niagara niagara



This weekend, Maggie and I took a road trip in order to see Niagara Falls. With just around 36 hours to work with, we filled it in as much as we could with New York state and Niagara Falls experiences.

Highlights include our late night arrival to Ontario, Ray at Howe Caverns (drawn renditions forthcoming), Mexican food in Syracuse, 2-year old Mila at the tea house, and getting our glasses misty.

Spring[ing]

My photo of the marionettes involved in last week's performance, 69' S, by Erik Sanko and Jessica Grindstaff.

Hello, spring time. Well, almost. Today is rainy, but we had six full days of sun here in North Adams. Chad visited last weekend, which was FANTASTIC! Hanging out in Albany, Bennington, and North Adams itself, it was really good to see him.

In other news... with Maggie's help, I managed to design and silkscreen a new crop of usher scarves, and they turned out lovely! It was exciting to get some ink on my hands - I've been so busy doing that I haven't been making lately...

MASS MoCA

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art could take days to thoroughly traverse. On the way in, there is an installation by Natalia Jeremijenko where she planted six trees upside-down, suspended in the air. At first one might think this cruel, as the plants awkwardly contort out of direction, contemplating both their gravity and sunlight. It surprised me to hear, though, that in the six years that the first trees existed in this condition (they've been taken out and planted somewhere else upright, and replaced), the upwardly-planted tree next to them was replaced three times.

The playfulness of the galleries is exemplified in the Kidspace area, with works made of candy and other delectables, and in what I like to call the "fabric hallway." This is an installation by Fransje Killaars with stripes of different fabrics going across the distance.
Sol Lewitt's retrospective is not only expansive and overpowering, but is ripe for many a photoshoot, with its astounding color and massive scales. With 105 murals over three floors, one can sort through the library of ideas that Lewitt conceived of to be made.

There is an installation of Anselm Kiefer, with his post-war painterly wall-hangings and a massive wave-like concrete sculpture. There are many of Guy Ben-Ner's jesting films, most of which include his children. Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle installed a completely upside-down house in the large gallery, entitled Gravity is a Force to Be Reckoned With. There are curated exhibitions, like Elegies of Modern Times, which includes Sam Taylor-Wood's time lapse film "These Days: A Little Death", depicting a dead hare slowly rotting away.
And so on and so forth.

Destination: North Adams

My dad and I traveled together the 7 hours it took to drive from Sterling, Virginia, to Albany, New York. Between those locations, there are two theme parks, a crystal cave, and a snake zoo.

My time here started off in the arena of 6 degrees. I drove the windy roads between Albany and North Adams in the midst of powdery snow. Let me tell you about my town.

North Adams is a small town on the western side of Massachusetts, in the heart of New England. Two of the largest masses on this geography are a cemetery (google map it) and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Everything is very close together, and Main Street will be lined with Christmas lights for a few more winter months, most likely.

My house is just a short walk to my job. There are quaint coffee shops and polite drivers that stop to let you cross even if you're nowhere near an intersection. The outdoors are brisk and the indoors rattle with radiators. After our long days working, we are able to come back and pursue our own endeavors alone or together. There are activities - a trivia night, movies and performances to see, spinning classes at the Y, hot chocolate. My roommate and I got our library cards tonight.

Kristin started to teach me how to crochet before I left Sterling, and I'm going to play with knots while my new housemates and I wait out the winter together.

Week 1 in DC: complete

At first I was a bit petrified of figuring out how to get to work on time or where to get decently-priced groceries, but I'm starting to get into the swing of things. There's even a rad local produce and organic grocery market relatively close to my house... A house that I am really into - I've always wanted to be in a row house for a time. My housemates are laid-back and seem to be down with the same vibe as I.

Anyway, the first week at my internship was also really revealing. I'm working in an arts management department, and am being exposed to a lot of really cool programs. While I've been researching all of the different things that the organization does, I'm getting fired up about art-making, too. Once I get even more settled, hopefully I'll get some art going. I have a few ideas going, at least. Luckily, I'm in a really superb city for museums, if I need more inspiration. They're mostly free, so I hope to frequent them often.

... Lastly, I want to explain how happy September makes me. The weather is just the perfect amount of cool. The hint of holidays and football games and family gatherings are just around the corner. We aren't going to use our heater in the house this winter, so I'm a little apprehensive (as my room is already chilly), but am still going to be excited, I think. There's so much to do right now. Tomorrow there is an Arts on Foot Festival in the Penn Quarter, and then an Open House at The Kennedy Center. I had better get some rest.