We went to several openings today, it’s Second Saturday on Staten Island and that is the time of the month when galleries open shows and performances take place. There are sometimes tours of artist’s studios too. You can find the listings by googling Second Saturday, Staten Island.
Tonight was also a surprise birthday party for Craig Mannister at the Art Lab in Snug Harbor. Didn’t take photos there because I knew a LOT of people attending and I hadn’t seen them for a while. There was a lot to talk about.
After the party we wanted to walk home but the gate closest to Tysen Street had been locked and Colman and I had to walk through the harbor to the West gate and make our way home along Richmond Terrace on foot. It looked like there was a full moon out. It was really beautiful through the scattered clouds.  As we walked through the trees I noticed  a bright spot  in the clouds and was confused because it wasn’t where I expected the moon to be.  Then I realized that it was the  lights from the World Trade Center  across the harbor. This is looking eastward as we headed toward the West Gate.

This is approaching the West Gate where we can leave the park.

Colman ahead of me on Richmond Terrace as we headed back to Tysen Street.  That’s the moon in the clouds above the street lights.

Near the center of the Snug Harbor buildings on the terrace there is a little dock in the Kill van Kull, the trees part and  there is a view of Bayonne  where a dock has been built as an entry for a ferry bringing visitors to the Harbor. (That ferry doesn’t run yet)  I had a clear view of the column of light from the cloud ceiling to near the ground where the columns are separate.

A shot through the fence of one of the Snug Harbor buildings.  Next weekend this part of the front lawn will host the annual Art On The Fence Show put on by the  Staten Island Museum which will be moving here over the next few years.

One last view of the moon before we got home.

I had to go into the city twice in the past two days. Yesterday was the third day of rain from Lee, I made a wet trip to into the city to buy silver and go to class at FIT. We had had a couple days of sunshine after the overcast of Irene left the area. There’s flooding all around us and the water in the harbor had changed color. Muddy brown. Makes me wonder if the sea life is having a hard time breathing like people who live in heavy smog.
Here are some shots taken Thursday September 8th and today the 9th, 2011.

A freighter with a distinctive paint  job moored with the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in the background.

Today it’s still hazy but much brighter, the little orange boat does have guns mounted on it. It is an escort for the ferry, we’ve had these Coast Guard escorts periodically since 9-11-01. The harbor water is usually a shade of green.

A telephoto shot of lower Manhattan where Number One World Trade Center is going up at the rate of a floor a week. It’s going to be very tall on the skyline. I think it’s at the 70th floor now.  When the twin towers were there, we only caught glimpses of the Empire State Building as we passed on the ferry. Now we have a full view to the 34th street building.  from another angle we can see  the Chrysler Building  on 42nd street too.

Last night we went into the city to join Adi, Sabine, Anja and Austin and see Caitlin Mathes perform in a new opera, Angel of the Amazon. We had dinner before curtain at the Market Cafe on 9th Avenue. It’s a place worth walking to if you are around 38th street in Chelsea.

When Colman and I arrived it was early evening, the skyline across 9th Avenue was dominated by a pair of glass towers.

Other residential towers of varied vintage are present in numbers, this chocolate and vanilla cake-like building is close to being ugly as well as distinctive.

Before we got to the restaurant, the pair of towers lit their crowns.

Some lighting in the non-theater areas of the Barishnikov Arts Center.

The theater, named for Jerome Robbins, we were in is intimate, it probably seats 3-400 including a balcony. Outside the theater you can look down into an eating area.

Walking back across town after the opera, the sun had set and a clouds were rolling in for a predicted rain.

I have often seen these new spires from the highway in New Jersey, seeing them from there they look like they keep company with the Empire State Building.

The pair of glass towers after dark.

This is probably 8th Avenue looking uptown toward the bus terminal. Adi and Anja are recognizable under the red pedestrian stop light.

As Colman and I walked across toward our train, I saw this chandelier in a warmly lit  lobby.

Further along, when an alley opened up,  I noticed these red lights atop  another building.  The lights moved like a computer screen waiting to display type or an image.

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.

The  2010 New York Gem and Mineral Show was held last weekend at the Holiday Inn on 57th  Street. It’s usually one large room with a varied collection of vendors selling everything from mineral specimens, many are museum quality, to flawless faceted stones ready for use in jewelry.

This is a typical display of  moderately priced specimens.

And this is beginning to look like major display specimens for collectors and museums. 

The jewelry club is planning a digging trip to Herkimer,  New York, before this I had only seen herkimer ‘diamonds’ (exceptionally clear quartz) up to about 10 mm.  These pieces are huge, the herkimer crystals are unusual because they are doubly terminated and usually short in comparison to quartz found in other places. The crystal in the center of this picture  was marked at $300, something that made me take notice.  It is apparently rare to find crystals of this size. The crystals are  formed very slowly in pockets left by decaying bacteria/algae(?) clumps from a pre-dinosaur age.  When a pocket is opened,  it is found to be filled with a clayey soup that may contain hundreds of crystals,  hopefully large ones, that you have to strain or search through to find the ‘diamonds’.

This was new this year, loaves of jasper from China. There were also a number of specimens from Pakistan and Afghanistan which I thought was surprising given the current political /war situation.

Here are some more of the large specimens followed by a photo of minerals whose colors I like.

Aquamarines have been a recent passion. Here are some large aquamarine crystals in a bed of another mineral.

The translucent pink stone is also a beryl,  Morganite.  There are yellows  and greens too, the best greens are Emeralds.

This is a Brazilian Ballas Diamond crystal.  I’d like to be able to wear it. This one comes from John Betts, a dealer in smaller specimens of the highest quality.  His web site is a little difficult to navigate if you are just looking but it has beautiful photos of his specimens, separated by class and price  if you know what you want.

here’s a John Betts specimen of Aquamarine.

The next specimens are from  Raj Minerals, Inc. I find his displays breathtaking, he always has large pieces of the most unusual minerals.  The website is not as full as I would like to see and my photos are better but he does list the shows where he will be selling and it is really worth the trip to see these  minerals. The tags in the photos are the prices,

This is a detail of the stone in the photo below it.

As i was leaving I spied these thick slabs lying on a table near the exit.  nice bright color combinations.

I think Ocean Jasper is my favorite jasper, this piece is about an inch thick and about 7″ across.

As we left the Holiday Inn the weather was very clear.  The Time Warner towers loomed over the skyline like huge crystals of dark aquamarine.

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.

October 31

Everything seems to happen on a Thursday. I was in my silver class and I knew that I was meeting Colman at an opening near Canal Street at the Painting Center afterwards. I put that classes progress in the last post so I can get  on to the opening.

I took the train down to Canal Street and got out  where the Number 1 train stops at Varrick and Canal.  It was late afternoon and we hadn’t moved the clocks back yet and there was still sunlight around 6:30.  When I got to the street, I was startled by all of the construction.  Here’s a shot looking East down Canal. Two new buildings are complete or near complete and there is a new glass tower  on Varrick Street.

While I was preparing the photos for this post I saw  this part of one photo with a worker on one of the new buildings by the crane.  It’s remarkable what these digital cameras pick up and record. It turns the camera into a digital telescope showing things I couldn’t see when I took the photo.

I got to the opening early enough to see the paintings before the crowd arrived. Malachi, a binder friend also from Staten Island was there too.

Here’s a photo of Craig Manister with one of his paintings.  All of his recent works are landscapes with white or black ‘keyholes’ in them.

Another shot of of the event.

While we were there, a painter friend we haven’t seen in twenty years appeared, Here’s David Fratkin. His name links to his website and images of his work.  It was a pleasant surprise to see him.

Last Monday I received a telephone call asking if I would be able to teach a paste paper class the next Saturday. I accepted the job even though I knew it was a lot of work getting all the materials together to get them to the new (for me ) space in time fore the class. Adi and Sabine were here, Sally and Quentin had asked if we would be able to visit Philadelphia while they were there,  a book was scheduled to be delivered on Friday for a rapid construction. And now, there was an opportunity to teach a one day workshop. Mindy, who owns the studio, was very helpful getting some of the supplies that I needed for the class, I had to gather other tools and materials from the Center for Book Arts and from my studio and kitchen. Colman and I went to Philadelphia (next story, next entry) returned late Thursday and saw clients and set up for the Saturday class on Friday, the book project was moved into the next week so I was able to rest a little Friday night.

I caught the 8 A.M. ferry to Manhattan, it was a beautiful day, so very welcome after the near constant rain of the past few weeks. As we were putting into the slip at South Ferry I saw this tug pushing two barges with mountains of gravel in them. They were beautiful in the morning light and unusual, tugs are usually pushing refueling barges toward or from freighters moored in the harbor. The gravel mountains look small until you realize that the red walls around them are  over 4 feet tall or you compare them to the doorways on the tug.

On the way to Mindy’s studio I walked through the farmer’s market  in Union Square,  it was nearly endless temptation.  Fresh baked goods, farmer cheeses (one of them a blue. . .), baskets of fresh picked raspberries and cherries,  potted plants and  handmade pretzels were  distracting me from my journey. I picked up  a couple of butterscotch oatmeal cookies and an apple turnover  and headed to Mindys studio ( Intima Press , Studio on the Square) on the east side of the square.

Everything went well and I enjoyed working with all of the students.  For lunch I was told about a falafel place in the block north of 16th street, it was really good with a salad bar of toppings for the fresh falafel.

Here’s the class photo,  Mindy is holding her dog Suki.

I took the following photos  from the ferry on the way back to Staten Island.  I like the lighting  when clouds are heavy and the sun is low. This is the Goldman Sachs building in New Jersey.

There was a perfect photo op  with a sailboat near the Statue of Liberty.

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.