Dean Cercone was making art in Bushwick before most of the galleries in Bushwick were even open. If one of the many galleries currently located in Bushwick were to select an artist representive of a wave of artists that helped establish the neighborhood as the creative mecca it is today that actually still live there, few would find a better choice than Dean Cercone, a founding member of Bushwick venues the Glove and Bohemian Grove.

Bushwick has long been considered a haven for artists, but as rent increases at alarming rates, the number of artists actually living there decreases. While there does seem to be a healthy amount of artist studios in Bushwick, one has to wonder how many of these artists are willing to stand as independently in the art world as Cercone.