Artists and authors often become embodiments of the cities where they live, or intimately associated with a particular place. They can create an aesthetic of locale which we visualize as a certainty, even if only through their eyes. We absorb their vision and make it our own. For Stipan Tadić, the Croatian painter who came to the United States and began reshaping his work to something vividly authentic to himself, New York City has become his muse and ideal setting. But unlike the classic reasons for loving and projecting the spirit of a community, Tadić eschews nostalgia and preconceived ideas of the city and makes it something simple and personal, more of a story he continues to tell, and in…