I traveled to NY a couple of weeks ago, anticipating the arrival of my 5th grandchild. While we waited for the big event, the older girls were at camp and I had a few days to go into the city. I primarily wandered and read in Central Park, but I found a couple of things that I wanted to share, in case you’re going to NY in the next few months.
Public art is described as a reflection of how we see the world – the artist’s response to our time and place combined with our own sense of who we are. I love public art because it’s just randomly placed where you might stumble upon it as you go through your day. New York has an “arts in the park” divison, a collaboration with the parks dept and various organizations. You can check out a list/map of places to see current exhibitions here. There’s an exhibition by artist Willie Cole on Park Avenue at East 69th and 70th Streets that I thought was so cool. Cole contructed “four monumental chandeliers made of thousands of plastic water bottles as a way to draw attention to single-use plastics.” What an interesting juxtaposition to the mansions in the area that, most likely, contain enormous, expensive chandeliers. They are on disply until November 5th. Here you go ….
I continued my stroll a few blocks over to Central Park where I stopped at Bethesda Terrace to read … and of course enjoy some, only in NY, people watching. As I was sitting there I overheard a dad talking to his kids. He seemed to be a native New Yorker and he suddenly said to his kids “… look at those intricate pictures carved into the columns. I’ve never noticed them before!” So, of course, I turned my head and, sure enough, the colums had the coolest pictures carved into them. I walked around and checked out the other columns and found these six …
The Central Park Conservancy website states, “On the Terrace’s upper level, piers have scenes representing night and day. The grand staircases leading to the lower level, as well as additional piers, are adorned with carvings that depict the four seasons with detailed renderings of fruit, flowers, plants, and birds.” I didn’t see all of them, but loved these.
The moral of this blog post? Don’t forget to look around, keep your ears and eyes open, and look up from your phone, to stumble upon random, interesting details that are right in front of you.
You cannot direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails!
