Tag: NYC

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blog Personal

New Jersey Roots


I recently joined the parish of St. Casimir in the Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey. My grandfather and namesake was a Polish immigrant who raised his family in this area of North Jersey. He died before I was born and only left me his name. My whole life I have felt a longing to get closer to him.

St. Casimir has services in Polish and English. My artist name, Magiczyn, means magic in Polish – it only makes sense to try to learn more Polish. The building is a beautiful cathedral with several impressive paintings and sculptures. When Mass begins, one of the paintings behind the altar lowers with an electrical roller to reveal a painting of a golden Madonna. 

I have not talked to my father, Tim Szal, for several years. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, and living here is another way I can connect with him without any communication. I still practice Transcendental Meditation, which was instilled in me from a young age as the most important thing to receive support from nature and an edge over other non-meditators. 

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JCK Mechanic Personal

The Kia Cowboy

I started my new position as a mechanic at Jersey City Kia in the first week of May of this year. It has been such a great experience, yet I did not want to write about it on the blog until I completed my first six weeks. I love test-driving our new K5 (which replaced the Optima) model. I plan on buying an old KIA to bring back to life, similar to my Nissan Versa (which also started as a project car).

Kia is a strikingly different brand from GMC. GMC vehicles are designed with future repair work in mind as a priority. Yet, KIA is much more focused on luxury, and the vehicles are designed to be repaired by a professional and not a customer. I am super excited to learn more about swapping engines and transmissions with proper training from the manufacturer, not just ad hoc training from a more senior mechanic. KIA also has some very nice hybrid and fully electric vehicles, which are the way of the future, so learning to service and maintain these engines is critical.

I have been so tired from work, hanging out with my new friends and drawing/painting the beautiful historic buildings in the NYC area that I have been slow-playing work on the Arrackeen Nights project. I have been fine-tuning the candy analogies and references to Dune with all the characters and making some interesting new backdrops (my specialty) of desert buildings in ruins.

Desert Temple Backdrop for Episode 2

Stay tuned for more updates. I will release “Arrackeen Nights” on YouTube instead of Instagram this time, like “The Flying Dutchess.”

Categories
blog watercolor

The Old B’nai Jeshurun Temple

I have been visiting historic places around the New York City area and found an old gem in Newark, NJ – the original B’NAI JESHURUN Temple. The congregation has since moved, yet this temple was built in 1848. I decided to do some drawings and watercolors of it as a subject. I have also started signing my artwork as “magiczyn” instead of “magick”, due to my namesake and grandfather coming to Brooklyn from Warsaw at 2 years old in 1928.