Tearing into the Studio

This afternoon promptly at 1:45PM we started to tear down our art show that ran all weekend. We had to take all the screws out of our threshold and then start to paint all the walls back to white. It was so much fun being able to be destructive. I was assigned to the wonderful painting back process, and it is taking 3 or more coats to get the walls back to white again. Its been a full day!

Carting Lumber all Around the City

For our exhibit that is opening next Thursday I am on the threshold team, and we are constructing an open framework for people to hang their work on.  It also functions to split up the gallery space.  We ran out of lumber last night, and this morning we put up all the wood frames we had made, and found out we needed 49 more 2X4's to finish our project.  We then went to Home Depot to get the lumber, and borrowed a cart and took it 6 blocks back to our studio space.  We learned that we could not use the freight elevator to get it to our studio because of the upcoming holiday and that no one was in our building who could run it.  So here we were stuck in the middle of Manhattan with a cart full of lumber and no place to store it!  One of our staff members asked our summer housing director of the townhouse where we are living if we could store it in the basement.  He was our life saver, and let us store it there.  We then had to take the cart 8 more blocks to our house and the whole excursion took about 3.5 hours.  So now we can construct the rest of the structures in our small backyard, and won't be able to get them up until Monday morning.  The show will still come off, but we will be pulling some late nights next week now.

West Side Story

So I made it to my first Broadway show today, and it was so awesome.  I went with all of the staff and students on our project here in the city.  We of course were in the balcony in the nose bleed section.  It was still amazing, and the set changes were done so well!  The dancing was coriographed with stunning jumps and stunts.  I knew the premise of the story so I wasn't surprised by the progression of events, but the girls I was sitting by were so shocked by the ending.  

On Campus at City College

Today we went to do surveys at City College that directly influences our show that we are putting together.  Our questions were:  1) If this space (where the people were) was your inspiration for a piece of work, what would your create?  2) If this space was an alternate fantastic dreamworld how would it look?  and lastly 3) How is your answer to #2 how is it the same or different of your idea of Heaven?  We got some interesting responses, and one of the girls I talked to thought the campus would look like Hogwarts from Harry Potter in a fantastic dreamland.

Playing Frogger in Central Park

Today we were trying to get Shakespeare in the Park tickets, but as we got off the subway we ran into an in progress marathon. In order to cross the street there were two options: 1) run with the entries and merge to the other side of the street, or 2) Run straight through the runners frogger style. I chose option two, and with much speed and agility made it through without tripping up the participants. Sad to say the line for tickets was too long, so we had to find alternative fun for today, but while we were walking through the city we found a cool flea market tent bazar. It had some very interesting stands with bags, scarves, jewelry, food, etc. . . It was a great surprise!

These aren't the REAL Yankees

Tonight after a long afternoon in the studio when we broke into working groups, and started to build our show we headed to an all you can eat free minor league baseball game. We took the Staten Island Ferry to the venue, and the whole ride we were able to watch a thunderstorm blow through the bay area.

Verse of the Day

Romans 15:4, "Everything that was written beforehand was written for our instruction, that by the steadfastness and encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope.

A morning of Awesomeness

Today we had a six hour conference with Sy Rogers who spoke with the whole project on sexual issues in the church. It was an amazingtime of talking of wounds caused by sexual sin, and how they can be healed.

After the conference ended at 3PM I went to Mood a three story fabric store. We walked around the fashion district, and then ate dinner. Next we went to a life drawing session in a warehouse in Brooklyn. It was an end of a great night.

Day at the Met

So today we had a free day, and since it has been raining here off and on for the past few days we decided to take a day trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We spent a WONDERFUL 4 hours of our afternoon looking at the exhibits and all sorts of paintings. It was especially sweet to see Rembrant, Degas, Goya, and many many more. I also was excited to see the Chinese and Japanese prints. I loved it! After our long afternoon of browsing we picked up cookie dough, and made chocolate chip cookies and had a girls night friends season one marathon. All and all a great day.

An afternoon with Karelyn

We had free time this morning until 1PM, and then our day was started at our studio where we discussed the elements we were going to use in our show. Earlier in the week we had decided that we are going to build our show around the premise of threshold. The threshold of life to what we have hope in after death. We are still thinking about doing a large collaborative installation that involves the skills of everyone in our group. It should be fun, but my brain is starting to hurt from so much conceptual planning.

After studio time Kimberly and myself went to our mentor's studio on 17th street between 5th and Broadway. We met two of Karelyn's students there, and had an awesome afternoon of getting to know one another. We had planned to help stretch canvas, but plans changed and we looked at a disc with my paintings on it as a group instead. After that Kimberly and I used a picture survey we have been using this summer with the group to show more of how we are collecting data and research for our show. It was a great time.

Sharing Our Skills

It was so cool today because I got to view 10 people present their portfolios and specific style of artwork. One guy (Nathan) sang a song from Beauty and the Beast the musical, we had a fashion designer, a T-shirt/graphic artist who likes to use silk screen, photographers, drawers, and painters. After those presentations we found our studio spaces, and started working on solidifying ideas for our show and collaboration. Later tonight we had a guest lecture by photographer Alicia Hansen who is a free lance photographer who also leads an after school inner city program called SALT (for more on her check out: aliciahansen.com).

A Brush with Stardom

Today was my first day using our picture survey Soularium in New York City. We took the Subway to Washington Square Park from our studio space after a morning of training on how to use the picture survey (If you want to know more about how it works visit mysoularium.com). As soon as we arrived at the park we saw a huge movie set up next to some of the NYU buildings. We were intrigued so we started to dig into our brown bag lunches, and munched on our sandwich wraps to watch the action. We saw Robert Pattinson walking down the street filming for his new movie Remember Me.

After that big happening we finished our lunches near the fountain in the bright sunshine, and then split into groups of two. We used the picture survey to get ideas and oppinions on how art and faith work together from our participants so that we can incorporate their answers into our show. It was a VERY successful day, and I talked to 5 young women who were more than happy to help us with our project.

Meeting my Mentor

Tonight was our mentor dinner where I met Karelyn Siegler a professional artist, professor, and business woman. She is an illustrator who paints and teaches drawing classes. Karelyn is my mentor for the summer, and I'm so excited to be learning from her. Her studio is located in Union Square between fifth and Broadway. I will be meeting with her individually 3 or 4 times this summer during the few breaks she has in her VERY busy schedule. I am extremely appreciative for her participation in the mentoring portion of our project, and I can't wait to see her space. If you want to know just how amazing this woman is you can visit her webcite at karelynsiegler.com.

The Challenge

Today we were told how we are going to be working together this summer as a group of artists that is comprised of singers, actors, painters, photographers, film students, fashion designers, and other creators.

THE CHALLENGE for us as students is to come up with a pitch and collaborate ideas so that we can work towards a show that is built by two major working groups, that is happening in two different locations, with a "live" or real-time element of the work.

We will be focusing on hope in our work this summer in direct reference or dialogue with the book Surprised by Hope written by N. T. Wright. We will be trying to engage the audience in ideas and thinking of resurrection and new creation that is to be hoped for through Jesus Christ and his resurrection. This does not mean that we will be showing paintings of portraits of Jesus or other biblical scenes, but the message of hope will be unpacked so that someone who would never want to set foot in a church can access it.

Experiencing New York City for the first time

Today we had project orientation, and learned all about the history of the city. I never knew that New York's original name was New Amsterdam, or that the consolidation of the 5 boroughs took place in 1898. After our project director Ross regaled us with all the whys and hows of New York City we then went through an intense training session on the proper etiquette for riding on the Subway. To solidify our introduction we were split into "dinner groups" of 7 students and sent out into the city with metro maps and cards. My group went and explored the Upper East side of Manhattan, and we ended eating at an amazing pizzeria called V & T's Pizza. We then took our time wondering on our way back to meet the rest of the groups at Rockefeller Center. We went to the top of the Rock and were able to take some great shots of the city. Afterward my group split back off, and took quite a long stroll down 5th Avenue. We took a long stop at the Disney store, and then it was off to K-Mart to get detergent so that I could wash my pillow (because the provided linens looked a little sketchy). With my pillow washed and newly covered I climbed into bed for a great nights sleep.

Verse of the Day

Ezekiel 1:28 "Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking."

Stuck in the Airport

So I’m stuck at the gate at Midway airport, and super tired of waiting. It is only 9:45, and I’ve had 2 flights canceled on me already. There was some nasty thunderstorm in New York and my plane couldn't fly out of La Guardia. I am however very happy that the air traffic controllers are being safe because I am so excited to get to the Tribeca Arts Project that I want to make it there in one piece. So now I don’t leave until 1PM, and I don’t arrive until 4:15PM. I’ve been up since 4 in the morning, and I can’t get to sleep here in the gate waiting room . . .

I arrived in the City and caught a cab all by myself and made it safely to my townhouse in Chelsea. I felt very empowered since I was able to make it there on my own as an adult. Yes, I'm 21 and still like people to "hold my hand" while I travel to new places :) I really didn't get to explore where I'll be living because I was rushed off to registration and then dinner at our studio space. It has been a busy day and I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight!