How Art and the Big Apple Heals.

It's been a week since my coworker, Francis, and I went on our trip to New York City for exhibitions and friends. And I am just now getting the time to write about it. I drove us up early in the morning, managed to drive Manhattan and survived! The mat that the dancers, musicians, Broadway stars dance on in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.. Yeah, I drove over that. Francis and I were a little nervous but we made it with a little help from Franz Ferdinand and Nine Inch Nails.
We met my close friend Danielle for lunch at her studio. I've missed being at SVA and it was nice to see the studios of my old classmates. After lunch we made our way down to the MoMA for the Tim Burton exhibition. I honestly didn't expect the exhibition to be as packed as it was. I've never been squeezed into such a small space before, and trying to view art on top of it! No pictures were allowed in the exhibition so I only have a few from the pieces they had outside the exhibition by Burton. Inside the exhibition they had drawings, sketches and little paintings dating from childhood to now. They had movie props including the wax figure of Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands in the original Scissorhands outfit. Three or four of the masks they used in Batman and the cape from Sleepy Hollow. The figures they used for all of his animation movies including ALL of the different heads used for Jack's expressions. I was honestly terrified of the huge dolls used in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.. The ones that sang a song and then burst into flames. Very disturbing. There was too much to see and too many people in the room. So, sometime before the show closes I would like to venture back up to New York City to see the exhibition when there are not as many people trying to enjoy it too. We were kind of asking for it since it was the second day of the show but... It was fabulous. Here is one of the pieces we could take a picture of:

We also saw Monet's waterlilies. Those were also very impressive, and we could take pictures. It is amazing how he managed to make something fabulous out of nothing.
Francis and I both were "Friends of Franz" when the Franz West show was up at the Baltimore Museum of Art. We were excited to see that the MoMA had three Franz West sculptures in their sculpture garden.

We had to pose with them. The MoMA took up almost our whole day in New York. Well, the MoMA gift shop also added to that. Besides art supply stores, museum gift shops are like candy stores to us - extremely dangerous.
Francis learned from our coworker Helene that the one enormous sculpture we had in the Franz West show had been relocated to Central Park. So, we spent our evening walking Central Park trying to find the Ego and the Id. We asked a security guard and he said he's never seen it. How you wouldn't ever see a big, colorful... BIG sculpture amazes me. Eventually we found it and I have some nice pictures of Central Park and the sculpture.



The Ego and the Id looked extremely small to us out in the open of the park. We were used to seeing it assembled in a confined gallery space. It really wasn't as powerful out in the open. But we were happy to see it was still in good shape.
Francis and I split up and went different ways with our friends. I went down to St. Mark's Street and Union Square with my close friend, Jon. And once Danielle was out of class, went back to Queens with her. It was a very nice break from Baltimore that I needed. I feel motivated again and feel like myself again. It amazes me how a day out of my everyday setting can make me feel so much better.
Francis decided to stay with a friend and take a bus home the next day and I stayed at a hotel near Danielle's apartment in Queens. I drove home the next day with MapQuest's directions... Through Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island...
Lesson's learned: MapQuest is evil. The yellow cab's were nicer to me than the Virginia drivers in Brooklyn. Always take enough coins for the Lincoln Tunnel and take more trips to New York City with your friends and coworkers. :)