Probably the exhaustion was due to a hectic week, crowned by spending a cold Friday in New York, visiting a bunch of galleries on the Lower East Side and getting an education in some art I might never had given a first glance, let alone a second one. Stimulating, educational, exciting. And exhausting -- climbing all those flights of stairs to art galleries in lofts. Worth the effort.
Our curator and passionate, knowledgeable guide, Justin Polera, gave us the backgroun and the intent of the artists we saw -- but to me, art evokes a visceral response and while knowing the artist's intent helps me understand it, it does not make me like it. Here, a couple of pieces by Klaus Merkel at the Joe Sheftel Gallery on Orchard St.
Across the street, Andres Carranza. He was cutting up canvas on his hands and knees and took time to speak to us about his work and his process. Although he is right-handed, he worked with his left hand on these canvases, which were site-specific installations on the gallery's walls. It was these that he was cutting into smaller sections, to sell. Andres is here from Costa Rica on a residency and is heading to Art Basel Miami next week.
Sam Lewitt works with plastic-clad copper (or is it copper-clad plastic?) - the material many computer components are made from. His work was in two galleries, and it was the work in the second gallery that captivated me. Drop-dead gorgeous; it could have been cloth, but it wasn't.
I don't normally cook on weekends, but Friday night I was too tired (and cold) to even venture out to eat. Takeout from the Greek restaurant that delivers was the perfect answer. So tired that we did not go out till Sunday night. Saturday night must have been leftovers. A blur.
I've been reading, staring into space, and taking a few days off to nurture myself a little -- without guilt.
Feels good.
6 comments:
Good for you! I just finished my last show of the year, and after finishing up some orders, I plan to do some serious down time, followed by a little thought given to what is to come next year. But your schedule makes me tired just to think of all that travel! Enjoy your rest, guilt free!
Sounds like you did a lot for doing nothing! Everybody needs a break now and then! I am looking forward to some non-sewing time to clean my house from the recent garage construction project.
Keep it up! Curious what the Thanksgiving snow will mean in new directions!
Enjoy your down time :-)
Sounds very, very good. I live in the country, for going on 7 years now, and love it. This after about 25 years in Atlanta which I don't miss at all. I miss friends, but that's it. I lived in NYC for three years in the mid-80s while in law school. So I was young and busy. But I did take advantage of much of what the city had to offer.
Nevertheless, your post was like a revelation to me! As if it never had occurred to me that one thing one could do on a lazy weekend was go look at art in a gallery. One can do that if one lives in a big city like NY! Not very often or easily, if one lives in the country. I so appreciate your blog - even if I might not get around to it right away.
I best head down to lower Manhattan to gallery hop...
Post a Comment