Whatever

Remember that song? From a few years back. Don't worry, be happy. I kind of feel like that's where I am for this moment in time. I am settled back in to a kind of complacency. I am constantly inspired by the world around me, interested in so many things. I am captivated by the endless creativity and enthusiasm I find in artists and crafters at shows, shops and on the web. There was a time when I spent all weekend visiting new places, exploring restaurants, seeing shows. It's fascinating to see how others build, design, display, covet, collect. Shopkeepers transform a loose amalgamation of yet more stuff into "curated" (big word these days) collections that speak about vision, commitment, beauty and joy. Artists explore material, media, matter; add passion, emotion; yield something new and wondrous. It's easy to treat the world like a theater...pay your dues, spend your money, take it all in. Simple. Not too much effort.

New York City, April 2011, Part 2

Yesterday on the bus ride to the City I noticed that finally, it seems, spring has come to New York. While the forsythias are not yet the blinding chrome yellow of their full bloom, the buds are certainly bursting and the color is unmistakably sunny! So with the dual enticements of a warm cloudless day and the advent of New York's seasonal outdoor displays I thought, while I was there, a walking tour was in order. I'd read a piece about a new public art installation along the Park Avenue mall. Will Ryman's crazy large, blatantly garish fiberglass roses were planted in January on a few dozen of these little urban stages, between 57th and 67th streets.

They are just the latest of the always eye-catching displays along this wide residential boulevard but definitely one of the more fanciful.

See them through May 31st during the day or under the spotlights at night.  You can find more details and read the artist's statements here.

What I love most about Manhattan is the likelihood that without warning you might all at once stumble upon the completely unexpected. One could argue that a 25 foot tall flower looking like the spawn of Little Shop of Horror's resident man-eater Audrey is the very definition of unexpected and one would be right. But in this case the unexpected I'm referring to is that particular vignette, vast and imposing or tiny and delicate, that one has no idea is lurking around the next corner.  So the surprise, in addition to the delight, is the thing.

At any moment you might be feeling oppressed by the gray hardness all around you when suddenly the crowd thins and you see an improbably large flower pot exploding with the glow of daffodils and the perfume of hyacinths.

Turn the corner from a boring, unending expanse of dreary storefronts and feel the exhilaration of a wide open esplanade lined with elegant residences punctuated by a parade of planters packed with masses of tulips, each with petals just now shyly peeking out from their green leaf robes.

Walk up the street a way and - can you believe your eyes? Is that a frightfully large yellow - YELLOW?! - teddy bear! Yes. Very large. And a fine shade of yellow. Like the lemon in lemon meringue pie.  And it seems to be knit from yarn. And it has the shade of a black desk lamp sitting on its head. Like a wayward baseball cap - or batting helmet. And its poor little head is crammed up against the light bulb in the lamp. And all the diminutive people, as amazed as I am, are milling around, fascinated. Or completely ignoring it as New Yorkers do.

This art installation, one of 3 by sculptor Urs Fischer, can be viewed on Seagram's Plaza (Park Avenue at 53rd street) for the next five months before being auctioned off by Christie's (in case you just HAD to have it for your own plaza).

New York City, April 2011

I decided to be a tourist Saturday...with a bus ride into Manhattan. I admit I have something of a love-hate relationship with "the City" as we call it. So many of us in this Metropolitan area do for there is so much to love - and to hate - about it. So we choose to either focus on the hate - never visiting, shunning all it has to offer - or embrace the love - admitting that the beautiful, interesting, exciting, educational experiences are worth the price of admission.
One of those lovely things, that so many true tourists never see, is the Macy's Flower Show. Only the 3rd most famous Macy event The Flower Show still draws huge crowds each year as the already dramatic main floor is turned into a kind of hovering botanical garden.

The tops of most display cases in the jewelry, cosmetics and accessory departments are laden with plants, shrubs, flowers and even trees, all of the most colorful, fragrant variety.
When the show debuts the scent of spring permeating the entire sales floor is as captivating as the visual display.

The throngs of people milling about, craning their necks to see the high-flying displays, are treated to a true taste of spring - bridal wreaths, ranunculus, pansies, rhododenron, lilies, orchids, gerber daisies - and azaleas nestled in a mini Japanese tea garden.
On this, the penultimate day of the 2011 show, some of the blooms are a little sad, the scent is not nearly as powerful but the experience is still one of a kind!

Where is Spring?

That seems to be the conversation everywhere I turn this week. Sis and I were wondering today if the pervasive gray and brown all around us will ever go away. My girl at ThriftyDecorChick was determined to find it - so she created some for herself! My own attempt at making it Spring indoors, the mudroom project, is stalled (it's a paint thing). So I decided to pack away the St Pat's, pull out the moss wreath and look for a bigger visual jolt elsewhere. One of the great pleasures in a good life well lived is lazily driving around in hopes of stumbling upon some local treasure. This happened last summer when I was exploring across the river. A little sign off a secondary road announcing Innisfree Gardens lead me to a relatively small, hidden spot on a back road. From their brochure: Innisfree is "a 150-acre public garden in which the ancient art of Chinese landscape design has been reinterpreted to create a unique American garden." Paths lead the visitor "from one three-dimensional picture to another. Streams, waterfalls, terraces, retaining walls, rocks, and plants are used not only to define areas but also to establish tension or motion. The 40-acre lake is glacial, most of the plant material is native, and the rocks have come from the immediate forest." Amazing!