Arting in NYC

 

We've been all the way to the big apple and back!  Brandon tells me that arting isn't a word, but I think it's exactly what he's been up to in New York City.  He spent nearly two weeks looking at art, talking about art, and traveling to and from art - he's been doing some serious arting! 

I flew up on Thursday to meet him and we traveled home together on Sunday.  We stayed in the same hotel in the Chelsea neighborhood as our last trip, and once again I was happy not to have a long train ride into the city each day.  NYC in May is my official favorite!  And, we discovered the High Line just around the block from the hotel.  It's a raised park, on an old rail way.    

It's so cool to be able to walk up a stairwell and have an elevated trail covered in wildflowers and shady trees.  

The train tracks are visible in some places.  Look, we're outside in public with no mask!  The trees with the white bark and small leaves were labled gray birch.  

The High Line passes between apartment buildings with cool architechture.  You can see inside the apartments sometimes too, which is fun to get a peek at urban life.  

When you look over the trail edge, you can see all the normal hustle and bustle, but on the high line everyone is strolling and stopping to admire the art and flowers.  

Most of the plants were natives, although there were some I didn't recognize.  I saw a bumble bee buzzing around the flowers. There really are polinators in the big city!  The entire trail has benches.  

There are overlooks, and sculptures.  

The trial took us directly to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has some of the best art, plus the best views from the big windows and balconies.  In this picture you can see the comfy couches that let you view the Julie Mehretu, but if you sit on the couch facing the the other way you get to see this...

Picturesque skylines and boats on the water.  

This sculptural island park was having it's grand opening while we were there.  People were swarming all over it!  

We hopped from one gallery to the next, and spent some time at The Met.  There's so much art in the city, it's impossible to see it all.  When our feet and legs were tired, we took breaks for tasty beverages, and enjoyed Indian or Puruvian take-out dinners in our room in front of the TV, and went to bed early.  The morning we left for home, we watched the city from our room as it revealed itslef in the early light.   

Some of the tallest and shiniest buildings glowed with the sun rise.  It's strange to me to go from way high in the air, to deep underground to catch the train to the airport.  We were home before dark and so glad to get there! 

Ants and Yard Art

March really did blow in like a lion, keeping us up all night huffing and puffing and trying to blow our house down.  You know what else arrived with the first day of March?  Ants.  I returned home from work yesterday to find a sink full of dirty dishes which were crawling with tiny ants.  Sigh.  Yay, spring is here...

But lets not focus on my terrible house keeping.  Instead, lets admire our new artworks!  An artist  and potter friend recently gave us some large ceramic sculptures, and we've been having fun finding places to display them outside.  

It's always risky to give us breakable art, since we don't have very much room to display things inside the house, and sometimes bad things happen to art displayed outside. These cool pieces survived the recent storm, and I think they make our wood pile even prettier.  

   

Seeing the completely spherical clay piece makes me want to get out the potters wheel and see if I could do that.  

This piece found a home at the bottom of the wood pile.

Brandon placed this huge clay sphere on the cut tree stump in the front yard.  The green glaze on the bottom looks good with our green door.

It's heavy, so we really hope no one (I'm talking to you, Wendigo) knocks it over.

Things are starting look a little more tidy and organized around our place these days.  It helps that the grass is starting to green.  Green is prettier than mud.  The buds on the pear tree are opening already. I've noticed that the hay I've spread around the barn to keep the animals feet out of the mud is starting to disappear, which means it's been warm enough for the decomposers in the soil to make some progress turning organic matter into the raw materials of life.   

Remember the tall ceramic totem sculpture we put up a few years ago?  It fell apart this winter.  The low temperature clay and wax wasn't strong enough to withstand the outdoors, and it fell apart.  It was cool while it lasted.  

Sculpture Photography Challenge

I challenged myself to take pretty photos from around the farm that include the tall ceramic sculpture that our artist friend gave us.  I suspect that at least one person doesn't think they like the sculpture very much (hi, mom!).  Maybe I just need to show the sculpture from a more attractive angle.  The one above might be acceptable, since the sculpture is so far away you only know its there if you look for it.  

Does a kitten admiring a pear tree in a field of bronze grass distract you from the tall pink object in the background? 

Look, it's the same color as the pretty pink flowers on the baby peach tree!  What's not to love, right? 

I like this picture because the curled shape of the sculpture mirrors the shape of Newt's tail.  You can't deny that the sculpture gives a nice focal point from certain angles.  

Up close, the poor sculpture doesn't appear to be holding up very well to the outdoor conditions.  Watch out Newt, it looks like it could fall over in the breeze!

The peach tree flowers really are lovely, especially with a tall pink figure in the background.  

It's hard to pay any attention to the sculpture in the background when the pear tree is in full bloom.  This morning the wind and rain was blowing and it looked like it was snowing because there were so many petals blowing in the wind.  The first day the pear tree bloomed, I stepped from my car after work and the buzz of the honey bees visiting the pear tree was so loud I could feel it even before I could isolate where the buzz was coming from.  

I have to take frequent breaks under the tree to appreciate the bees and the perfume of the blooms.  It's very peaceful.  At least until guineas come by to visit!  If you want to see what I mean about guineas disturbing the calm, watch the short clip below.  What a racket!

Brandon's Figure Drawings

This semester, Brandon organized a Thursday evening figure drawing session.  It's not a class, so it's open to anyone who wants to come to the drawing room at the University where he teaches and draw a live model.  The artists and art students who attend put five dollars in a jar, which the model gets to keep after posing for two hours.  

After each drawing session, Brandon takes a picture of the drawing he made and texts it to me, so I thought I would share the five drawing that has Brandon made so far.  The drawing at the top of the page is the most recent, and they are shown here in order of newest to oldest.  Even though Brandon hasn't drawn the figure in a formal session like this since he was a student himself, he hasn't forgotten how to wield a stick of charcoal!  I think each one is better than the last.  

When Brandon and I were in college together, one of the professors in the art department hosted a weekly drawing session, and we hardly ever missed it.  To non-artists, or new artists, it can be strange to attend a live drawing session where there's a naked person set up on a small stage under dramatic lighting and surrounded by circle of folks hunched over their drawing horses intensely concentrating.  But once you get over the initial shock of looking at someones body, it's really a very cool experience. 

I always enjoyed studio classes too, but when you are drawing, painting, or sculpting in a class, you get feedback from your teacher and your classmates. One of the things I liked most about the open drawing session was that there's no pressure to meet the parameters of an assignment or incorporate someone else's advise.  It's just people together making drawings.  Quietly practicing, their minds lost in the task or in the music.  

Mom, do you remember that time you encouraged me to show my great uncle my college portfolio?  Ha!  I kept looking at mom with a "are you sure about this look" but she, as a proud mother who is an artist herself, didn't really consider that it would be really awkward to look at a stack of naked lady drawings with him.  So I said, "Okay" and started lay out drawing on the kitchen table.  He looked at about three of them, got a little red in the face, and muttered something about them being really good before slowly backing out of the room.  Poor Uncle!    

Sculpture Installation at the Farm

Brandon's friend, coworker, and fellow artist, gave us one of his ceramic sculptures.  Brandon brought the sculpture home un-assembled last winter, and it's been patiently waiting behind the barn for the time when we would assemble it in it's new home.  

When the artist came for a visit last weekend, we took advantage of his kindness, and put him to work helping assemble the sculpture.  Brandon had bags of sand at the ready, and with Jamie's help, they made quick work of carrying the sand, the sculpture pieces, and the concrete paving stone to the spot we selected.  

They put some sand on the ground, to made the paving stone site level and firm.  

The bottom piece of the sculpture, which is hollow, was filled with sand with the hope that this will anchor it in place, and we won't have to worry about it falling over.  

The sculpture pieces stack together, and make a tall totem shape.  This sculpture was never intended to be displayed outside, exposed to the elements.  It's made of clay, but the surface is coated with colored wax.  Already some of the wax is blistering, running, and changing color.  In a few places the wax coating has chipped away, and the white clay underneath has a green tint from algae.  It's going to be interesting to watch this piece evolve over time.  

I got distracted by cooking and missed most of the action as they assembled the pieces, but I did catch them in the act of placing the very top piece in place.  It's so tall!  I didn't realize it was, since this is the first time I've seen it completely assembled.  I really like the location we selected.  The sculpture is visible from the kitchen window, the campfire, and the front yard, without being so close that it might get bumped or dominate the scene.  

Ta-da!  Hmm.., it kind of looks like a .... well, I'll let you finish that sentence on your own! Once we had it all together, we stood around sipping our tasty beverages and admiring the color, texture, and placement.  We were all quite pleased, even Hunter, the artist.  If you would like to see some good pictures of Hunter at work in his ceramic studio, check out his webpage, here, and click on "Studio Images" on the left side of the page.  There's also some good photos of giant ceramic kilns he built in Alaska and other places on the links to the left on his website.  I've dabbled in ceramics myself, so I'm really appreciative and impressed with the strength and skill it takes to work with clay pieces at this large scale. 

I think it looks really nice with my chickens!