My Exit Strategy from NYC

You can’t just leave here. You have to have a plan and consider- did I do enough?

There’s never enough time to spend with family but I managed to see as much of my wonderful son as I could, without running out of things to say and appearing like a sentimental mother. Even though I am.

My dear friend Judy provided culture, comforts, laughs, a cat and a dog to fill the sucking void of leaving mine for all this time. She is across the street from another famous landmark- The Flatiron Building.

How’s this for the quintessential view of NY as I woke up in the morning?

Still one of the grandest icons of architecture and embedded in our collective psyche regardless of what version of King Kong you grew up with.

After all the falling cranes perched perilously on top of yet more glass skyscraper sliver buildings, it’s not hard to be pulled in by sights that remind you how long the history of this city is.

I came across this old Sephardic cemetery on West 21st Street, sandwiched in between two modern buildings. It’s the origin of the oldest , only Jewish congregation in NY, dating back to 1654 at another site. Read about it’s history here.

And another view-

This lovely gentleman of British inflection and endless energy, demonstrates how to peel carrots, potatoes, vegetables of all varieties, with a Swiss made ( meaning the opposite of made in China ) $5 peeler. The peeler is almost as enchanting as this fellow. We bought 2.

If you were a knitter, wouldn’t you want to buy your hand dyed yarn from this vendor?

Van Gogh could have survived nicely here, given the displays of flowers.

Maybe it’s this image that reminds me that no matter how many shops, restaurants, big deals, limos, fabulousness, grandiosity and excess you experience here, what it all comes down to is this:

My grandmother was always right.

I’ll be back home to St. Croix tonight, feeling wealthy in so many ways.

I’ll Trade You Two Ice Creams for A Bus Ticket

-I left St. Croix last week for my yearly excursion to New York City, my former home. Gentrification is everywhere. While savoring a $6 scoop of gelato, on the Lower East Side, ( when gelato was known only as ice cream ), I noticed this very old sign, still affixed to a very old building.

-Before Orange Alert and Heightened Security Warnings, there were fallout shelters. They were essentially windowless, basement rooms in apartment buildings, suitable for bike and camp trunk storage. In the event of threat of Soviet Missiles aimed at our city, we could descend to this subterranean den and survive on its’ well stocked larder: Bottled water, crackers, toilet paper and aspirin!

Initiated by then governor Nelson Rockerfeller, an expample of fifteen million of our 1958 tax dollars well spent to protect our citizenry from radioactive fallout with acetaminophen.

-I thought about the extremes in contrast this urban mecca is. Adjacent to the Lower East Side is Chinatown where you can buy a bus ticket from NYC to Boston, 200 miles, for a meager $15 on the Fung Wah Bus.

-Somewhere in the middle of too little and too much is just perfect- The Union Square Greenmarket, where you can buy organic cheese, chickens, eggs, beef, breads, pastries, flowers, varieties of carrots in Crayola colors and fresh lavender tied in fatly compacted bundles.

- These really caught my eye: Varieties of RADISHES! Who knew?

-By the time radishes, plain, red, pedestrian radishes reach St. Croix, asphyxiated by plastic wrap and their 10 day journey across the sea, they’re bitter, old, and ready for the compost heap.

Next week starts the museum circuit with my good friend, host and marvelous artist Judith Wolfe.

She defers to my epicurean tastes, and I in turn, get the lowdown on the best movie reviews, museum shows and all things New York.

A ” You Make My Day Award “

-This tribute was passed on to me by Paz of Pazs’ New York Minute. How could I not love that blog AND that award? Paz captures little jewels of unexpected surprises in an about NYC through her photographs.

The best part is that I can accept this award without the pressure of choosing a gown, a hairdresser, writing a dopey acceptance speech that I’d be flub-a-dubbing from a tele-prompter or a sweaty handed, partially crumpled note taken out of a too small purse in front of a fickle love you when you’re up, hate you when you’re down audience.

Second, her blog contains great little hits of NY pie slices of life in photos that make me wish for some seconds that it was still home.

-And then, of course I look out my deck and that feeling passes.

The suggested guidelines for this award ( no rules, remember this is without pressure ) are:

Award guidelines:

“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.”

So to the following people, I pass on this icon of appreciation.

Some are new to me but new favorites:

1. Nathalie of Nathalie With an H

2. David of David Lobenberg

3. Bill and Lisa of On Painting

4. Of course, Paz of Pazs’ New York Minute

Some are favorites and always give me something to have with coffee or lack of original thoughts:

5. Judy of Lobos’ Rants

6. Terry of Livin’ on St. Croix

7. Linda of Linda Blondheim Art Notes

8. Carol of Carol Marine

9. Sue of Ancient Artist

10. Nancy of Nancy Moskovitz Fine Art

And because 11 is and always has been my lucky number,

11. Sharon of The Art of Horseracing

They Took a Village

We have a community here on St. Croix that reaches deeply- into their pockets, into their hearts, and into their consciences to help a good cause. There’s no shortage of those, certainly not here on our own island.

This past Friday night I went to an art show fund raiser that was unlike any other I had ever been to. One of our local galleries - Maufe` by name, hosted at its’ own expense, a show dedicated to a newly formed, St. Croix based non profit organization known as Haiti Community Support. Please don’t stop reading now. There is a very important story to be told here.

Headed by Bruce and Mathilde Wilson, they have devoted their lifes’ work to changing a pocket of humanity, one cinderblock, one child, one bag of rice at a time. Mathilde has lived on St, Croix for many years but was born in Au Centre, a poor among the poorest village in the mountains of Haiti.

They have made numerous trips back to her village where not one child had ever been to a school or had even seen a school. Through the setting up of their 501 (c )3 organization, they have raised some of the funds necessary to build a school and hire two teachers to make sure that the next generations have an opportunity to improve their lives.

I’d like to offer some quoted text from Mathildes’ Spring 2008 newsletter as no one can put this into words better than she can-

HCS Newsletter Spring/Summer 2008

“For each of my 41 years on this earth, my country, Haiti, has been a place of terrible suffering and despair. I’ve wondered all my life how this holocaust could be allowed to continue, year after year, with no meaningful intervention from the developed world.

Recent press stories about mud cookies and deforestation, food rotting in the ports, and hunger riots in the cities are shocking and discouraging. But Haiti has been this way on and off since my earliest memories. I’m worried that if that’s all people hear about Haiti, maybe they’ll just completely give up on us.

Sensational stories hide the greater truth: That Haiti’s survivors are eager to rebuild their ravaged country – if given even minimal help. Deep in the mountains, in the poorest and most forgotten of mountain villages, our school kids and their parents are today making great progress; planting a community garden, running the school lunch program, and learning new skills. Men and women who have survived the odds already just by staying alive, defy the odds again, to build a school and a medical clinic.

Making progress in Haiti is difficult and exciting work. You’ve been a part of our success. We’re a young organization, and early supporters like you are especially important to the future of an effort like this.

I and my husband have been working in Haiti for the love and exhilaration of success. What has kept us going has been your support and encouragements, and especially the hard work and dedication of our village leaders in Haiti.

I hope you enjoy reading some good news out of Haiti. Feel proud! It’s news you are helping to make happen! “

Thanks,

Mathilde Aurelien-Wilson
Director HC

The gallery event Friday night was something that made every resident here feel proud of our community. Up for auction were paintings by Haitian artists, some of our local artists, and in the best tradition of total involvement, paintings by young local art students, some of whom never painted before.

This was coordinated by the supreme efforts of Monica Marin, the art teacher of Country Day School here. What this group accomplished was not only raising over $10,000, just last night, but to instill in children here that what they do can make a difference.

If all we do is focus on what’s wrong with our society and our politics and policies, we will become beaten down and deadened. There is so much to be done, and thankfully, there are people like Bruce and Mathilde who risk so much and try so hard and in the end, refer to themselves as a ” lucky crew”. How can we not help them? With last Friday nights’ collection they will be able to expand the school and add another 50 children from neighboring villages.

There is no doubt that unlike any other agency you may give to during the year, there need be no question as to where every penny goes. It ALL goes to the children and families of Au Centre.

Please have a long, deep look at the photos.

I’d like to ask you all to visit their website here to see what the best of humanity is capable of and click on their automatic payment button to make a real difference in the lives of people who have never known running water, electricity, a meal before bed and still, only want an education.

Thanks to all my readers and friends for indulging me in something I feel so very strongly about and just know that whatever you can do- will truly make a difference. Let’s all take a village.

Peace and love now more than ever.

I’m no Plein Jane

Just ended a weeks’ workshop given by Bruce Williamson, an artist and teacher living in Texas who flew here to St. Croix to hold a plein air workshop with the idea of turning us into ” Painters of Light”. He refers to The Yin/Yang of Painting by Hongnian Zhang and Lois Woolley.

Some rapt students at the waters’ edge watching a landscape take shape.

Bruce is a wonderful painter and generous teacher. I wondered what the challenges would be in painting with acrylics while everyone else painted with oils.

I soon found out.

I likened it  to wanting to dance with the corps, but while they were in ballet slippers, I was in tap shoes! Did I enjoy it? Yes! Did I learn? Yes! Was I able to apply the same techniques and get the same results? A very frustrated no!

Our repertoire consisted of still life and landscape with the components of composition ( light and dark ), light source ( warm light, cool shadows ), focal point, and value based on grey scale ( Frank Gardner has a great post on this ) being consistent in whatever we painted. Varying directions of brush strokes for interest, giving the focal point sharper definition than background elements. He also included an exercise in painting with a limited palette ( two primaries ) to create harmony of color and deliberate thought of mixing to achieve a result that doesn’t rely on a quick grab of a tube.

I gained lots of insight into these important tenets of a good painting. Bruce starts a blank canvas by visually selecting his subject with a view catcher, then gives himself points on his canvas as reference.

He then loosely draws basic placements of his objects with a sienna wash. At this point, he blocks in his darks. So up to this point I was nodding eagerly ( I can do this, I get this …). Add some lights for a visually arresting composition. Still with ya’ Bruce.

Then the scientific adage of oil and water………

Even with a Sta- Wet Palette, my paint puddles dried before I could dip into them again. Every color had to be re-mixed over and over which creates two problems- a painting that takes forever, and colors that are always off.

Landscapes were impossible for me. I was cautioned by Nancy Moskovitz, well, she actually wished me ” Good Luck ” and said to work fast. Fast and good are not always best friends.

What do I do? I did quick studies of fruit, using the one stroke at a time method that he showed us to really ” see ” the warm and cool, light and shade.

I love the way oils look when working with them- the subtleties of color range and staying power of pools you can keep referring to. But how do I negate drawers full of acrylics. re-tool in oils and all their sidekicks, and justify it? The smell of turp, the safe disposal of toxic liquids on this little island?

I humbly bow deeply and respectfully to plein air painters while I ponder where to go with all this.