The first week has gone by quickly. I was able to help some in the studio as well as in the kitchen, so I learned some about print making in addition to a few new recipes. BTW, things cooked in olive oil with sautéed garlic tends to be really yummy.

I went into the city Friday night for two gallery openings with some of my coworkers from ULAE. The first opening we attended was the George Adam’s Gallery. Enrique Chagoya’s show, “Adventures and Misadventures” is currently showing. The artist was there and I was able to meet him. He was born in Mexico City and currently lives in San Francisco.
Here is the URL for the gallery and his exhibit:
http://www.georgeadamsgallery.com/exhibitions/exhibitions_cur.php3exhibitions/exhibitions_cur.php3

It was great to see the exhibit in person. I enjoyed the satire in his work and I would love to know more about the character in Those Specks of Dust. We could not stay nearly long enough. The work was engaging and I would like to have more time to study it. This image is Those Specks of Dust. I also saw this character in another of his works.

Next we went to the Larissa Goldston Gallery which opened a show by Jack Warren, of Brooklyn. The show is called Straight, No Chaser, and consists of collages, installation, and video. The collages are of found paper, with and without printed images. It includes a lot of bird images. His friends there that night said it is because "Jack likes birds". The work includes excerpts from the monologue by Werner Herzog in Les Blank’s documentary Burden of Dreams. The concept, as I understand it, is the violence of nature and the waste that humans tend to leave behind. Here is the URL for part of the film if you are interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PAsYkrEwjM

Here is the URL for the exhibit at Larissa Goldston Gallery, although the images online don’t convey what they look like in person. They lose the 3d quality that is very much a part of them.
http://www.larissagoldston.com/exhibitions/warren/index.aspx

Saturday I went into the city by myself for the first time. My foray took me to The New Museum in the Lower East Side at Bowery and Prince. I learned that the V train does not run on weekends, after I waited for it for 30 minutes. It is actually printed plainly on a sign, but I did not read it until later. I needed the F train to 2nd Avenue. I arrived an hour before the museum opened, so I explored a little. 2 blocks one way is the beginning of China town and 2 blocks another is Little Italy.
I ate at a genuine Chinese buffet. It was only 4 dollars for more food than I could eat. I did not know that they leave the bones in the chicken, so I mostly at the rice. :)

I also explored a lighting gallery with many custom designed lights. The chandelier in the picture was taller than I am and hanging from an eight foot ceiling in a small space crowded with lights of all sorts. This area is a historic lighting and restaurant supply district.


At The New Museum, the Elizabeth Peyton exhibit was showing. It ends this weekend, so if you want to see the website for the exhibit you should look right away. She is mostly a portrait painter. Her subjects are historical figures as well as well-known people and celebrities. She works a lot from photos and her work consists of mostly flat planes of color, which contrast light tones with darks or bright colors. She mostly uses strong brush stokes and not much modeling. Most of her portraits have bright red lips. I am not sure that shows up on the website.
The URL is:
http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/400/live_forever_elizabeth_peyton

My last stop was back uptown to the Museum of Modern Art for the Joan Miro exhibit, which also closes this weekend. I made may way back to the subway station, it was snowing by then. I had to take the F train to 4th Ave and change to the E train, which goes right to MOMA.

I have found the people in New York to be really nice. Any time I have asked for help, if they speak English, they are glad to help. There does seem to be an unspoken code that you stay in your space. Its like a bubble of protection and once they have helped you, they are back in their bubble. I really sort of like that. There are so many people that it would be uncomfortable if everyone was in everyone else’s space. Now, back to MOMA and the Joan Miro exhibit.

I loved this exhibit. We studied him in 20th Century art, and the instructor told us that the images he showed us could not do the work justice. I see now what he meant. The colors are so vibrant. He used them right out of the tube without mixing or diluting. The difference is remarkable. Thanks so much to Mr. Bill Goldston for the ULAE internship and the opportunity to see these works.

My favorite is Dutch Interior (I) (Image to right). If you don’t like Modern Art, you might not enjoy this piece, but I love color, and the composition. I also see humor in it. Miro said he wanted to “assassinate painting.” He took an image off of a postcard depicting a painting of a lute player by the Dutch painter Hendrick Martensz Sorgh. He took the body apart and like a puzzle spread it apart for the viewer to mentally reassemble. I guess I like art that engages the brain.

The URL for this exhibit is: http://media.moma.org/subsites/2008/miro/, but you need to hurry since the exhibit ends, Jan. 11, 2009.

Today, Sunday, I am relaxing at Skidmore, doing laundry and other chores and letting my feet recover from the New York sidewalks. Future interns, be sure to wear good walking shoes when you go into the city. If you need to be "cute," then carry the cute shoes and change when you get where you are going, if possible.

Later, I may venture out and find the ocean. I know it will be cold, but it will still be beautiful