, sharing a studio with another young woman who also had performing aspirations. There was a topless bar across the street where there is now a McDonald’s!  My dates would always say, “ What is a nice girl like you living on the West Side?”  A proper young woman was supposed to live on the East Side!

Because of the crime, NYC seemed confining, so I moved to Boston and lived there for a year and a half before moving to San Francisco for graduate school where I obtained my Masters in Broadcast Communications.  During the time that I lived in Boston and San Francisco, I enjoyed both cities, but I realized that they were not New York.  So in 1980 I returned.

Then I lived for a while in a sublet on East 74^th. My back windows faced the walls of the Whitney museum, it was very dark.  I remember coming home one day, and some pigeons had built a nest on the windowsill.  I developed a respect for them, they are wonderful parents!  I was depressed to return home one day to find that they and the little ones had moved on.

I have been in my apartment here for about 26 years.  It started out as what I thought was a legal sublet, but it wasn’t.  To make a long story short, the person I was dealing with was a very unsavory man.  At one point he threatened me and my lawyer, then repeated the threats on the phone to me.  I told him, “You have made a very grave mistake, you never threaten a country girl.  I am a dangerous element, because I am not afraid to die.  I come from nothing, I’ve got nothing, and I’ve got nothing to lose!”  I was tired of being pushed around in New York.  I am in this apartment today.

Why did you move to NYC?

I originally came here to be an actress and singer, which I did for a while, but I realized that for me, I needed more stability.  After graduate school, I worked in public relations and then marketing for many years, which involved long, long hours. I felt as though I had no personal life, so I decided to look for an opportunity to be self-employed.  I became an electrologist, which is permanent hair removal.  It has allowed me the freedom to travel and do freelance work.

What do you miss about the old Upper West Side?

I miss the funkiness, it seems so sterile now, with less diversity.  I understand that a survey was done a few years ago and it revealed that most of the residents of the UWS are wealthy and white.  We have paid a very dear price for safety.  There is no longer a community of artists, and I don’t think the city understands that this is what feeds the soul of a city.

More and more young people, from all different fields are leaving the city because they do not know how to raise a family here without making enormous amounts of money.  When are we going to realize that there has to be the creation of more middle income housing?  When you squeeze out the middle and working class, you no longer have a viable, interesting city.

Michelle Hill began her professional artist career at the age of 9 in the small town of Branchville, New Jersey painting the store windows in exchange for milk shakes and jawbreakers. At the age of 19, she moved into a 2 bedroom rent stabilized apartment on the Upper West Side to attend Parson’s School of Design. She now lives in that same apartment building with her husband and 2 kids 25 years later. Her illustration clients include the Village Voice, Scholastic Books, and Highlight Magazine.