New York City – After Dark

 

10 days. 240 hours. NYC – the city that never sleeps. Not an understatement. 42nd St., Times Square, Broadway. Always crowded with people coming and going – to the theater, to restaurants, to stores, or just coming and going. Any night, in good weather, seems like New Year’s Eve.

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The Great White Way is a sea of neon. What would you like to buy? Where would you like to go? What would you like to eat, drink, drive? It’s up there in lights. Everyone, and I mean everyone, is taking pictures. Give us a warm fall evening, a camera or a phone, and we’re on it!

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Off the street, high up, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, at Lincoln Center, offers up some of the best jazz in town.

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11PM. Let’s not forget to find a spot away from the madding crowd to replenish and prepare for another day.

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This concludes my three blogs on NYC Fall 2014. Scroll down for #1 and #2. It will be nice to remember as winter takes hold and the scenes change.

Happy traveling!

New York City – Food & Fashion

10 days. 240 hours. Man (or woman) does not live by bread alone. Certainly not in NYC. You can fuel up anywhere, anytime, day or night, with anything your heart desires. Street vendors, who now add middle eastern falafel, Mexican tacos and gluten-free offerings to the standard hot dog (with everything, please) and pretzel (warm, with salt, please) are everywhere.

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You can even eat “heart healthy.” Grab and go fruit!

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While there is a Starbuck’s on almost every corner, there are still coffee shops like Reggio’s in Greenwich Village. Reggio’s feels like a comfy living room and makes a damn good cappuccino. We took a Food Tour of Greenwich Village with Free Tours on Foot. Really free! You can give a gratuity to the guide at the end. Our young guide gave us some history of the area as we ate our way through fresh, hot falafel, artichoke pizza (no kidding), bagel buns filled with all kinds of cream cheese, which I managed to squirt all over myself, and dessert, yummy. In the rain. It was the only rainy day in 10, but who cared?

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If food is everywhere, so is fashion. High and low. There is something for everyone. Buyer beware!

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At the end of a busy day – libations!

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Blog #3 – After Dark, coming soon. Last, but not least.

 

Showtime at Ilume Gallerie

This body of work consists of collages on paper and mixed media acrylic paintings. I recycle parts of my monotype and collagraph original prints and photographs with found paper from various sources. The collages and paintings are non-objective; the emphasis is on the relationship of line, color, shape and texture.

Working in one medium, i.e. monotype prints, usually leads me down another path because I’m always asking myself “what if?” What if I limit my color palette, what if I work in a more minimal way or, on the other hand, how about excessive exuberance? Large or small? Paint or paper? Or both. Anything can spark an idea – something seen, heard, imagined. There are always new avenues to explore.

Looking down can be rewarding. My “Underfoot” series of photos started when I had my head down and noticed the interesting abstract pattern of street and sidewalk marks made by construction workers. We seldom pay attention to such marks but they resonated with me and I began to photograph them wherever I traveled.

Combining my prints (re-purposed etchings, monotypes, collagraphs) with found paper to create collages took my work in a different direction. Cutting up and adding the “Underfoot” photos seemed like a logical next step. Their abstract quality echoes that of the other elements in the collage.

Sometimes I assemble the collage on painted paper. The acrylic painting weaves its way in and around the collage. Negative space and positive space play games with one another. The group of collages in this exhibit called “Springtime Suite” is colorful and energetic and was inspired by a visit to the Dallas Arboretum when it was ablaze with color.

Here are the “Springtime Suite” collages in this exhibit.

#1259 Springtime Suite 1, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 22x30"

#1259 Springtime Suite 1, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 22×30″

 #1260 Springtime Suite 2, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 22x30"

#1260 Springtime Suite 2, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 22×30″

#1263 Springtime Suite 5, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 30x22"

#1263 Springtime Suite 5, acrylic painting on paper with collage, 30×22″

I love to travel and have a large collection of paper maps. Remember those? I decided to use them in my collages. Instead of cutting them up I photographed them, enlarged segments in the computer and printed them out. I cut them up and they became part of the collage series “Have Map Will Travel.”

Here are some in the exhibit.

#1272 Have Map Will Travel 4, collage, 30x22"

#1272 Have Map Will Travel 4, collage, 30×22″

#1273 Have Map Will Travel 5, collage, 30x22"

#1273 Have Map Will Travel 5, collage, 30×22″

 

The mixed media paintings are whirlwinds of line, color and texture.

#1269 Untitled, mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30x30"

#1269 Untitled, mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30×30″

 

#1270 Untitled mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30x30"

#1270 Untitled mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30×30″

#1271 Untitled mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30x30"

#1271 Untitled mixed media acrylic painting on panel, 30×30″

 

 

The show runs through November 29 at Ilume Gallerie, Dallas, Texas.

Catch it if you can!

 

 

 

 

 

New York City-Art & Architecture

10 days. 240 hours. Uptown, downtown, all around the town. NYC is still, very much, a city of neighborhoods. It’s a city that invites you to explore as much as you can on foot or by subway (the fastest way to get around). A Metro card with unlimited rides on trains or buses for one week will set you back only $30.00, not as cheap as it used to be, but still a bargain compared to taxi cabs.

Instead of exploring NYC in one blog, I will write several (3), each one focusing on a different aspect of my recent trip.

Art is everywhere. From kitsch in store windows and graffiti,

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to this display by artist Korakrit Arunanondaci. “My Trip to the White Temple” is like a lacy cut out with a video in the center which changed as you watched and reflected the traffic passing by. I could have walked right by without noticing. It was magical.

20140929_132822 copyThere is art on the High Line, but as I looked down at the apartment buildings, this sculpture by Charlie Hewitt caught my eye.

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The architecture of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is noteworthy and so is the art inside. There is often a temporary exhibit on the rooftop garden. Besides the exhibit, the views of the city above the treetops in Central Park are spectacular. The current site-specific installation is “Hedge Two-Way Mirror Walkabout” by Dan Graham with Gunther Vogt, a Swiss landscape architect. Steel curves hold panels of two-way mirrored glass. The garden maze of reflections was fun for adults (mostly taking selfies) and kids running in and out.

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NYC always feels like a construction zone. Old coming down, new going up. Different times, different styles.

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At the risk of being labeled “tourist” (which I am), I always look up (when not looking down). Often, several architectural styles bump up against each other like these along the High Line. There is one block in mid-town where I counted six different styles next to each other.

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Patterns inside and outside are there for the taking. Greenwich Village, with its narrow streets and old buildings (now commanding sky-high rents) still feels like a “village.” It’s that NYC “neighborhood” thing. A quick subway ride to Christopher St. puts you right there. At its heart is Washington Square Park with its distinctive arch.

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The area around the 9/11 Memorial is still under construction, but the Freedom Tower is finished and is reflected in the nearby building.

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So much to see, so little time.

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Blog #2 – Food & Fashion, coming soon!