Supporting the Standing Rock Sioux

I was so sad when the Dakota Pipeline protesters left their campsite in flames on February 22. I wanted to do something to show my support. I wanted to bring some river water home to connect with them. The Hudson river flows into the ocean where all the rivers mingle eventually. The city has limited the access to its rivers over the years.

A friend who lives further north told me that the river was easy to get to near the Riverdale station. So off I went. We clambered over the mossy rocks and I got some water. 

I have a lakshmi in my living room. I bring her gifts from the garden; an old blue bottle and a pine cone that a nearby tree tossed to me. I set up a little dish with a stone from the garden that has a lot of mica, like the rocks near the river and poured some river water over it.

Every day the water in the dish evaporates and I refill it. There are mineral traces in the dish, remains of the river's presence.

I wanted to march in support of the water protectors yesterday, but I had a class. My spirit is with them.

Revisiting Banksy

A few years ago, Banksy engaged in a 30 day residency in New York. Each day offered a new work or performance. It was all ephemeral as street art tends to be. One piece remains visible from the residency.

The streak of red on the boy's forehead and the flash of light under the hammer are reflections on the protective sheet of plexiglass covering the work. Many of Banksy's pieces from the residency were protected with plexi, or roll down metal gates before being removed. One piece, Geisha is still behind its protective gate, but it might as well be elsewhere.

The boy with the hammer was protected by Saul Zabar, of the Zabar's across the street. He is genuinely fond of the work and wants everyone to enjoy it. Still it seems so strange to have street art protected by plexiglass. It is maybe a little poignant.

For more about Bansky's work, check out this awesome page:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/banksy

Last Week's Snow

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

                                                          Wu-Men

I am not usually the person who posts poetry, but I really liked this one. The first snow of the year was a week ago. It was delicate and charming, a welcome arrival for the beginning of the year.

 

These weedy little daisy flowers were still hanging on. My friend at the community garden said they bloom when everything else is brown, and here is the proof.
 

The garden looked seasonally appropriate.
 

The milkweed pods still had their seeds. I guess they disperse in the spring.
 

I gathered pots of snow which I melted down to water the houseplants with. They always enjoy rain showers in the summer, so I thought the snow would be beneficial. They seemed to like it. This was also the last day of the tree, seen in the corner.
 

The next day it snowed again, and what was forecast as a dusting quickly got out of hand.
 

It was Saturday, running the usual weekend errands soon became an ordeal.
 

The daylight drained away and everything got quiet.
 

The next day, the weather got warm, the snow started to melt, now it feels like spring.

Once Colorful City Fades to Gray

I have been working on these photos for a while but the subject feels oddly appropriate right now.

Over the years, I have noticed more and more buildings turning gray. Brownstones are resurfaced without the brown.

Gray painted brick looms over Miss Lily's Sunny Jamaican Diner.

While many Georgian townhouses are gray or black, they are usually next to other, lighter colored townhouses. Most new buildings are, of course, gray.

Sometimes it feels as if whole blocks are losing their color.

Two years ago, I posted this building in Williamsburg that was being gut renovated. There was nothing left but its cheery facade.

The graffiti creatures along the buildings base looked as if they were imprisoned in the construction shed.

A tumor building was constructed around it and it has been adorned with the most hectic graffiti.

Here is a closer look.

I am not sure what the misshapen lump in is, I think I see a footprint in there. I do not like this graffiti at all and not just because it was also temporarily adorning a Douglas Elliman office. There are so many better examples of graffiti murals. Once there were murals all around New York City. They are slowly disappearing as the gray buildings become more common. In Bushwick there ares still lots of beautiful walls.

This one is so nice we have to look at it twice

I love the image of this young woman. She is my inspiration.

Following with Chanel's descent into lipstick revolution is all the more depressing.

Let's clear our palette with a cat eating a bat.

I also love these odd chaotic spots of tags.

Near White St. and Moore, the warehouses are all painted with tags and art. It gets panted over with new work every few months.

La Borinquena

The Williamsburg Bridge is always getting tagged, with the dedication plaque as a favorite spot.

The city tried to clean the plaque, but it did not last. This was the first tag, the plaque is covered once again, but it isn't as nice as the Stay Human art above.