bassline

Summer is flying by, it seems; July is done later this week, *sheesh*. Haven't had a chance to really enjoy the season, but there's still a month, actually, almost two, if you count most of September.

E and I at least got out of the city on Friday, if only to go to another city-New York, to be exact. We made sure to spend some time at MoMA and enjoy our membership before heading over to Chelsea and visiting the High Line Park. I'd heard about it months ago and was excited to actually see how the project has turned out. Very well, it seems. Basically, the High Line is a reclaimed elevated train line that runs from Ganesvoort Street in the Meatpacking District up to 33rd Street in Chelsea. The first section that's currently open to the public goes from Ganesvoort Street to 20th Street. The area up to 30th Street is slated to be open sometime in 2010.

The rail line has been renovated with a design that pays homage to the original function while maintaining the wild feeling of the vegetation that grew amid the train tracks with new plantings of various species of grasses and trees. The paths veer off from a straight line and allows visitors to experience the park as if they were wandering along random trails. We loved the park, but only saw a couple of blocks of it. Next month, we're hoping to return and explore the area between 14th and 20th Streets.

We have a large section of unused elevated rail lines here in Philly known as the Reading Viaduct. I used to have a studio in an old warehouse with a view of the viaduct and it's western and northeastern spurs. Back then (late '90's), I would see random people, mostly homeless men, walking along the rails and thought it would make a great park of some type. There is a group of people working on making that idea a reality and we have a mayor who seems eager to move some progressive projects along in Philly, so there's hope. Of course, there is probably going to be a longer wait in terms of funding since the recession has made finding money for just the basics of life a lot harder.

( photos from the High Line )

Shadow Pattern

Good morning, LJ!

It's too early to be up on so little sleep, but we're heading up to New York for another one of our day trips. The main attraction this time are the New York City Waterfalls project by Olafur Eliasson. Other than that, we have a couple of other stops, but we're keeping it a relaxed kind of day.

m & m store.


Stockboard. Seems like an anachronism these days. I wonder how many people walking through Times Square actually read and understand the stock numbers rolling by, or do they see them as no more than another bright layer in the neon soup that defines the area.

Central Park, on a hill looking south.

Took a bunch of shots during our day-trip to New York on May 15th.

We hadn't been to the South Street Seaport on any of our trips to NY, so we ventured down there and hung out after going to MoMA and having lunch in Central Park. The SSP was interesting if only for being one of the oldest parts of Manhattan, but today, it's basically a big mall on the East River with lots of tourist trap stores. There was even one of those year-round Christmas stores that E could not resist going into. I don't have anything against Christmas, but I can barely handle the three month monster that it's become.

The funniest part of our time at the seaport was watching these two 'performers' on the pier next to the mall. Two guys, one had a Jamaican accent and I'm not sure about the other one since he didn't speak. They had an area blocked off with little orange pylons that fenced in a 'stage' with red mats and a booming sound system that played old-school New York b-boy music from the 80's.

They paraded around, shirtless with tight leggings, doing stretched here and there and talking with each other. It took forever before they decided to 'perform'. When a crowd of tourists from the nearby docked ships wander by, the guys suddenly sprang into action imploring those who "wanted to see a show" to gather around. The "show" consisted of one of the performers showing off his flexibility by bending over and folding himself into a plastic barrel and working it over his body. They'd do a couple of lame break dancing moves interspersed with stretching moves but that was it. It seems like they were in a perpetual 'warm-up' phase and never really finished their show.

Well, you get what you pay for and this was free...

Large photos under the cut-may not be dial-up friendly.

( New York-5.15.08 )

top four: Views of works from the Bridgette Mayer Gallery at Red Dot this past Friday.
bottom: Allen Bently, Bridgette Mayer, me, and Ivan Stojakovic.

This was my first experience attending one of the smaller hotel fairs. The first thing I noticed is that three or more in a room is a crowd, excepting the larger suites. The limitations on what can be shown are apparent-you won't find any of the apartment-sized installations that are standards at the much larger Armory show, which was also took place this weekend, along with 6 or 7 others. Because of time constraints (I had to work both Saturday and Sunday) there was little time to get to see any of the fairs outside of Red Dot and a quick trip up to MoMA.

What I liked about going around Red Dot was the chance to see a lot of painting and other 2D works. Not only that, but you can walk into a room, turn around and literally have your nose two inches from someone's work you've only seen in magazine articles or books. Being able to examine works this close up is a treat. On the other hand, having various works so close together can be disconcerting and a slight detriment to some works that benefit from more space around them.

Then again, as we well know, the fairs aren't about optimal exhibiting and viewing of works, it's about the money and lots of it. From what I understand, prices for exhibitors at Red Dot paid at least $10,000 to be in the fair. That's not even including transportation of works, lighting, and any number of other incidentals. I'm sure the figures for the bigger fairs are much, much higher. That's the price that has to be paid if a gallery wants to get their artists good exposure to a big audience with lots of money to purchase art. Not to mention the possible contacts with curators, museum people, and future collectors. It's a real high-stakes crap-shoot and with today's economic climate, I'm willing to bet that there was a lot of money lost this weekend. Then again, my limited understanding about how money and art interact at fairs could make my guessing way off-base.

Art fairs might seem like big, three-ring circuses at times, but they are a fact of artistic life these days. There's no getting around that if you're affiliated with a gallery, you'll want your gallerist to be doing all they can to get your work out there and art fairs are another tool to do that. All of your success might not hinge on your work appearing in a fair, to think so would be incredibly naive, but they can have an effect on name and work recognition for the artists and galleries. Like the internet, art fairs are another tool in the artist's arsenal.

Flatiron I

Last week, E and I spent the day in New York for Valentine's Day. We just wandered around with a few planned stops in between. I didn't get a ton of photos, but there were a few with stories attached.

( wandering the city )

Metropolitan Starbursts

Those are the chandeliers that hang in the atrium/lobby of the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan. E and I had just seen the amazing Placido Domingo sing and were still in a daze from the performance, which was amazing! I went into this whole thing not having ever been to an opera before and didn't really know what to expect. I mean, of course I knew about operas but only in the most cursory way; operas were basically plays whose stories were sung. I wasn't prepared for how good and interesting a well-produced opera could be. For the price of a movie and snacks ($15), we were able to see and hear a living legend perform.

I was fully open to the experience but I have to admit that, beforehand, I thought that I'd wind up being bored at some point. That wasn't the case at all. It's impossible to be bored when you're sitting three or four stories up and back from the stage and these ntaural, unamplified voices come soaring up at you and you can hear them as clear as day. Something like that puts most contemporary pop singers to shame, honestly. Not to mention that the orchestra was moving things along in such a good way that you could almost forget that the players are there below you and the stage. Everything from the staging, singing and music came together in a nearly seamless performance that really pulled me in and held me there.

It took me a while to get used to glancing at the subtitles (the opera, Iphigénie en Tauride, was sung in Frendh) and keeping up with the action on the stage during the first half. After intermision, though, I kept up with everything pretty easily. Being there reminded me how great live performance can be. It's been quite a while since I've been to a play. We did see a dance performance this summer, at least. I'm hoping that we can make it a point of going to see more live evemts in the coming year.

Last Light IV

Goin' to get some high culture tonight!

A couple of months ago, E found an announcement somewhere online that Placido Domingo was appearing in an opera at the Metropolitan Opera House and promptly purchased tickets. The only seats we could afford were the family circle, a.k.a., 'the nosebleed seats', but we figure it's worth it since we're there more to hear him than see him. I've never been to the Met, so maybe the sightlines are better than I might think. I think they have screens now at some opera houses, but I'm not sure. Might have to rent some binoculars just for the hell of it.


The opera we're seeing is Iphigénie en Tauride. There's a synopsis of the story here. Domingo sings the part of 'Oreste', brother of Iphigénie.

We're staying overnight at a friend's house in Brooklyn and tomorrow we're planning on seeng the Martin Puryear retrospective at MoMa. I've long been a fan of Puryear's work, especially since seeing a show of his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art back in the late '80's. I've always loved his craftsmanship and how he's been able to work near wonders with wood and other materials. Tyler Green had a lot of good things to say about the show as did Roberta Smith in the New York Times. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this long-overdue exhibition.

I'm going to be in an art coma by the time we're home tomorrow night :D

Blurred Horizon

It's been an interesting week, to say the least. We have our marriage license in hand, as well as an officiant to marry us. We'd started to look online for someone to marry us who was nondenominational and local. We found a couple of sources, but weren't totally taken by some of them, and in one case we were put off by how our questions via email were not answered to our satisfaction. That, and the fact that they were not upfront abour costs.

I asked a co-worker if she knew of anyone and it turns out she did-of my former co-workers had become an ordained minister a few years ago and is part of a non-denominational church in a town not far from Philly. I was thrilled and called her immediately. She returned my call a couple of hours later, we caught up and she agreed to do our ceremony. Now, E and I have to come up with our vows and whatever else we want to be done in the ceremony. Even though it's going to be really small and intimate, there's still a lot to go into things. I still have to get a suit with barely three weeks to go...sheesh...

......

Have you ever heard of a 'door fairy'? Me, neither. It seems that there might be a repair gnome inhabiting my studio building. I was at the studio on Monday morning, just about to leave when one of the doors leading to the fire-escape overlooking 3rd Street fell off it's hinges. The same thing had happened last week, but I was able to secure it with a couple of new screws. Obviously, that wasn't enough and I found myself in a quandry: attempt to fix the door and be late for work or leave it and hope it didn't rain before I returned on Wednesday. I chose to leave the door propped against it's twin, secured with rope.

I went in on Wednesday and the door was fixed! No one knows who did it, because the guy I lease from wasn't there until Thursday. I'm thinking it must have been one of the guys who work for him who repaired it, but who knows...

......

Thursday, E and I took a day-trip to New York. She wanted to get some jewelry-making supplies and we wanted to have a second look at the Richard Serra exhibition at MoMa. I have a few thoughts about it here

That, and we just needed to spend some time away from the hectic, everyday stuff we've been dealing with for a while now. I needed a break from the studio, even if I needed to be in there working. I've been feeling a little less creatively inspired because of so much happening at once with the wedding and the next exhibition this fall. I'm trying to get used to dealing with it all at once, but it's tough some days. It's all good stuff, but a lot.

We had a great time and took a ton of pics. I still have to go through mine. I'll post some of them soon, along with others I took last Saturday when we visited Eastern State Penitentiary.

Drama II

Well, E's back in Australia, safe and sound. We spent the day in New York yesterday and most of it at JFK International Airport. I was a walking zombie because I barely slept the night before, as is the case every time there's something big happening the next day. I was mainly worried about us making our connections and so forth. We took Greyhound to midtown Manhattan and an airport shuttle from there. It all worked out just as planned, of course, but since it was a new travel route it was foremost in my mind. Well, that and E's leaving sat on my mind all night. I slept for all of three hours all night. I slept on the bus ride up, but that was short-lived.

The mood between us was pretty heavy. We didn't talk a lot as we both were not happy about having to separate for four months. I was unhappy about it, but E seemed to have a much harder time with leaving. For my part, it was anticipating her absence here at home. Hell, I was contemplating how her absence would feel once I was leaving the airport. We had lunch and wandered through the airport shops before settling in near the security entrance to her gate. We sat together, hugged, kissed, shed a few tears and finally had to let each other go so she could board her flight on time. Once she went through security, we waved a few times to each other before she disappeared up the escalator to catch her flight which left at 6:45pm.

Walking out of the airport, I was already missing having her next to me...

( wandering the city )

Timing can be a bitch sometimes. E's flight arrives at JFK Airport around 9:30pm on November 30th. The plan is for her to catch a shuttle from the airport to Penn Station where I'll meet her and we'll take the train down to Philly. The problem is that it can take almost two hours to get from the airport to mid-town Manhattan. I was told that it could be less, but no one is sure.

The problem lies with the departure time of the last train out of New York-11:15pm. If we miss that one, we'll have to wait around for the next one out, which is at 3am. We'll just find a deli close to the station to eat and hang out until it's time to catch the train. Probably take her over to Times Square so she can see that and the outside of the Empire State Building. I'm planning on taking her up to New York in January, anyway, so this will be a bit of a tease.

.......

( art adrenaline )

This weekend was packed with activity. I ventured up to New York to hang out with a friend of mine, SJ. We met up at the Whitney and spent some time going through the Whitney Biennial. I have mixed feelings about the show. Very heavy on video installations this year, many of them good, but painting was again barely represented. I know it's a survey show devoted to what's been going on in recent contemporary art and a lot of people are doing interesting things across the board, but c'mon, I know they can find more painters out there and good ones, at that. That said, I still thought much of the video work was good, as well as a large portion of the sculpture on view.

The day in NYC was good, too short and chillier than I dressed for but I had a good time. My return to Philly was another story. The bus was freezing because the A/C was on. Then, the bus driver couldn't find the bus terminal in Camden, NJ, just across the bridge from Philly. We lost 15-20 minutes with that. Then the kicker. I finally get off the bus, it's 1:30 and I'm cold and tired as shit. I decide to catch a cab home. I should have known that something was going to be bad about this when I noticed the stench of bad body odor after I got in. I was too tired to pay it any mind.

Well, one thing I did pay attention to was the meter. After a few blocks, I noticed that it was running way faster than it should. By the time I got to my stop, the meter was a full 50% more than it should have been. In fact, that morning, I took a cab to the bus terminal from a full four or five blocks further than where I live and the cost was still only $6 bucks. The final tab on the ride home was just under $12 and I knew it was bullshit. I let him know that I wasn't going to give him a penny more than what I paid earlier and left. No tip, either. If I had the presence of mind to do so, I should have taken down his license number and reported his sorry ass.

......

Yesterday, I attended a party for the husband of a friend of mine, Miriam. The occasion was her husband, Stuart's 50th birthday party. I was still tired from the NY trip, but I went. Miriam's house is this amazing, contemporary house surrounded by tall pine trees in Narberth, a suburb of Philly. It's only a 20 minute train ride out there.
The house has lots of large windows that give you the feeling of being indoors and out at the same time. Too bad it was dark when I got there, I'm sure it's amazing during the day.

Anyway, the party was good. I drank way too much wine and paid for it today. It was extra tough because I had to work. Typical of me, getting tore up and having to work the next day. It was worth it, though. I also got to finally see the painting that Miriam bought from me almost two years ago hung. It looked great. Her and her husband have it in their bedroom. I took a few pics, but I think the best time to see it would be during the day as they probably get a ton of light through the floor-to-ceiling windows...

( harsh stone white )

Harsh Stone White, 2005, acrylic on canvas, 48" x 48"