There are an overwhelming number of places to squirrel away little treasures in post-industrial Greenpoint — especially if they’re the size of a trading card. Over the last six years, Brooklyn artist Steve Wasterval has hidden more than 200 tiny landscapes around the neighborhood on the weekends as part of a regular community-wide scavenger hunt that also chronicles the fast-paced changes unfolding in the area.
A Greenpoint resident for over a decade now, Wasterval told Hyperallergic that he started the scavenger hunt in 2018 as a “chance for people to connect with and appreciate their surroundings with art.”
It’s since involved into a local phenomenon that draws dozens of community members at a time, beginning mere minutes after the artist announces the latest painting drop via Instagram and email list.
Taking about an hour each to complete, Wasterval’s acrylic paintings measure only two by one and a half inches (~5 x 6.4 cm) each, rendering quotidian spots throughout the neighborhood in a style reminiscent of Russian Impressionism. From trees at McGolrick Park and WNYC Transmitter Park’s shimmering waterfront to the street corner of Paulie Gee’s Slice Shop and a pedestrian view of the recently built Greenpoint Landing housing development, the artist documents the historic area’s character and evolution weekly on bite-sized canvases. Street art, fire escapes, industrial buildings, and residential blocks make frequent appearances in the mini paintings, which capture the changing neighborhood’s identifying characteristics.
Wasterval’s paintings hold clues about their hiding spots, as well: He nestles each canvas somewhere in the vicinity of the location it’s based on. Stashing the small artworks inside traffic cones, behind telephone pole flyers, and even at Citi Bike stations, the artist has been forced to get creative with devising new spots to slip his paintings into.
“The earliest hunts would last all day, sometimes days,” he recalled. “There was so little awareness that I was doing it — only one or two people would show up at any given time, and when they couldn’t find it they’d just give up and leave. And this is how most mini-hunts went for years until the pandemic.”
After suspending the treasure hunt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wasterval rekindled it in the summer of 2021 to the delight of many of his neighbors. “The response was huge,” he said, explaining that members of the community expressed gratitude for the combination of free art, a fun outdoor activity, and a safe way to connect with others after months of quarantining. “There must have been 20 to 30 people looking for that first mini painting after lockdown, and someone found it within seconds,” he added.
Nowadays, it only takes between five and 30 minutes for someone to find one of Wasterval’s paintings.
“Hard-to-reach or off-limit hiding spots have been the most memorable,” he explained, noting that there’s nothing better than “neighbors giving each other a boost or trespassing for a chance at free art.”
Though he’s gotten crafty with hiding spots, Wasterval said that not a single one of the mini paintings has gone unaccounted for. Oftentimes he will share small clues via Instagram messenger with those onsite during the hunts. Unsuspecting Easter egg hunters have even come across his tiny landscapes in plastic eggs at McGolrick Park before.
Wasterval described the process of chronicling Greenpoint as it undergoes changes as “bittersweet,” adding that while he originally painted his favorite parts of the neighborhood, he later decided to document all of the old buildings before they disappeared.
“In the past few years I’ve included the new buildings, using them for mini-hunts and to show my work,” he continued, explaining that lately his practice has included a mix of old and new, capturing the path to change itself. Recently, Wasterval began thinking of expanding from Greenpoint into other areas with the intention of encouraging more people to appreciate their surroundings.
For now, anyone who keeps their finger on the pulse each weekend could score a micro-masterpiece that doubles as a snapshot of a neighborhood in a fluid state. But as Wasterval says: “You gotta be fast!”
