Snapshots and stitches

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Before I fell asleep last night I thought of something I wanted to post. This morning it's gone. It's a lot easier to write when I have done something out of the ordinary. Somehow, telling you about the snow, or keeping my humidifiers filled (I like a little moisture in the air), or going to the fitness center doesn't do it for me.

I am also trying to do alterations on some of my favorite larger jackets. One, I bought on sale at Nordstrom's, I wore constantly. It's still in good condition, but now much too large–it was always a little large. I've taken out the sleeves and the shoulder pads. Next comes figuring out how and where to remove extra fabric. The jacket is lined, making it all more complicated.

One of my neighbors is involved with the Gigapan project. He wants to do a massive Gigapan from the top of the former U.S. Steel building, the tallest building in downtown Pittsburgh. We spent much of yesterday matching up the four Gigapans he (and his group from CMU) shot. This is just practice. The sun was low and there are long shadows that obscure some of the detail. He wants to go back and do it again. It took a lot of Photoshop(ping) and I became reacquainted with some of the tools I hadn't used lately. Another volunteer gig where I learned as much as I gave. Now I have to go back and apply some of this to my still not satisfactory photo collage.


Christmas day, New York

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I couldn't sleep last night. Not surprising; Renee usually goes to bed about 10pm and wakes up very early. Since we share her bedroom, I go to sleep at the same time and stay in bed until after eight, my usual wakeup. I've been getting 10 hours sleep and it finally got to be too much. The coffee I had with lunch didn't help either. So I lay there, almost too warm under a lovely down quilt, but with two blocks of ice for feet, and thought about anarchism and its various adherents; trying to figure out if any good had come from it. Most of the so-called anarchists during the 70s were nothing but common criminals: Weather Underground, Symbionese Liberation Army, the Unabomber.Certainly none of them brought about any good outcome. The most destructive group, the nineteen Muslims who destroyed the World Trade Center, were not anarchists, but nevertheless, wanted to destroy our way of life. It was a terrible disruption, but now, less than ten years later, New York moves along almost as if nothing had happened. The entrepreneurs on the streets work as usual. Panhandlers work the subways and skyscrapers continue to rise.

We took the unusually sparsely populated subway down to Battery Park. During the trip a man in a wheelchair, who had lost one leg, came through the car and collected money from almost everyone. Immediately following him two men with large conga drums sat down on their own chairs in the middle of the car and tried to put on a show. They had a lot of trouble warming us up. Most of the riders sat stone-faced throughout the performance. Too many hands out, I guess.

Emerging from the subway we saw lawns covered with Christmas wreaths, a 9/11 memorial sponsored by Wreaths Across America and Wal-Mart. Since 9/11 Battery Park has become the site of many memorials, including an interesting one for the merchant marine. (Photo to come)

We walked across the park to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, where we saw a very moving exhibit called Beyond Swastika and Jim Crow: Jewish Refugee Scholars at Black Colleges, which makes a horrifying comparison between segregation and the holocaust.

Christmas Day eve, New York

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With only two, not so pressing things on my todo list, we went shopping, or I should say window shopping. I decided, while I was looking at new phones, that I really wanted another netbook. We went down to J&R Music Computer World so I could look at netbooks. They have the best selection I've found. I was so unhappy with that Asus I bought before I went to China I wanted to see, and try out, before I buy. Well, I'm still not sure. Asus has a new one that tempts me, but I still feel burned by them.

Julia met us in the store and we walked to Chinatown and had a lovely dim sum at the Chatham Square restaurant. Then we walked around Chinatown and down Canal Street, not as crowded as a summer day, but enough to send us back to the subway. On the way back to the apartment I stopped for my usual travel ritual: buy a new pair of shoes. This wasn't as bad as usual–just a pair of black Merrell's, which I had been planning to buy since I retired the last pair some weeks ago.

New York Wednesday

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Metropolitan Museum day. We looked at Japanese and Chinese art, missed a show about Chinese lacquerware, and left with aching legs. Because of all the slush I've been constantly wearing a pair of Merrell fleece-lined boots. They keep my feet warm and dry and the gummy cleats on the soles keep me from sliding, but they're nowhere near as comfortable as the Merrells I usually wear. Sitting on the bus and subway to get to Columbus Circle was a treat.

Lunch at Whole Foods, more crowded than usual, then on to the Museum of Art and Design. This has always been one of my favorites, and I loved it even with aching legs. Their show Slash: Paper Under the Knife, is filled with wonderful cut paper creations. Take a look at the Teacher Resource for good photos of the conceptually most interesting works. We finished with Madeleine Albright's pin collection and then dragged ourselves back to the apartment to rest up before dinner, going to a place nearby that didn't require crossing a street so I could wear real shoes instead of the boots.

New York Tuesday

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Very full day. We began with Hockney on 57th St. (He's in two places.) I wanted so much to love his work. I find it intellectually interesting–sort of–but I'm back to the question: what is great art? There was one piece, at Pace prints, I really admired. It was largely computer created and probably impossible to do without a computer program. Inspiring! (Hockney slide show) I like the pictures online better than the real thing.

On our way to the subway to go to Hockney two we passed an amazing gallery called Ana Tzarev. It was huge and filled with the work of Ana Tzarev, a woman I had never heard of. I'm not about to tell you I've heard of every artist, but the size and location of the gallery made me wonder about who bankrolled her. You can read all about her here and here. Amazing what you can do with money.

Hockney on 25th St. was a little more interesting. There was more work, more thinking about perspective, which of two paths to take, stuff like that, but no AH Yes moment, nothing to enter and get lost in.

Back to the subway to one more show, but first lunch. We stopped at Cosi's, a decent fast food place. Along with the ingredients for each dish were the calories. I must say it gave me pause: I selected my lunch very carefully and ate mostly vegetables. I'm not complaining. I was just amazed at how meaningful this was to me.

The last show was Serizawa at the Japan Society. I've known about Serizawa for years. His wonderful calendars were sold at Aiko's in Chicago. But I had no idea how prolific he was and how wonderful his work is.

Travel day

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The train ride in winter has a hypnotic quality–all the black tree trunks and branches against the white snow. The mountains stand out more; I tend to forget that Pennsylvania is so mountainous.The train was half hour late, not unexpected in the aftermath of a snowstorm. But they do seem to be maintaining it a little better. It was filled–every seat was sold for at least some part of the trip. The days of having two seats and lots of space are gone.

I didn't want to wait at the cab stand at Penn Station (it can be a very long wait) so I got on the subway and went to 53rd and 3rd, the only place with escalators to street level. No cabs were stopping there; at times as many as six people were trying to get a cab on that corner. Finally walked to 1st Ave., where I got one immediately.

Streets are relatively clean here, but corners are filled with dirty slush. There are big piles of plastic garbage bags waiting for pickup by trucks being used for street clearing. The joys of living in New York in winter, but I love it anyway.

Hockney

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My motivation for this trip to NYC is to see the Hockney show at PaceWildenstein. I first became interested in Hockney when I discovered his photo collages. I had little interest in his early paintings, particularly the swimming pools, but have enjoyed reading his thinking about painting and photography.

Some of his photographs bear some similarity to the Gigapans I was playing with. In a lecture he gave in 1983, he talks about photographs being an instant in time, whereas paintings are a record of time passing. 

Why is a painting based on the camera (and with one viewpoint) more interesting than a photograph taken from the same spot and enlarged – even when taken with a large plate camera? And my conclusion was this lack of time, the static quality photographs have is due to the fact that it's the same time in every area of the picture. The removal of the hand (the removal of the body) causes this. The hand moving through time reflects the eye moving through time (and life moving through time). The evidence of the hand is our time. On Photography, © David Hockney, 1983

I would love to know what he thinks of the Gigapan, which is after all, a robotic hand moving through time.

He also compares the use of one point perspective in Western art to the multiple viewpoints in Cubism and the progression of images in Chinese and Japanese art. 

The Hockney website

More about Hockney

http://www.youtube.com/v/cIfDdW9GKmA&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0

So what, you may ask, does all this have to do with the exhibit of his paintings in New York? Thinking about Hockney I came up with his photo collages, which are making me think about my own work. I would like to do a book about the Japanese gardens I visited. I would like a way to present more of the photos I took–I never posted all of them. Just as I did with the collage I made of the photos of the 300 year old pine tree in Tokyo, I often took multiple shots of views that didn't fit into one image. How do I present them in book form?

Here are some of the images I'm playing with:

Rikugien - 26

Rikugien - 20

Rikugien - 25

Rikugien - 24

Rikugien - 19

Lots of little things

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My refugee student passed his citizenship exam. Three cheers. He wants to continue learning how to read. I'm very proud of him.

Most of my classes are finished for the year. I have one last one tomorrow, but I think I'm going to pick up Eli from the airport instead.

I've been going to the health club and doing more organizing in my workroom. It's a long way from finished, but I'm making progress. I have a very old drafting/light table. It was useful when I was taking lots of slides. Now it's just another surface to clutter. As soon as I finish removing the clutter I'm going to try to sell it. It's really an antique.

I fixed two pairs of pants that needed repairs and took apart two jackets that need altering. I hope I still remember how to do it.

My new doctor told me to get one of those medical alert bracelets because of the Coumadin. It arrived yesterday and I'm wearing it. I feel like I've crossed a line between health and chronic illness, although nothing has really changed.

Gifts

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I'm feeling very proud of myself this morning. I actually made this bag over the weekend, and I will give it away tomorrow. That's two pieces of fabric gone from my stash. I'm sure I could make at least twenty more bags and still have fabric left.

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This is the new dog that lives upstairs. Max, held by my across the street neighbor, Mary, has charmed us all. He's just a puppy but won't be much bigger.

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