Pittsburgh Steel Mill

I have always wanted to do a painting of the steel mills of Pittsburgh.  I was born in McKeesport, which is outside of Pittsburgh.  My grandfather, Gaetano Carrozzo and my Uncle George Klipa both worked in the steel mills.  As a child, my Uncle gave my father and me a tour of a steel mill.  It was like standing in front of the gates of hell.  The noise was deafening, the heat was searing, the smoke and smell of the place was over-powering.  I wanted to try to do a painting of the interior of a steel mill, but could not come up with a good subject that I thought I could capture.  Instead, I used a beautiful painting called, "Steel Mill Verticals" by Claire Hardy as my model.