Spring/Break!

No, not the kind of Spring Break where college frat kids run off to Florida for debauched fun in the sun. This is the Spring/Break that occurs in various NYC locations and involves (sometimes) debauched artists running off to have fun in improvised gallery situations...
You will notice (and not comment on unkindly) that the young man (hi Joey!) tasked with assisting me hang my work was... well, maybe two feet taller than myself. He was so tall we really didn't require a ladder. (But then, I admit to being "vertically challenged".) This was immensely helpful however and we did a swell job of getting "Complicit" at just the right height. (Ironically, this piece references me "channeling my inner Ivanka" and we are directly across the street from a Trump Tower. (Groan) But I ask you: could we have a more splendid location?!?)

(Need more proof of height disparities?!?!? That's my piece "Collusion" that we're working on and Margaret's print) Anyway, we got the work up with a minimum of fuss and bother (a few glitches like the suction hooks I bought didn't stick to the frosted textured glass of the doorway partition) and the results were impressive. My fellow Odetta artists (Hi Margaret! Hi David! Hi Ellen!)were set on their tasks and we all managed with a degree of cooperation and good-natured camaraderie.
I managed to find my way out of the rabbit run maze of studios, offices, temporary spaces and get a train and get home to Bob and Robin and Maggie exhausted but happy. This is shaping up to be some adventure! Tuesday- when I next return- is press and VIP day. I sure hope that dignitaries, celebrities, oligarchs and collectors of art show up!*

*They will! This art fair has a great reputation for providing fresh, exciting art and is even considered "the art fair for people who don't like art fairs".

Seige at the Tower

Look! There we are in the middle of that amazing crowd! It was easily the largest- and nicest!- crowd I have ever been in in my life. People were so energized and they focused their anger and outrage so peacefully and positively. It was a really hopeful and life changing event to be part of. (And this is only NYC!!! The world was here and there and everywhere!)
The train we rode into NYC was full of protesters and at every stop, women wearing pink knit Pussy Hats got on... and everyone clapped and cheered. At Grand Central, Bob and I (and our friend Joe) met up with good friends Bob and Susan and Sheldon and Louise and Roberta. I'm sure that being with close friends heightened the experience, but everyone in that crowd felt like good friends. It was truly incredible!
There were signs and chants and all the trappings that one would expect. But everyone seemed to be in the best of spirits. This many people organizing to Just Say NO to The Orange Menace. We stood and watched the March, which outside Grand Central was barely moving but so enthused. We attempted to make our way to the March start near the United Nations but gave up as there were so many people you couldn't get within blocks of it. So we jumped right in and were swallowed by the crowd. It was... amazing! And this comes from a woman (yours truly) who is not overly fond of crowds and tends to be claustrophobic!

(These pictures were taken from screen shots on our computer, after we got home.) It was so exhilarating (have I said that already in any of twenty different ways?) even if they didn't allow us right up to the door of Trump Tower. At the sort of end of the March, we were diverted left or right a block before the actual Trump Tower address; I guess security had to be tight, even if The Orange Menace wasn't in residence. We only passed two people who we took to be republicans, trying to scurry home to their rat-infested luxury hi rise. They were going the wrong way, against the March- a fitting metaphor. They're on the wrong side of history!
After the March, we walked up to the Met Breuer (the former Whitney Museum) and had a well-deserved cup of coffee. Bob and I were smart to only drink a teeny tiny cup of morning coffee (so as to not have to pee every three minutes with nary a porta-potty in sight!) but boy, was I craving my full quota of caffeine! Newly refreshed, we took in the Kerry James Marshall show. He is a truly wonderful and endlessly inventive painter. He pushes new life into very narrative pictures. A great show and a perfect way to end the day.
Estimates of the number of people on the streets of NYC were somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000. I can honestly say I know there were more people there than at that scary inauguration! We came home, feeling hopeful for the first time in months...