break from brooklyn

i haven't posted in a little while, i guess i've been kind of busy. i went to visit dc this weekend. i took the mega bus, which is so cheap and has wireless internet, too. i was able to score a seat where the table is on the first floor, as well, although i'm pretty sure the women next to me were cataloging stolen jewelry on the way to dc. they called me "boo boo" when asking me to trade seats with them. haha.

it was really nice being able to see good friends and catch up. and awesome getting to visit a few of my favorite food places in dc, teasim, madeline's, and amsterdam falafel. it was strange being back in the city, though. i felt really disoriented. i hadn't been back in four months, so it felt weird to know where i was but also second guess myself, if that makes sense. it was weird seeing all my friends in school doing what i'd be doing if i was there. seems like everybody's doing cool stuff though!

i walked around dc a little bit, there's been some changes, like the georgetown library being put in on M st, stores opening and closing, construction, etc. there was a hunger strike going on in front of the white house, day 62 apparently. i don't understand how hunger strikes work. it's impossible to go that long without food, so what do they eat? how often do they eat? since they have to eat how can you call it a hunger strike? and where do they go to the bathroom? i haven't been around that area so i don't really know how it works.

their eyes looked so sad though.

in lighter news, i stayed with my friends this past weekend. my old roommate's place saturday-sunday and then another place monday night. my friend sara has been taking care of my beta fish, snack- he got so fat! he's fat and middle aged now. silly fish.

i also made friends with sara's pet rat while sara and sarah went through the horrible task of organizing their shared bedroom. randi the rat made me want a pet rat. she was very friendly and i fed her a green bean. the end.

then i was walking to catch my bus at H and 10th... and this was going on in the parking lot! i was pretty confused, and when i posted this picture on facebook my friend commented, "oh, i really want to do this." so maybe it's something you can sign up to do? i have no idea. i thought it was people practicing or there was like a fair coming up or something, but the former doesn't really make sense either. no idea!

i've returned to new york feeling refreshed and more prepared. i've set up a good list of things i need/want to get done in the next few weeks, and started working hard on that list. this includes the birdcages, a dress, and a chalkboard animation! all of which i've got a good start on. i'm excited, i feel less doubtful about my work.

also, it's nice to be sleeping in my own bed again!

i figured out how to get on my roof today! you can just barely see manhattan in the distance of this photo.

bushwick, and the rest of brooklyn

the view of bushwick from the train station i always use

central ave train staion toward manhattan

last night we went to some chelsea gallery openings.

we didn't really see anything that show stopping.

these mircea suciu paintings were kind of interesting.

a dan flavin, meh.

i also met a few local artists at the bar down the street, it was really interesting talking to them. they had some really interesting views on whether or not it was worth it to go to grad school, etc. the picture below shows one of the artist's work. it has walkie talkies attached to it that were picking up police scanners and such.

Originally uploaded by comesempre

"outside" bird cage experiment in DUMBO.

(it's hung a little bit higher then i'd like, but oh well, it's just a trial run.)

Originally uploaded by comesempre

close up of "outside" birdcage

i'm starting to work on stuff, i'm not sure how i feel about it though. i like the shadows.

dumbo's a pretty fun area. right next door is this great doggy day care place. i bet my dog, buddy, would have a ball there. i went inside to drop off my resume and they have open windows over looking little dog play areas, and all the dogs stood up and peeked their heads out to see if the owners were there! i hope i get a call back, it would be so much fun to work there! these two dogs were saying hi through the glass while we stood outside taking a break.

later, working in the evening in the studios we were surprised to hear the sound of a marching band coming down the street- drums, winds, everything.

apparently they're a group of people who got together and practice every tuesday or every other tuesday, and they march down the street sometimes! here's a crappy photo of everybody looking out their window to see what's going on.

fun!

today mikaela, another girl in my program did a performance art piece called "the accident." her name is mikaela.

it was pretty intriguing.

sometimes the view from my apartment can be very beautiful.

sneak peak

fabulous

today i went to the whitney. i didn't take too many pictures because there wasn't too much that stuck my fancy. we were sent there to check out the dan graham and conceptual photo exhibits. they gave me some food for thought and it was interesting to see an overview of my last semester in contemporary art in person (de kooning, jasper john, jackson pollock, jeff koon, rauschenberg, and kline).

anyways, i liked this picture of the industrial size elevator i took on my camera phone.

sparkly heels on madison ave

in dumbo, you can always expect to see a photographer (or a set of photographers) taking engagement photos, glamour shots, music videos, etc. here a bride and groom are taking some goofy photos together outside our studio space.

and on the way back from the whitney, me and jordan found a bouquet of flowers in the trash! i can't imagine why somebody would put a bouquet in the garbage, but it made my day!

today i went to coney island.

i love the sea.

my favorite photo of the obama family (minus one daughter).

Kwaku Alston, Obama Family in the Rain, 2008. C-Print. 24 x 20 in.

know hope

all ye stumbling sleepwalkers,

you were not misinformed.

but in these tongue-tied times,

this is for the homeless hearts

and anxious fingers.

this is one of my favorite street artists, from tel aviv.

lessons of lindsay

lessons of lindsay

(originally seen on boingboing.net)

where the wild things are

and i also love this "where the wild things are" tattoo.

love lost

i like this photo from here.

(saw it on cakehead loves evil first)

i love cheeseburgers

tonight was a pretty good night. my good friend melissa and i were craving hamburgers so we went searching for a place that handed an amazing hamburger to her through a taxi cab window off of the 2nd ave stop on the F in manhattan. when we got there a man wearing a very flamboyant shirt was standing outside, and he said, "there's really good burgers at this place." "was this where you went?" i asked melissa. turned out it was. it's called the national underground, which is supposedly owned by gavin degraw? it was totally empty while we were there and they gave us our own roll of paper towels. they kept talking up the burgers, and we were like, you know you're leaving us with high expectations. "that's fine!" they said.

(i liked the velvety wall paper at the bar)

they ended up being right about the burgers.

it came out open faced, with a cross hatch design in ketch up and maybe mustard? or some kind of secret sauce. i got all the normal burger toppings, and it came with three (sliced) grilled american potatoes and some grilled onions. just the right amount of sides, instead of the too many fries like most burger places do. seriously, this burger was pretty phenomenal. i definitely recommend this place to anybody looking for a good burger in NY. it's not too expensive, either (and apparently only 5$ if you get there before 5?).

after that i left melissa and went to pick something up at the studios. i ended up running into my friends jordan, hannah, and brian and we went gallery hopping. we ended up going to a place called the powerhouse arena in dumbo, which doubled as a book store and gallery space. it was a pretty cool venue, seemed like it was built in an old warehouse but i could be wrong. there was a band playing but i'm not sure what they were called.

there were two photographer's work being featured. one was a person who took pictures of muslim punks, and the other one was a guy called trevor traynor who took photos of hip hop artists. it was a show called "i shoot people."

it was pretty interesting. the way traynor's stuff was installed kind of reminded me of the way shawn moriarty hung up his photography from india.

i bought this cool print from there, too. from a company called austin press.

if you can't see it it's a print of a man and a woman with the words "man's strength and women's beauty - the prefect physical form." i don't know, i just liked it and it wasn't very expensive.

we stopped by another place, too. it was a high end furniture store doubling as a gallery, and they were doing something to benefit something- i forget. and i forget the name of the place. oops! they were giving out free flavored waters though, and amaaaazing cupcakes. they were provided by a place called Bcake, apparently.

yum!!

after that we walked around chelsea trying to go to more gallery openings but it seemed like all of them closed already or were closing soon after. we walked around a little bit then went over to jordan and melissa's house, where i had some more really tasty vegan sausage. all in all i would say this was a pretty successful day, especially foodwise.

studio space

i'm starting to make my studio mine. and produce work.

slowly.