Mail Art and more NYC

#53

#54

#55

 Okay, I'm going through a phase it seems! People in the lower corners of the compositions is trending! As well as, dots! and a bit of Washi tape thrown on for good measure, at times.








The women in these two cards are from very different eras. I love that the hair styles are similar.  I'm using cardboard cut from cereal and cracker boxes. I'm so fond of the color and texture of that.








Here I used two pieces of paper that were right at hand on my table. The black paper and the woman were perfect together. I added random text to make a sort of poem. The woman is so happy doing her job, whatever that is. Well, maybe not "happy" but wait, she's a model. Of course, she's happy. She's pretending. I love old advertisements.





This photo was taken at the top of The New Museum located on Bowery St. in lower Manhattan.

 I was pointing north west and captured a bit of the building surface. It was so cool to look down on the street and to look across Manhattan, and yet not be TOO high up.  We saw an excellent exhibit on holograms and "Ghosts in the Machine," which was very cool!

 Here's the window of a tiny shop - with the name there and a subtitle of Shop Mom & Pop. There were all sorts of handmade items, mainly made by people in New York, or in the U.s. Everything from Soaps to Childrens' toys. Very cool little place. If you're in the West Village, stop by and say "Hi."

We were so happy that we saw these sculptures, after having seen the exhibit at the Whitney of the work of Yayoi Kusama, and also, the windows of the Louis Vuitton shop in Chicago (remember that post?) 
These sculptures were in the park along the Hudson River. There was a sign saying NOT to sit or lay on them. ha ha ha ha, who reads signs?! People were really enjoying these. Click HERE for a link to see more of the park and a building on 14th St. wrapped in her work.

Mail Art, rainy day and dots

#30

 I don't know what it is about this one, but I really like it a lot (and I made it!) and other people seem to have responded positively to it also. It's got scraps from an old Russian book and 2 different old French books. Old paper is so appealing. A couple of dots unify.

#31

I found a perfect head for Tiny Town. I'm reluctant to make these too often and use up my supply of cards.
Here's the story: Alice's glance at Mme Gilbert was perceived as disdainful. Whether or not it is, is questionable."
Got any other ideas for stories for this one?

 It rained yesterday. Here's a view through the car windshield as I waited in the parking lot for C to return from the art supply store. We arrived home just as the skies opened up and a huge rain with thunder came down on us. Yay for the garden plants! It looks like it might do the same today.

 You know how much I like dots - a lot - so when we came upon this window display at the Louis Vuitton store on Michigan Boulevard in Chicago last month, I was thrilled.

The displays were a tribute Yayoi Kusama. There is a big display in the New York City store also but with an even bigger dotty part. Here's a fun video by Bill Cunningham. Click HERE. You'll be glad you did. It'll brighten up your day.

More of our trip photos

 We were sitting near 30 Rock, and so was this guy. We liked the way he looked like a character.

 St. Patrick's cathedral on 5th Avenue.

 My nephew took this Empire State building photo, with his nice, big, digital camera with telephoto lens.

 Times Square, of course. It was so busy, jammed with tourists, like us. We waited on line here, at the TKTS booth for our tickets to see MEMPHIS, which was really, really good.

 These dancers were publicizing the musical, Chicago.

These lovely ballet dancers were performing at the South Street Seaport. How unusual for street performers. We'd never seen classical dancers doing this before. It must have been a challenge to work on the uneven board walkway.

Mail Art, and some travel photos.

 I made this piece on Sunday, using bits I got from a brochure from the Winery we went to on Saturday. It's the Brooklyn Winery and they made really nice wine. Who'd have thought! We took a tour and had a tasting. If you are in the area, definitely go there.

 This was made this morning. Back to my altered card mode. I'm not totally pleased with this one. The arm doesn't quite work with the pigs. I tried.

 This is the view from our hotel window, the Radisson hotel, right off exit 12 on the New Jersey Turnpike. Easy to get from there into Manhattan via the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels.

 I spotted these clowns having lunch. I was like, Why were they still in makeup and eating lunch!? Then we walked a bit further and there were a whole bunch more and, voila, a sign, Cirque du Soleil! They were perfomers on their lunch break. Cool, right?

 There were these lovely bas-relief pieces above the doors all around the 30 Rock building. Notice the reflection in the window. I hadn't seen it until I looked at my photo.

 Do any of you know about or remember Lite Bright? It was/is a great kids toy. We had one, which N. used for one of his skull pieces (skull-a-day) but actually it belongs to M. I loved "finding" this giant Lite Bright in a store window.

Walking the High Line. It was SO hot. I was glad to have my umbrella to use as a parasol. The High Line has been extended since we last walked it.

Mail art and more

#228

 We got a nice map of lower Manhattan the other day when we went to Ground Zero and Wall street.  Great collage material.











We're heading over to Brooklyn today. Adventures await.

#228a

We walked by 30 Rock and got some photos of the grand statues the other day. Yesterday, we went to Mid-Town and the rells went to the top of the Empire State building.

 Nice gold letters on the building.

Times Square! NYC

Waiting for tickets to a play. Times Square, NYC, so full of tourists and people going to and from work. We got there at 2 p.m. and got onto line (queue) for the TKTS booth. We had several choices based on what was on the board for the day, which went up at 2h30.  Our first choice was Jersey Boys but then someone told us that Memphis was a better production, so we added that to our list, along with Billy Elliott. By the time the TKTS window opened and we moved up in line, we decided to ask for Memphis and we got our 4 tickets in a good location. Half price!
We waited for our daughter to arrive and spend some time with us, including dinner at Uncle Nick's (yummy Greek food, and I got to practice a bit of my newly learned Greek.) Went we left the restaurant, we discovered it was raining torrentially! We couldn't get a cab to the theatre so we walked! I had an umbrella, so M.A. and I stayed dry (except for our feet.) The guys got soaked.  Daughter hightailed it for the subway to head home. However, the rain ended before we finished our walk to the theatre.
Now about the show: It was WONDERFUL! We didn't know what to expect, didn't know anything much about it, except it won a Tony for best musical. And it deserved it. WONDERFUL. When we got out of the theatre, it was dry and chilly. We walked from 44th and Broadway to 18th and 10th Avenue. A very long walk, but we did it. Day one NYC was a good day.

Time to add some images from our NYC trip

 There's a really strange, gigantic sculpture in Madison Square Park, by a Spanish artist, Jaume Plensa. It's called Echo. From every direction, it looks flat! Or like a hologram face.

We had lunch on Monday at Eataly, where all the products are from Italy. It's huge! It's located on 23rd St. and Madison/Broadway. We ate in the verdura section, only vegetables on that section's menu. Fresh figs and goat cheese was a great combo.

 These days, there are lots of places to sit outside in NYC. And lots of bicycle paths. Vehicular traffic gets shunted around these little oasis set into various street corners. This one is by Madison Sq. Park. See that tall building in the distance? Guess which one it is.

 Our friends have an apartment across from a Greek Orthodox church, on 24th St. and 9th Ave. It made me think of my friend in Greece.

 We went to Brooklyn to see the Mermaid film screening, and stopped for some Italian Ice. The cross street was Borinquen St. That made me think about my friends from Puerto Rico. There was a mix os old buildings and new, as you can see, the neighborhoo.

We arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before 9 a.m. in order to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit in a private tour by someone our friends' know. We sat outside on a bench in front until our appointed time. It was quiet and grey. The exhibit was AMAZING. The lines were very long as we were leaving. Lucky us! Private tour.

Dumplings 4 dinner

 Sign at a cafe in Brooklyn.

 Under the elevated train tracks in Brooklyn.

 We had some ices before going to see the screening of Mermaids of New York, on Thursday night.

Szechuan restaurant 9th & 24th St. NYC

We arrived in New York City on Thursday in the late afternoon and went to our Bed & Breakfast located in Chelsea. Great location, very nice place to stay.  After dropping off our luggage, we walked two streets up to our friends place and visited until our daughter got off work and met up with us. Dinner was at a Sezhuan restaurant nearby. The food was delicious. I didn't actually partake of these lovely looking dumplings as they were meat filled. I shared a vegetarian moo shu with my daughter, delicious, but not so photogenic.  The lovely dumplings disappeared when I added these photos and I no longer have the image, as it was on my phone. Trust me, if you haven't seen it, it was lovely to look at. Imagine Chinese dumplings in a bamboo steamer. yum. 
The screening was in a small venue, which because quite toasty. I had a certain glow about me (perspiration!) The film was really terrific. After the screening, I had my photo taken with Brooklyn Baby Doll, my favorite Mermaid. Look how short I am compared to her. But then, she's a mermaid and I'm not.

Mother's Day

I took the bus into Manhattan from NJ yesterday and met up with Mica. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Nomado 33 in the Murray Hill area. We sat by a window overlooking a little garden with a fountain that reminded me of Isomu Noguchi. The food was fabulous. I can't say anything that would be able to explain the delicous-ness. It was major YUM! Later, we went to see the movie Iron Man, which was fun. If you see it, stay to the very end of the credits for a surprise. I was happy that I was able to climb the six flights of stairs to Mica's apartment! Yay for staying fit! We had brunch this morning at Oliver's in the west village, where we had Mimosa and Bloody Mary cheers. After a stop to buy some yummy cheeses and a baguette, we boarded a bus to New Jersey where we had a nice family visit. Photos of Ryan's frosted cupcakes will be posted at some point. They were pretty spectacular. A nice Mother's day, the first I'd spent with Mica in a long time, and maybe the first ever with Dawn.