picking cichorium

i should begin in the beginning. at first there was fish.

then there was elmo, mom, sheep and what not. every time i waited for a seat at Mogador, i would check out the window of the De La Vega‘s shop. slowly checking out has become more systematic: i now take a stroll along St. Mark’s every Sat or Sun morning to see what’s new.

reading up on this young artist has revealed that his genius is not appreciated by the NYPD. i have nothing to say to this, but to remember my own encounter with NYPD, when i almost got arrested for sitting in a park late at night, talking about politics and economics with two friends. heh, NYPD and the law do not seem to have a sense of humor.

James De La Vega’s popularity is not only with the local police. if you walk thru east village or east harlem paying attention to what is around, you will be blown away how many businesses get this man to decorate their furniture, exteriors and what not.

here are several better pictures from my berry (with a slight touch of photoshop)

a wall of a building in Schenectady, NY

at a train station in Schenectady, NY

the Fed in the fog, NYC

flying out of JFK at 6am several months ago

at one of the beaches in FL

I should have posted this entry while Filthy was still up

The original:

Pablo Picasso. Guernica.  1937. Oil on canvas. 349 × 776 cm. Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid

East Village remix:

Must look up the artist. Filthy,vile. 2008. Spraypaint on brick. Around  200 x 200 cm. Outside of Mars Bar.

I have always been jealous of the teachers and college profs because they got to read some truly brilliant pieces.  Even though not a teacher, I get all benefits of the job.

Enjoy some excerpts from the student essays that I came across this year:

• The veterans of the Ukrainian Revolting Army
• You would think that it’s unreal that a teenager reads Shakespear’s plays, but read it because i found it in my “old things,” and there is a lot of murder, so i decided to read it.
• Americans always feel pity for those who get in trouble[,] are keen on disabled.
• Parents should take steps to prevent their teenagers from hitting the bottle.
• Lover man keeps in heart image by his love, makes him immortal, like immortal sun, Earth, wind, because just this immortality possible in our world.
• First i heard about law when i was 14.
• There is nobody who wants to be lovely on Earth.
• Ukrainian constitution was found in 1996.
• Once i tried to milk the cow but it was difficult, moreover the cow didn’t like my movements. [...] Playing with my dog pleased me a lot, too.
• Leo Tolstoy “The World and the Peace”
• What is the most important thing to make people happy? [...] First and foremost my suggestion would be to choose a landlord and make him the head of the government.
• We have first place in the world by the number of dead people.

P.S. In case you wonder what country kids are writing about, it is Ukraine.

I found out about Eliasson’s installation on the East River, The New York Waterfalls, from NYT. I surely deemed the project interesting, but did not read up on it due to the lack of time. Several days ago, I rode in a cab with a friend, saw The Waterfalls, and started babbling away about public art, telling the engineer type about the Running Fence of Christo and Jeanne Claude. “Nah, but how does it work and how much electricity are they wasting on it?” – he asked the questions that naturally popped up in his head. Well, the website dedicated to the project does tell us how the waterfalls were installed, how they work, but keeps quiet about the energy consumption. Apparently, the answer is “A LOT” since the project is reported to be the second most expensive in the city’s history. Whether a part of the money does come from the city’s budget, or all of it is from the Public Art Fund and other organizations, let us rejoice for the minor spending boost, since the economic stimulus package does not seem to be doing its job. According to The Economist, apparently the “consumers are planning to spend only somewhere between 20% and 40% of the rebate. The rest will go towards paying down debt or into savings accounts” (“Stimulus and Shopping,” The Economist, May 29th, 2008).

Jokes aside, I recommend to see the four beasts driving on the FDR or riding the Q train. I will spare you of the blackberry pictures of the project, since it is best seen live or on the pictures by the pros.