Metallica

Rather too much vegetation in this blog lately

so I ponder metal instead. Here in a gallery window on 22nd Street sort of metallic

 saran-wrap stuff to cover the window while a new show is being hung.

Something quite mind boggling and dizziness inducing from the Metropolitan Museum last week.

8th Avenue up by the Natural History Museum. Such child-friendly colors.

Redoing sidewalks. A concrete mixer and lots of  wet concrete. Hard to resist the urge to write something banal in the wet cement.....

A tangle of bicycles on 22nd Street

A window-dresser this morning in Chelsea Market. Metal in the nose and the hat. A work of art in himself.

Antique phonographs as part of his display.

I took this photo some weeks ago, thinking to write about Dot Harz who gave me the wonderful shovel/spoon. Then I realised that ET had invaded the handle.

James Lewicki

In 1990 we bought the wonderful house in Centerport, Long Island built by the artist, James Lewicki. In the process we became friends with his widow Lillian and daughter Lisa.

Lil died last year. Jim, from all the family say, was quite a character, a prolific artist probably best known for his illustrations for Life magazine.  Last weekend Lisa was selling some of his remaining  paintings. This one, probably from the 1930's, reminds me a lot of the work of Charles Burchfield. 

Not a very good photo of a photo of Jim and Lisa in the studio where Robert later worked.

Industrial landscape that manages to be arresting

My favorite --washing hanging outdoors.

Jim also had a long association with American Greetings cards. He would do a selection of watercolors and the company would choose which ones to publish. A sketch above. More in an old post here

A sketch on the left and the finished product on the right.

Hard to see these clearly --Then and Now ( except "now" is now fifty years ago!) Very charming and retro. 

For lots more information about the paintings and cards (some of which are available in reproduction) contact Lisa at  lisa_hermanson@verizon.net

Just Plain Nuts.....

All of us have little things we like to do.....

but some people take it further than others. 

It was horribly, revoltingly hot, but the 

collector of bottles and cans was hard at it. 

In a sort of way it was admirable, but in others, of course, rather sad. 

His artistic creation, I think.

A completely other form of craziness is the people who plant plants 

(here redwing begonias) and then don't bother to water them.....ever. 

Lunacy #3  may be observed in the sort of person 

who puts up notices about lunacy #2. Hm.........

How thrilled we were to see the lowering sky yesterday afternoon.....

and it still  didn't rain!

Monday morning. No rain yet and the sparrows are fed up ...

not to mention the humans.

Curiosities

All sorts of little bits of burgeoning tree

have been falling on to parked cars on 25th Street (and every other street for that matter)...

... forming a sort of yellow confetti which looks specially good if the car has recently been polished.

The weather is much warmer and this Brooklyn inhabitant has exactly the right idea.

His cushion is lodged where the air conditioner will later be, from whence

 he can survey all that surrounds him.

Very warm last evening with mist in the air. The sort of day when
 the Empire State Building has its top stories removed.

Ah! the joys of blogging! Such a good way to meet people from all over the world.

Yesterday a lovely little envelope arrived from Isobel Bella Bheag in Scotland who makes the

most beautiful handmade cards. Her recent blog posts have been about a visit to

the islands off the coast of Scotland where they make tweed. A very different world indeed.