This morning I woke up in the awesome loft at the corner of Broadway & Broome Street in NYC that once belonged to Camille Billops and Jim Hatch. I am here with, and thanks to the good graces of, Wes, Missy and Mathwon. They will spend the day in New Haven and I will go see the Diane Arbus retrospective at the Park Avenue Armory this afternoon. I have the morning free to wander, first here in the loft, and then the streets of NYC.
We arrived yesterday morning and immediately dived head first into looking at the works of Beauford Delaney at The Drawing Center, the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and the staff that keeps it running, the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba with the ageless and ever beautiful Corinne. Lunch at the oh so chic Biblioteque on Mercer St and dinner at Nom Wah Test Kitchen, the best Chinese I have had in my life. But the best part of it all was the non stop conversation about artists and just looking at their work. Something I sorely miss, even though back in Atlanta just last weekend, I went to The Warehouse with Alan, and we had great conversations then, too,
After a leisurely tour of this loft, its artwork, photos, and countless awards, I planned to walk to The Cooper Union and its adjacent building, visit the Strand book store and revisit some of my old stomping ground. And then continue to the Armory by public transportation. To my surprise, it was the last Summer Street Saturday, meaning Broadway was closed to ALL vehicular traffic: no buses, cars, taxis, or motorcycles all the way to the Armory! It was heaven, no insults to the ears and nose, only festivals, colorful farmers/flower markets along the way. Broadway was filled with pedestrians and cyclists of every kind. Plus there were endless opportunities to window shop. it was like being in Paris again.
The Arbus show was definitely worth seeing, They had made some deliberate exhibition choices that initially felt disturbing (lots of mirrors, some on the backs of the photos) but, all in all, a beautiful tribute to my teacher. Lots of photos I had never seen, plus a film of an interview with Neil Selkirk who printed her work posthumously. On the way home, I stopped to see the apartment on East 50th Street where I spent the first 5 years of my life. It was still standing but the apartment buidling of the little boy this five year old was convinced she would marry someday was replaced by a newer, taller building. I wonder whatever happened to Laurence. And around the corner, the building where he and I went to kindergarten and planned our wedding is gone, too. Funny, the things we remember.
Took the bus to Houston St, made a quick stop at Bigelow’s Pharmacy and then walked to the loft. The constant breeze offset the warm temperature and made walking a true pleasure.
Dined alone at a nearlby bistro, Balthazar, and used the time to people watch. NYC is filled with interesting looking and smartly dressed people, if only they weren’t all looking at their phones. Fashion is definitely shifting towards either skimpy or skin tight among teenagers and 20-somethings, and long flowy, effortlessly elegant dresses among women The guys, I am oh so happy to say are no longer wearing baseball caps backwards. In fact, the only people wearing them are from out of town.
At 21,072 steps, I outwalked my personal best n Paris. Tomorrow I will take the subway to the Metropolitan Museum. For sure.
Coming down from an all day high as I write this, a good feeling.