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It was a beautiful day yesterday. We took a box I had made in to Ellen and then took the trains up to the Met. The stone steps in front are being redone, a lot of the entrance was behind cloth covered chain link barricades. It was so clear that we couldn’t help but notice the architectural decorations on the roof. I don’t think we had ever noticed all the faces before. Here are a couple shots.

My main reason for the trip was to see the Calder Jewelry show, there is also a show of Babylonian artifacts not to be missed. I also wanted to revisit the medieval metalwork which has been freshly redisplayed. This baldacchino seems to be a new addition, neither one of us remembered it. It has a mosaic border with gold glass tiles above the columns.

This carving of a pair of griffens was nearby.

The Calder show was difficult to find, there were very few posters up and we had to ask guard after guard for directions. 
The Babylon exhibit was vast, I didn’t take pictures as the Met has warnings up when you enter the special exhibits. There was a remarkable bit of chasing work on a fragment of a Phoenician silver bowl that I really wanted to have in a photo. I’ll have to visit again.

This is some medieval metal work that I find very attractive. A very long necklace with pierced and chased decoration.

Here are some other shots taken in the sculpture galleries and the new Roman and Greek galleries.

Permission to take the class I was waiting for arrived yesterday. There was only one place left and it was being held until the last moment incase a student who IS matriculating need it. So I am registered for Chasing and Repoussè along with another class in Advanced Metal piercing and Carving. It didn’t take long and while I was in the buildings I saw a few of my past class mates who were also registering for Spring classes.

When I got home I was relaxing in the living room with a book and saw the almost setting sunlight on my jar of urchin shells. It was just the opportunity for a good photo. Here they are.

We picked the jar up, on sale, at Nordstrom’s in the Edison Mall just after Christmas. The shells had been in an open bowl, you can see the shells better in this jar and dust won’t collect on them.

A couple photos of the light snow in the back yard. And one of Henry wanting to be outside too.

I’m glad nothing is piling up. It was very pretty this morning as we went to the Y. The snow had outlined branches, half covered berries still on trees and it highlighted evergreen leaves showing all their different shapes and textures.

It has been a busy and very cold week. We had snow, not very much, on Wednesday. Colman’s  ’Margaret Davis’ Camellia is blooming in the greenhouse,
Here’s fallen flower.

On Thursday, a side street that connects to Tysen Street was renamed for one of our neighbors, Richard Dickenson, who was our borough historian. He passed away last year. The local politicians were there and many of the neighbors came to the noon time, street sign unveiling. Here’s a shot taken as I arrived, with the veiled sign on the telephone pole, more people showed up a little later. We all were waiting until the last moment because it was very cold outside.

Here’s a photo of  Jerome O’Donovan,  City Council Member, handing Toni an extra sign with her husband’s name on it. She is surrounded by her children and their spouses.

Monday I was in the city to deliver a box I made over the weekend for a sculptor. On the other side of Seventh Avenue, a lady was walking a pair of fluffy collies, I wasn’t fast enough to ask them for a good portrait, but managed to get this shot from across the avenue.  

  A little further on as I headed east I walked over this cast iron cover in the sidewalk, evidence that there used to be an iron foundry near Canal Street.

I spent part of today hanging 2 of Adi’s paintings over the arch that leads into our studios, also took the opportunity to hang a couple of branches we have had lying around (for a year or more. . .) because we like them as sculpture. Here’s a view from the stairs and from near the front door.

The abutilons are doing well in the basement, some seedlings have bloomed for the first time and I have been able to make some crosses. This is what it looks like down there.

It was a busy Friday. I finished a long black box for a client and began to work on it’s clasp. Then we had two events to attend in the evening, a cocktail party at Ellen’s and then the Evan Penny opening where we were going to meet up with Sally and Quentin. The party was great, good food, great cheeses, and a lot of interesting people to talk to, we could have stayed there all night but had to get downtown before the Gallery closed.

The opening was well attended, we found Quentin first and then Sally. Here they are with Colman. It was great to see them, it’s been a long time since we have been able to visit in person. We went to dinner with them and 4 of their friends after the opening ended.

Here are a few shots of the gallery and Evan’s sculpture.

I wasn’t prepared for the work, photos do not convey anything of what it is like to be next to one of these ultra representational figures. Every hair is placed perfectly, the skin is translucent and shows all the color and texture of age in human muscle and flesh. The only thing missing was a live pulse, one expects the figures to move. Then there is the scale and distortion of the pieces, some were extremely and disturbingly distorted. This one was popular for photo ops.  I took one of Colman and Sally  there.

Aside from the appearance of genuine flesh, this piece was extremely difficult to look at, I felt as if my brain was constantly trying to squeeze the figure into an undistorted shape. It was a totally involuntary response, other gallery visitors had similar difficulty with this one but I didn’t ask whether they were having the involuntary adjustment problem I was having.

Here’s another piece, my brain knew that trying to straighten out this one wasn’t possible, so it didn’t even try. It’s still difficult to focus on, probably because of the juxtaposition of the appearance of genuine flesh and the extreme distortion. I think my camera’s auto focus had problems too. . .

This enormous piece stood in the next room, it’s finished front and back, but if you look at the sides it is not as thick as it should be for a true representation of the figure.

When I see things like this, I wonder where art is going, these pieces exhibit remarkable craft using all kinds of modern materials. The subject matter, because it is so personal and not symbolic has the effect of being kind of creepy. It looks like the work is created solely for museums, I can’t imagine anyone living with these sculptures in their home on a daily basis, or for that matter keeping the inevitable dust off of them.

Here’s a link to Sperone Westwater Gallery page for this show, just click on the Gallery name.

It is the first week of the new year. We had a good Christmas in Danielson and spent New Year’s Eve with our neighbors in Staten Island. I have been spending these quiet days working on some new jewelry, a box project and have been cleaning photos out of the computer. It’s really great that the iMac can write DVDs, otherwise it would be an endless stream of CDs with the amount of photos and little videos there are on this machine.

This is one of the last sets of photos from 2008. It was the last day of classes at FIT and I wanted to photograph the show in the front lobby of FIT’s C building on 7th avenue. That’s where the public is greeted by and becomes acquainted with work being done in the various parts of the institute. This show was particularly arresting because of the Rootstein Mannequins, which are arrestingly life like. The work that the students put into the costumes is very imaginative and impeccably produced. The show is a delight to walk through. This is a shot of what you see as you enter the building.

Once inside and turning back toward the door there were these dresses, the Bubble and Mountain with Train set are probably too rigid to be wearable for any length of time but quite fun to see.  The white feather dress is perfectly wearable and I can imagine seeing it on a couple of my friends. The photo is followed by a shot I took after my class ended and the sun had set. 

 
Here is the legend for the show with all the students names and titles for their work, after this photo I will put more in this entry without comments.