Coney Island epitomizes the collision of life and fantasy. Conceived as an escape from reality, Coney Island’s Luna Park was glamorous, racy, and risqué yet family friendly. The heavily visited park with all its phantasmagoric trimmings was perfect fodder for the sharp, bright palette of New York artist Vestie Davis.

Davis moved to New York from Maryland in 1928, after seven years in the U.S. Navy. He worked as a train conductor, circus barker and ticket taker, undertaker, organist, and subway-newsstand operator. It was not until 1947 that Davis considered painting as a serious activity. By 1966, his work was included in “Seventeen Naïve Painters,” a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The artist’s densely populated scenes started with black-and-white photographs that were transferred to primed canvas in pencil. Davis then inked in the details and painted the scene. Like their snapshot origins, the neatly rendered vignettes capture a moment in time.

Stacy C. Hollander, "Luna Park," exhibition label for Jubilation|Rumination: Life, Real and Imagined. Stacy C. Hollander, curator. New York: American Folk Art Museum, 2012.