Artist and software founder

Michael James Freedman

Brooklyn artist Michael James Freedman makes oil paintings, drawings, public-data art projects, and limited-edition objects rooted in streets, people, records, and movement.

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  • Drawings and paintings
  • Public data and AR
  • Originals and objects

Crashscape walk, Brooklyn

Crashscape

Crashscape turns NYC traffic crash records into an immersive public artwork.

Crashscape uses city crash records to build an augmented-reality view of New York. Each crash becomes a 30-foot painted cube near where it happened, with narration, illustration, and context.

As new crashes are recorded, new cubes and audio are added; over time, the project becomes a living memorial to the ongoing crisis of traffic violence. CrashCount Factory turns selected crashes into prints, cubes, wearables, and objects.

  1. 01 Citywide Every NYC block can become part of the augmented-reality view.
  2. 02 Billboard cubes Crashes become 30-foot painted cubes placed back into the city.
  3. 03 Living memorial New crashes add new cubes, narration, and stories over time.
  4. 04 Factory objects Selected crashes become prints, cubes, wearables, and objects.
Explore CrashscapeVisit Factory shop
Crashscape augmented reality crash drawings suspended over a Brooklyn street
Crashscape walk, Brooklyn
A vertical Crashscape tower of painted crash cubes rising into the sky
Stacked crash records
A hand holding a physical CrashCount Factory cube
CrashCount Factory object

Gowanus: (Un)Natural Habitats

Made on the new esplanades along the Gowanus Canal, these drawings reflect a neighborhood in transition. Construction rises on every side—steel, brick, and scaffolding—while young trees and plantings push into the frame. Each piece was drawn on site, with the noise of cranes and machinery close by. The series explores tension and resilience: nature insisting on its place within the built environment, persistence meeting reinvention.

See the work at the Nu hotel Lobby, 85 Smith Street, Brooklyn. 

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My Beautiful People

The My Beautiful People project began when we invited community members to come to an “Art Party” and encouraged them to dress for a formal portrait. Over 100 people attended; the guests received free photos of themselves and I obtained raw material for a portrait series to celebrate everyday people of Brooklyn.

Over the last 6 months, I have created countless preparatory drawings, done video interviews with select subjects and finished 3 large oil paintings. This collection represents some of my progress with this series, including the oil paintings, watercolor on paper paintings, and pen and ink drawings. I plan to create over 10 large-scale portraits in this 2 year project, to be fully realized in 2025.

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Background

Drawing, software, and public records

Michael James Freedman is a Brooklyn-based artist and software founder. His work moves between drawing, painting, public data, and civic storytelling.

Many projects begin with close observation, then take shape as a walk, dataset, interview, edition, or public archive. The work follows an idea into whatever form makes it clearest.

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Software and public data

CrashCount and Crashscape bring the analytical habits behind Vocabulary.com into art: language, math, maps, civic records, and embodied experience.

Walks, interviews, objects

Drawings, portraits, interviews, products, videos, and AR walks are treated as connected forms of a project, not isolated media.

Field drawings and close observation

These works invite you to experience the feeling of being present in unique spaces—whether it’s the peacefulness of a Brooklyn park, the energy of New Orleans streets, or the grandeur of Washington, D.C. landmarks. Each piece is created in the moment, using only three sheets of paper per session with brush and ink, leaving no room for erasing or reworking.

Bringing one of these drawings into your space offers more than just an image—it offers a sense of stillness, movement, and connection to the world around you. These works will continue to grow as I explore new locations, always searching for moments where architecture, nature, and life intersect.

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Earlier work

Earlier bodies of work show the same concerns from different angles: close observation, public life, movement, and image-making.

01 Basketball and movement A repeated practice of translating bodies in motion into gesture, force, balance, conflict, and rhythm. View basketball 02 Political and civic work Earlier projects used portraits, scale, equations, and visual argument to study power and representation. View political work 03 Brush and ink archive A broad archive of experiments, studies, city fragments, movement, nature, and daily looking. Browse ink work