My Masterpiece, or My Uniform???

Well, I was thinking that I should start posting my recent works on this blog. But, before doing that, I just wanted to share this real quick, because the photos you see below were one of my very reasons why I'm painting again.

Yes, the first one is my former/current uniform, and the second one is my school art bag, which is big enough to fit 24"x30" canvas in. I made both of them more than a decade ago while I was still going art school in NYC. (it was very scary to count the number, by the way.) I remember one day after I made a curtain for my apartment or just shortened my jeans or something....I forgot....but either one for sure, I also felt the need to have a big art bag, (art school often asks students to buy large drawing pads or illustration boards.) and I used the left-out cloth to make it. And after that, I also made the apron of which hearts were also from the clothes that I was no longer wearing, the red was from my vintage pants, the yellow was from my scarf. I am basically not a great sewer. I just do it out of necessity every now and then, (shortening my jeans etc...) Maybe you can get that from my apron especially. I do remember that I didn't even measure them properly. But the art bag unexpectedly turned out well, and was indeed popular among my fellow school classmates. And despite the fact that the fabric cords for the apron were too thin and too short, (since I didn't have the suitable one at hand, I used the one that came with some shopping bag.) I used to wear it as my uniform whenever I painted.

Honestly, I had completely forgotten about those, even the fact that I kept them like that until I opened some old boxes in my storage this time. You can or can not imagine how I felt at that time. But, anyway those are one of my very reasons why I have started to paint again.

Actually, the art bag is still in good shape and was very useful during this summer whenever I had to bring some of my old paintings from one place to another. And of course I have started to wear the apron again whenever I paint, still thinking I should change the fabric cords that are still too thin and too short....

That's all for today.
I think I will share my recent works from now little by little.

Love, Yoshika

NYC Waterfall Tour

Yesterday was Columbus day and it was the last day that NYC Waterfalls were exhibited. I actually read the article about this public art project back in early spring and remember thinking it was such a wonderful project that would benefit a lot of people.

As the artist says that he wanted to bring some nature element in the city scene, thought the huge waterfall under the brooklyn bridge is something that people would like to see for once if they had a chance, it would not only promote the idea of public art, it would benefit NYC tourism for sure as well.

Although it was said the exhibition was going to be this summer and I thought I would love to take a look if I had a chance, as you may already know, I was very busy during last several months and I almost forgot about it. But luckily, I happened to see the TV commercial about this waterfall about a week ago, and I finally made a visit on the last day of the exhibition.

There were four waterfalls, 1 under the Brooklyn bridge, 2 Brooklyn bridge pier, and 1 north shore of Governors Island. I think I could see at least three of them. (I might have seen all 4 ...) There were many ways of seeing this waterfalls, from Manhattan, from ferry tours, etc. The city was offering free Staten Island ferry ride for this waterfall tour, so I tried that one.

.....And, my impression for these waterfalls was... "Oh.....that...."
Overall I loved it. But, I also must add that the frame for the waterfalls were little too big, too exposed and it made the waterfalls looked more like "fountain". (There were actually people calling it "fountains") Well, as far as I remember, in their anticipating finished image that I saw in spring, the frame part wasn't shown like that, probably neither did in artist's finished images.

But, it must be much more beautiful when it is lit at night. In my visit, I couldn't wait 4 more hours there to see the illuminated ones. But, the people who had nice evening nights at South Street Seaport this summer must have enjoyed it very much.

These are the photos of the NYC waterfalls that I took.

From the view of the waterfall from South Street Seaport. (My best possible angle.)

The waterfall of Governors Island

The waterfall of Brooklyn Bridge Pier

Bad angle one.
And of course, the Statue of Liberty from Staten Island Ferry



The artist who initiated this project is Olafur Eliasson and it was funded by Public Art Fund.
For more about this project and hear the interview of the artist, please visit:
http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/.


Love, Yoshika