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This is an update on the Art in Madison Square. Last time I was there there were only 4 of  Anthony Gormley’s statues in place. Now there are more than a dozen visible form the square and surrounding streets.

I was walking with my friend Kirsten and she took these photos of me with two of the statues that are mounted in the street and in the park.

He just spoke to me. . .

Here are some shots of other newly places statues from street level. There are three figures in this photo looking South toward the Flatiron Building.

A little zoom to get closer.

There are two in this shot looking East.

Some zooming to show you the subtle placement.

Looking northEast across the park.

looking north toward the Empire State Building.

Looking Northwest toward 27th Street.  So, my question is, Is this Art  or a  static form of street theater?  It was interesting to see people react as they passed the  statue on 26th street, but most just passed by not paying much notice.

Kat commented in  FaceBook about this Summer Art Event that has some potential for causing the 911 people some extra stress. Here’s the article about  Antony Gormley’s work. ( And another article and photo about the madison Square conservancy.) I had seen a poster in the bus Shelter at thre Staten Island Ferry Terminal announcing the show, the poster showed nothing and I had no idea what it was. Passing through Madison Square, I saw nothing and thought there was a delay in the installation. Little did I know that I was supposed to look up at the skyline to see it. Passing through the square again last Friday, I stopped to look up and out of the square. Sure enough there were naked men standing on the roof tops. Here are some photos, first at street level and then the same statue with the telephoto.

Looking North along  5th Avenue up Broadway.

Looking South where 23rd Street crosses  5th Ave.

Walking up toward 27th Street there is a third statue on top of the pentagram building.

There are two visible from this angle.  Others are supposed to be placed all over Midtown, some on ground level and some on other skyscrapers. With all the distance involved between the art and the spectator, I don’t know how successful this is or will be. This may be closer to street theater than art simply because of the separation.

Coming back to the train from shopping at Metalliferous, I crossed on 46th street and was confronted by an enormous, lively animated billboard for American Outfitters.

I made a couple of videos, when I shot the first one, the animation slowed for awhile.  I moved up the street and the camera made a better exposure of the billboard but there’s not so much street life.

January 4th I was in the city to deliver a box to Ellen, it was a brilliant, very cold, bright day. I passed by Madison Square on the way back downtown. The new glass tower has been finished, joining the Met life and New York Life towers in the skyline around the square. I have photographed it as it was going up in previous entries. Eventually I will know its name.

I am continually amazed by what my simple Canon camera can do.  It’s just a 12x zoom,  if you could see the detail captured in the original shots instead of these cut-down-for-the-web versions you might be surprised. These were taken from the street level on the farthest side of Broadway at 24th street (where it crosses Fifth Avenue).  The leafless winter trees have made a dark veil through which we can see more of the buildings than we see in summer.

On Monday ( January 11) I went into the city to see some antique silver that was being auctioned that afternoon. Walking up Broadway  to the Radisson from 23rd street I passed by this store selling costume jewelry.  I wonder why I never see anyone wearing stuff like this.

The displays are decked out with more than a person would wear at one time or maybe they would wear the whole set. I can’t imagine that there are factories producing these things in multiples and that it all goes somewhere.

These pieces me feel that even my large brooches are quite modest.

I was taken by the decorative elements of the old hotel  remaining in the Radisson Martineque at Broadway and 32nd Street.  After seeing the silver show on the second floor I took the stairs down to the lobby. The mosaic floors gave me a feeling of what it was like in ‘Old New York’, perhaps a gentler time when architects worked more closely with craftsmen to make something that felt richly finished, polished and solid;  something that made you feel secure and cared for. The garland of leaves passes through the corners of the border in three different ways. 

The entrance has been renovated, the architects tried to preserve most of the mosaic decoration of this passage.  Here are a shot of the large border.

The vestibule has a large medallion with dolphins its center. Part of the medallion has been lost to a renovation sometime in the recent past.

The large border is partly covered by newer wood work, I like seeing the large scallop shell in acanthus leaves at the end  of the scroll. Probably what pleases me  most is the simple graphic nature of the design and too, if you know me, these are my colors.

I’ll leave you tonight with a composite shot of the staircase I took coming down from the auction showroom.  This construction speaks of an elegant past, lit now, with tiny halogen bulbs.

The past week has been very busy. I delivered 90 invitations that I made in two days, yesterday; that’s after a weekend in which I bound 20 books from ink jet prints with hard paper covers and photos, built a box for them and made a logo out of sterling for the box. That project was delivered Sunday night. Here’s a photo of the project, I’ve blurred the marks on the cover to keep my client’s project private.

  It’s Thursday night and I have been in classes at FIT since yesterday’s evening. During the day, after delivering the invitations, I walked downtown on Broadway, crossing 23rd Street at Fifth Avenue to buy some materials for the next job. The first thing I noticed was that the ‘Silver Trees’ sculptures were being taken down in Madison Park. The dismantled trunk was on a huge flatbed truck, another truck held two boulder sculptures.  

    The second new thing is a tower going up on 23rd Street in the shadow of the Met Life Tower.  It’s getting to be like that all over lower Manhattan.  You can look down Fourth Avenue from East 10th Street near Astor place and see a number of towers rising over a large area of  Little Italy and Chinatown.  It’s disturbing to see my sunny old neighborhood being chilled by the shadows of gleaming towers. 

 Looking down Broadway I was surprised to see David Beckham in his underwear, smoldering on a roof top, keeping watch on the traffic from 22nd Street.  I think that’s a new billboard,  haven’t seen anything like that outside of Soho or Times Square.

 It’s about a 12 block walk to New York Central Art Supply and I like the walk down Broadway.  I pass  ABC  Carpet and Home and like to stop in there to see what is new.  Shouldn’t have been surprised to see that their buyers had been to Tucson for the mineral show.  Their purchases were all over the first floor,  they had found some things I hadn’t seen, like these slabs of  quartz that they are using as table mats or platforms. 

 The other things of interest were the piles of hand wrought metal bowls and chargers. The bowls aren’t expensive so I assume they are nickel silver or silver plate. But the leaves you see on the table are sterling, they are priced at $150 and  $180 each. All the leaves are individuals, cast from different leaves. The round ones, about 5-6 inches across, are especially handsome. They are resting on slabs of petrified wood. 

 A little further down Broadway the farmer’s market was running, this first stall with the tulips and daffodils in pots made me feel like Spring is not far away. 

 After shopping at Central, I headed up to 46th street to get supplies for tonight’s casting class. Having made the necessary purchases at Metalliferous, I walked around the corner to see if Tony had been shopping  for beads in Tucson. He had been, his side of the store has almost doubled in size, he showed me some of the Tucson material and while we were talking, my friend Irma said hello. It was a surprise to see another Staten Island artist in this special shop. We left together, walked to the train, got out at FIT, shopped for a sushi dinner at  Wholefoods and then ate in the student cafe at FIT. It’s rare that we have so much time to talk and catch up with each other. It was really pleasant. She left to go to a gallery talk and I went upstairs to my Gemology class.