NEW YORK, NY November 28, 2007 —The work of an artist rarely found without his sketchbook will be celebrated tonight at the Bread and Roses Gallery 1199. The show is expected to attract artists, as well as transit workers, two groups who don't regularly mingle. As WNYC's Kathleen Horan reports, Marvin Franklin was an artist who moved between these worlds during his 55 years.

REPORTER: His world at night was underground. For 22 years, Marvin Franklin worked as a subway track worker. In the morning, he'd climb upstairs and go to class at the Art Students' League. All that he saw at night appeared on his canvases. Phyllis Ferguson works at the league and noticed Franklin around the halls about a decade ago. Not that he was easy to miss - standing about 6'4, with long black dreadlocks. Her father was a retired track worker, so she had that in common with Franklin. She refers to his paintings and sketches as "damn good."

FERGUSON: Marvin took notice of people and their expressions - we really don't look at each other on the trains, we're oblivious - but Marvin took notice of that.

REPORTER: Ferguson was the last person at the Art Students League to talk to Franklin before he was hit and killed by a train last April at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. He had hoped to work only 3 more years before he retired. Franklin wanted to devote himself to his artwork and spend more time in the studio he had just built at his home in St. Albans, Queens. Fellow artist Sam Goodsill says he's lost a best friend and the city has lost an artist who was committed to making the invisible seen - every time he put a brush or a pencil in his hand

GOODSILL: One of my favorite ones is a guy sleeping on a bench on the subway, a homeless guy - he really got the essence of the person.

REPORTER: Donations from Marvin Franklin's art show will fund the Transit Union's Worker's Widows and Orphans Fund. For WNYC, I'm Kathleen Horan.

The president of the TWU, Roger Touissant, will speak at tonight's show. It will be on display in midtown until December 7th, then moves to the Transit Museum until the spring.