City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York on a chilly March evening.

March is a truly transitional month...the daylight grows with each sunrise, the stiff winds blow, the temperature  abruptly rises and falls.  And still, some brave little flowers find the strength to bloom.

A few days ago, I went for a walk in Central Park to find out which tiny beauties might already be showing their colors.

The Shakespeare Garden will soon be full of crocus and daffodils and all the other showy springtime stars, but for now, one must take a careful, close to the ground look to find mid-March beauties.

Clearly there's still lots of mulch and leaf cover for warmth.  In some adjacent areas, I also detected large of amounts of deposited manure awaiting skillful spreading by talented Park gardeners.

The Park's trees are just beginning to start their 2013 leaf production, giving rise to a sweetly soft green haze around trees viewed at a distance.

It's been a while since I took a long walk around the edge of the Park's pretty lake, and as I stooped low to take some photos, I was very glad that my winterized muscles could find the  strength to allow me to stand up again.  I am a bit out of condition.

Last weekend, I had another great treat, having the opportunity to meet Lori, who'd traveled to New York from her beautiful California to visit her children.

I have had the pleasure of meeting quite a few fellow bloggers, and every single time have been delighted.  When we regularly visit each over via the etherway, there is a grand opportunity to find friends.  It is so good to actually be able to meet each other.

During the past week, I've continued to experiment with my new laptop, and to discover what is possible, and how to stretch my computer skills to a new system.  I've had lots of help from friends here in New York, also from blogging friends, and from experienced and well-skilled trainers at my neighborhood Apple shop.

This sort of learning as you go is my favorite kind of learning.

Today I met a friend downtown in our city's Chelsea gallery neighborhood.  It is near the Hudson River and the brisk winds made me wonder from time to time if I would be able to stay on the ground.  Yes, dear readers, I did stay on the ground.

We visited several galleries and had a great lunch at a favorite little restaurant, with lots of catch up chatting.  There was a true standout amongst the artists whose exhibits we visited, Thomas Nozkowski's exhibits at two Pace Galleries. 

I'd seen some of Mr. Nozkowski's prior exhibits and very much admire his abstract painting.  This man truly loves to paint.  What made today unique was entering the gallery and seeing Mr. Nozkowski in the gallery giving a marvelous presentation to an assembled group of young teenage students.

What a grand opportunity these young folks had to be able to hear a fine artist talk about his paintings, and to have him answer any questions that they might wish to ask him.  The students were initially rather quiet and shy, but soon many hands were raised trying to attract the artist's attention.  As a former professor (and artist for Mad Magazine!) Nozkowski was a perfect choice to speak with the students.  They definitely recognized this opportunity.

As the session wound down, and a group photo was taken to record the session, my friend and I left the gallery and crossed the street to another Pace Gallery location that was exhibiting drawings on paper by the same artist.  As we carefully looked at each beautifully lit work, we were curious (as artists can be) about what sort of paper Mr. Nozkowski had used, since some of the drawings were done in graphite, some with colored pencils, some with chalk, some with watercolor, some with gouache.  The paper had a sort of yellow hue.

Well...only in New York.  I asked the gallery rep if she knew what sort of paper was used, and she had no idea.  Then...five minutes later, in walked the artist himself, and I was able to compliment him on the exhibit, and also on the remarkable session with the students.  And, also to ask about the yellow paper.  It was indeed not a special artist's paper, but rather an "ordinary" sort of yellow paper from a stationery store.  This information lead to to a brief conversation about how well that paper did respond to many media, followed by more compliments, and many thanks to the artist.

This was the sort of week, and day, that make me feel very fortunate to live in this city.  Even though I can still hear that fierce wind blowing just beyond my windows.

Thank you to all who've visited hereabouts.  I do enjoy reading your comments.