Cafe au lait!

Dinner (and second dinner) was  chicken on a stick (and a hot dog topped with beef) from a Halal stand. I swear the street vendors follow me.. their food smells delicious and I’m weak. Not to worry though, I have spend a lot of my time walking… so my jeans at home should fit, right?

Scotty the Blue Bunny

Here begins the fun

Monday began with a bagel on the way to the train… I’ve had two a day since I’ve been on vacation and can’t seem to get enough of them! Then on the the Museum of Sex where I saw some interesting film and photography about the history of burlesque in the US (I also got to see Rob Lowe at a few interesting angles.. an image I wish wasn’t burned into my mind).

Pinkberry and halal stand followed this experience as I headed down to the Academy of Art in Tribeca to look at their collection and current student work. My corner-garden level studio space from two summers past was open… maybe it was a sign? I was excited to see a drawing by Steven Assael in the gallery.

Steven Assael is one of my fav's.. Seriously.

There was also a painting of birds nests which I found interesting; mostly because of the interest of individuals at my university that are researching BND’s as assessment of attachment styles.

3 stages of the life-cycle that perhaps indicate similar attachment throughout life. Not what the artist intended.. but I like it.

After some time at the academy, I went across the street to Pecan. It’s a coffee shop with beautiful pastries; I had an americano and a pecan bar. Next, I wandered around town and made my way to ground zero -which ended up being a mistake. It was packed (because of the recent death of Osama bin Laden) and I was a bit put off by the celebration that seemed to be taking place. I’m definitely proud to be an American, but the kind of hate that seemed to be harbored in these people marinated for nearly 10 years (which I find rather sad). Although I find myself more removed from the situation (as I was a ninth grader in good ol’ North Dakota when the World Trade Center was attacked) the situation was very off-putting and seemed a bit inhuman. I don’t think I could celebrate the death of a person, regardless of their actions.

So, I walked into Chinatown and sublimated my feelings of unease through spring rolls and pho.. which helped. I really wish I had my sketchbook with.. Next, I headed waaaay uptown to Queens and visited the public library. In the evening, I made the move from staying with a friend in Astoria to staying with some in Brooklyn. I. Love. Brooklyn. And their apartment is pretty wonderful.

At the sculpture park

Tuesday was spend in Williamsburg. I found a cute little bistro that had coconut martini’s for $3.50 -which meant I had to stop and have a few (even though it was only 11am). It was pretty amazing. I read.. had a few drinks.. and left. A few blocks away I realized I should probably eat something and ducked into another bistro that served crepes. Mmmmm crepes. Next, I headed back up to Astoria to Socrates Sculpture Park. I was a bit sad when I arrived because it was between exhibitions, but was lucky to see artists in the midst of installation -which I found much more interesting and valuable anyways. I ended my days adventure at the Pony Bar in Hell’s Kitchen. They have Doc’s Draft cider. You should try it.

**It is my goal for this entire week to consume whatever looks good at the time and not feel guilty about it. So far things have been going well. I left my running shoes back in VA.

Mmmmm breakfast

I began my morning with a wonderful alvacado, spinach, and tomato omlette with home fries (-my new food discovery!) at a small diner in Astoria. Everything there looked so good that I took a pain au chocolat to go and ended up eating it before my train into Manhattan left. *Sigh* I probably should have considered working out at some point during this trip…

My favorite part of Manhattan is definitely Midtown. You’re just a short walk away from the Met, the American Museum of Natural History, and Central Park -not to mention all of the fabulous shopping and restaurants. There’s a Dean and Deluca on Madison avenue that’s the perfect place to pack of a picnic in the park.. I recommend it!

So finally arriving at the Met, I spent most of my time looking at contemporary art in the New American Wing. This is not to say that I didn’t saunter through the halls of marble statuary or appreciate the Oceanic art.. because I did.. but I have a greater affinity for the conceptual base (and my struggle to understand the concepts) behind a lot of the modern and post-modern works on display.

Outside the Met

Beautiful

I was like a kid in a candy store

Central Park

After a few hours of the museum, I was ready for a quite lunch in Central Park. I’ve been really blessed with sunshine on this trip.

In the evening I met up with some friends from MSUM who moved to NYC this past fall. This is some of the art that was left at the 4th Avenue Pub in Brooklyn. And.. I spent the night gazing deeply into Mel Gibson’s eyes. Amazing.

One of the Delaney's prized art pieces

I don't know who wrote this, but I'm going to pretend it's about me.

Spiderman

I made it a point to have my first breakfast at my all-time favorite restaurant (if you can even call it that?): Murray’s Bagels. Order a ham, egg, and cheese everything bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese.. it will change your life. And make sure to wash it down with their fresh squeezed orange juice.

A familiar place

By Ness's and my old apartment

After consuming twice my body’s daily caloric intake, I waddled over to the street vendors at Union Square and people watched for a while. Next, I went to Strand books and ended up leaving with four titles that I am super excited to read… afterall, it is reading week. The one I’ve started is actually written by the Dalai Lama and is now half finished because of mistakenly taking the local track into Brooklyn instead of the express.

Union Square Park

I really love the Brooklyn Museum. From the mosaics in the subway to the beautiful lawns and fountain, it’s a little slice of history between Prospect park and the Botanical garden. Auguste Rodin even greets  you as you push through the rotating doors into a naturally lit foyer.

Greetings at the Brooklyn Museum stop

The Situ Studio exhibit was amazing.. I seriously wish I could have crawled into one of her installations

Just outside the Botanical Gardens

and lived there. And, I felt even more at home because they were showing an exhibit on Midwest Native-American culture (I got to go inside of a tipi -yaay). The Beaux-arts floor was more amazing than I remembered and I took note that the contemporary and American collections were more culturally inclusive than I remember.

Outside the Museum

Rodin in the foyer

Part of reOrder by Situ Studio

So now I’m back in Astoria -which is a part of the city I had never been to, but am falling more in love with it every minute. I’m planning on hitting up a local diner for breakfast tomorrow and then heading to Midtown to continue the adventure. I really love it here.

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury; and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasion, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.”

William Ellery Channing

My goodness I had a million thoughts going through my head when in “session.”

So.. I decided to make a book as a sort of chronicle of the experience. Gestalt in the therapeutic setting involves staying in the here and now and understanding current behaviors and situations so you can apply them outside of the group. Gestalt in the fine arts world describes a way that images do not have to be complete for you to understand and can still formulate what is being presented. I spent a few afternoons cutting, gluing, and piecing each page together. Even this process reflected my experience as a group member; I was trying to make things fit, changing things, rearranging, and making attempts to see the whole picture. A reoccurring symbol for our group was a tree and felt appropriate to include in the description of my journey (another image was scary looking birds, but that’s seems a bit less romantic.. don’t ya think?). So here’s my handmade book (the text is even handwritten), enjoy!

All 24 of my postcards

I chose two different quotes for the postcards.  First, is Carl Jung: All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy.  What right have we then to depreciate imagination? And second is from Shaun McNiff: Art is an articulator of the souls uncensored purpose and deepest will.  The postcards are made from bristol with watercolor wash, ballpoint pen,  marker and glue.  You can view some postcards from other participants at the ATWB Blog.

Here’s a closeup of some of the postcards:

1

2

3

4

Edelweiss, 2010

Magnification, 2007

Picasso was (and still is) being exhibited.  All of the works displayed belonged to Picasso’s private collection; many of the works are unsigned because he had no intention of selling them.  I was particularily fond of a portrait he painted of his son Paolo (Paolo as Harlequin).  It was interesting to see his process in the work; you can even see where the placement of Paolo’s feet were originally sketched.  Each of his style periods is represented (Blue, Rose, Cubist, Classicism, Surrealism, etc+) and, of course, photography wasn’t allowed.  So.. Go see it, seriously.

A weekends worth of books

We spent this last Thursday in Process & Materials class making books. I love the intimacy which holding a book brings. They’re so personal, usually meant for one pair of eyes. So why not really personalize the experience by making your own and using bookmaking in art therapy sessions?

Generally a book is full of knowledge and creating one can be a metaphor for enlightenment. It’s where the client goes to learn something. Books are also containers for images and text. The pages are easily referenced and can thus elicit past experiences in therapy by simply looking at the page. The availability of images also makes it easier for clients to change and rework images as they see fit. Development of organization and structure are also aspects of creating a book (more importantly, they could be areas of need in the client). The book format can also encourage narratives and reflection. They provide a place to document experiences, and can even become a memento to share with others.

It can be said that I enjoy some structure. It can also be said that I like decorative papers. Here are some of the books I made this weekend (I experimented with various kinds of pages).

Joy

I am grateful for opportunity.
I am grateful for love.
I am grateful for my family.
I am grateful for my friends that feel like sisters.
I am grateful for my wonderful, funny, and smart classmates/friends.
I am grateful for school.
I am grateful that my psychopathology test is over.
I am grateful for my visual journal.
I am grateful for running.
I am grateful for spaghetti.
I am grateful for my apartment.
I am grateful for the beach.
I am grateful for warm, fuzzy socks.
I am grateful that I get to go home over the winter break.
I am grateful for…