Gray and wet days

Autumn gets serious in its first week and replaces the sunny summer weather of the last few weeks with rainy and cloudy days. Time for art and work.

What a difference a day can make… After the sunny weekend, the new week started off gray and wet. I had a doctor’s appointment in Chelsea on Monday. As the doctor’s office is near an entrance to the High Line, I decided to take a short walk up there to Hudson Yards. The bad weather had the advantage that there were fewer people out and about. The High Line is always exciting. Be it because of the views, the ever-changing art installations to discover or because of the botany. It takes so little to have the feeling of being surrounded by nature in the middle of the city and it is simply good to feel this energy.

A wildlife surprise

The fall weather was also perfect for visiting a museum. In addition to nature, it is also art that always triggers positive emotions in me. So a visit to the Whitney Museum was on the list. The new exhibition on Alvin Ailey was very well done and moving. It always touches me how many lives and how much creative energy here in New York were ended by AIDS in the 80s and 90s and I wonder what it would be like if all these people were still alive. Luckily, the city is still full of inspiration and you often turn a street corner and are left open-mouthed in amazement. Like on the way from the subway station to the Whitney Museum, when this herd of elephants suddenly appeared on Ninth Avenue with no end in sight. This Great Elephant Migration exhibition with life-size elephants of all ages made of bamboo is really beautiful and special.

Crossing the river

A wedding was the reason for leaving the island and taking the train into New Jersey. I always find the view out of the window of the city’s skyscrapers right at the start very exciting. Especially when the towers are reflected in the water of the Hackensack River. 

Wet, wet, wet

A totally rainy weekend rounded off this week. A walk through Riverside Park and a jog were a must despite the rain. The beginning coloration of the leaves on the trees and the leaves already lying on the paths make it unmistakably clear that autumn has arrived. And it was better to be indoors than outdoors.

Paper recycling

I’m still being playful with my artistic endeavors. In contrast to Switzerland, the envelopes of business letters here in the USA are always very different and lined with various graphic patterns to keep the contents illegible from the outside. These patterns inspire me and I collect every envelope I can get my hands on. There are also various papers from packaging, online orders that pile up in my studio. From all this material, combined with a little color, I’m working on pattern collages in my sketchbook, from which larger pictures may eventually emerge. 

Wise words to close

The following quote from Paulo Coelho rounded off the many thoughts that have been buzzing through my head this week:

Maybe the journey isn’t about becoming anything.

Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so that you can be who you were meant to be in the first place.

Paolo Coelho

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