Dan and I have finally made it to NYC. Just finished the first full week of being at the apartment. I'm really falling in love with the space itself-- I feel very lucky to have found a place with such a profound sense of calm and beauty. I find I really feed off of the energy of the apartment. The high ceilings, huge windows, wide open spaces, loft bed, and wonderful furnishings all really inspire me. I love walking barefoot along the hardwood floors and doing yoga while listening to the new Alanis Morissette album and then taking a nap or reading in bed. I feel incredibly fortunate to be in such a place; however, it definitely was a long road getting there. We must have looked at at least three hundred apartments online before seeing the listing for our new place. It's a tedious process, but diligence and a clear sense of what we wanted without compromising too much really paid off. It's so very much a game, but once you come to terms with that and enter the arena it's worthwhile and stops being so harrowing.
Work at the Jen Bekman Gallery is going along just fine. I'm a gallery intern, so I spend most of my hours in the gallery space itself, which is absolutely fine by me. I've had some really interesting conversations with people who work here-- namely Jen Bekman herself, who has really opened up some ideas and thoughts about art and NYC that have forced me to think and clarify in my mind what I'm looking for and what exactly I'm doing here.
On the subject of art-- I am so fortunate to be in the Sotheby's class on Contemporary Art in NYC. It's basically a glorified field trip all over NYC (and beyond!) to see, learn, and experience the most important art spaces of the 20th Century as well as an investigation into the progression of the art world, through auction houses, artists studios, and galleries/institutions into the 21st Century. Last week, we visited so many museums. Here's a list of the shows we saw:
1) Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976 (The Jewish Museum)
2) Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered
3) Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe (Guggenheim Museum)
4) Polaroids: Mapplethorpe (Whitney Museum of American Art)
5) Whitney Biennial 2008 (Whitney Museum of American Art)
Being exposed to art in both the gallery and museum setting EVERY single day of the week (except Sundays) has really been a beautiful experience. Modern/Contemporary Art is such a passion of mine, and the chance to be surrounded by it in so many contexts and face-to-face is really mind-blowing. It's certainly a level of mental and spiritual stimulation that I'm not used to. The whole experience of FEELING art is magnified when you get to live within the world. I'm so pleased that I chose to come to NYC, regardless of how many cons I'd mentally listed, because this really is the epi-center of the art world in America. I'm working in an area with dozens of new galleries, and a block from the New Museum of Contemporary Art. I've walked through Chelsea, which houses hundreds of galleries. I've strolled 5th Avenue for all the big-wig museums. I've really never had this opportunity to really be a part of everything-- to see the process not only from the outside but from the inside as well. All I can say is I'm feeling immensely blessed... even though I usually really despise that turn of phrase, as I feel it denotes such a sense of passive being-- that someone endows you with a gift to which you're indebted. But whatever.
Dan and I agreed that we would try and go out to eat as much as possible around the city for dinner. It has pushed us to walk around the areas of restaurants near our apartment. We've also ventured to Union Square, lower Lower East Side, and the East Village for dinner. I'm going to be compiling a list of everywhere we go in my Moleskin journal (that Kathryn so thoughtfully gave me for my birthday!) so that I can remember where we've been. Had my first veggie burger last night and I absolutely loved it. I think my tastes are radically changing being here-- I find that I'm craving things like red peppers and olives and black beans and arugula-- things I have never really cared for. Maybe my taste buds are opening up to the surrounding myriad points of stimulation. I just hope I don't return a vegetarian. Someone has to keep eating meat in my family!
Regardless of our ups and downs, I'm really loving living with Dan with summer. We could have quit so many times along the way after all of the frustration that we encountered finding a job and an apartment. We also spent a bunch of time at home together before moving to NYC, playing Rock Band, going to Philadelphia, bumming around, and generally being fabulous. We've had some major fights, but I think we're starting to be able to recognize that we each have faults and strengths and we need to accommodate those while still retaining autonomy. It's been hard, definitely, but I think it always is hard living with your best friend. I've found that in every single living situation I've had since I was a kid; however, I also know that those situations have been the most positive and uplifting and reaffirming things.
I feel this summer is really really pregnant with possibility and chance. I've thrown myself into a space that I can make into something that will propel me. I feel I'm changing on a daily basis. The New Phase was the first step, my honors thesis my second, and this is the third. I feel I am expanding with every day that passes-- accepting new ideas, listening to new sounds, seeing new art, meeting new people, patching up myself, seeing so much light in so many places. I'm trying to be there for myself in all of these moments of novel promise. I just don't want to lose sight of my being in the face of all these opportunities.
Currently Reading: Michael Ondaatje, "Divisadero"
Currently Listening: Alanis Morissette "Flavors of Entanglement," Aimee Mann "@#%&*! Smilers," Jewel "Perfectly Clear"
Saturday, June 7, 2008
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