Picasso, the High Line, and Hannah

This morning Tony and I walked in the park, but there were no celebrity sightings. The skies were blue and there was a little breeze. It was nice. Then we took care of a few errands. We had to get some old slides digitized for Hannah. For lunch we went to Todd English's Plaza Food Hall. It is a very cool place for lunch.

We then headed down to Chelsea to the Gagosian Gallery to see the Picasso and Marie-Thérèse exhibit.

Marie-Thérèse Walter

Figure au bord de la mer

The exhibit had drawings, sculpture and paintings of Marie-Thérèse. There was even a 3-4 second video clip of her. I think maybe he found her nose attractive. It was long and straight, just like the painting above.

We then walked over to the High Line and looked out over the city and the Hudson. Turning that old railway into a park was a stroke of genius!

Frank Gehry's IAC building as seen from the High Line

The Statue of Liberty seen through the haze

Tonight we met Hannah at Casa Lever for dinner. Hannah talked non-stop about everything she has been learning in the program. She has been invited by the friend of a friend who is in an internship at the Met this summer to the Alexander McQueen party at the Met. The party is this Friday night. The friend told Hannah and the other two girls that they needed to "act like they beonged there." We laughed at that. As you might guess, the most pertinent question is "What do you wear?" Ha!

After dinner Hannah headed back to the UWS and Tony and I walked back to the apartment, stopping at the Peninsula Hotel to see the view from the top.

Close Encounters

This morning Tony and I walked in the park, going through the Mall, by the Bethesda Fountain, past the Boat House, beside the Conservatory Water, past the baseball fields to the reservoir. We had a good two hour walk and were pretty beat when we finished. Just as we got to the top of the stairs going down to the fountain, I see Yoko coming toward me at quite a clip. There is a guy walking with her. She had him moving. She looked to be in great shape. She had on sunglasses but they weren't the iconic pair she usually wears. It was exciting to see her. I whipped out my phone as she passed and got a picture from behind. It's not so exciting but "imagine" you're seeing her from the front. (It's funny that the woman in white pants in the picture has no idea who she just passed!)

Remember last summer's encounter with her art at MoMA? Who could forget the scream?

We got showers and then headed to SAKs to look for a couple of shirts for Tony. We had a late lunch at the cafe there. I snapped this picture of St. Patrick's as we left.

We then walked up to MoMA to see the Picasso Guitars exhibit. It was pretty amazing.

We spent some time in the sculpture garden. As we were leaving, I saw the shadow this Giacometti sculpture made against the white wall. I thought it made a cool picture.

For several minutes this little girl stood imitating this statue. I pretended I was taking a picture of something else and then cropped it. She was so cute and seemed not to care what anyone thought.

This unusual piece was also in the sculpture garden; however, it was not the most puzzling thing I saw all day.

This girl walking in these shoes was the most puzzling thing I saw!! I wish you could see them from the side. I bet they were six inches high.

This evening we went to see Edie Falco and Ben Stiller in House of Blue Leaves. The play took extreme humor and extreme despair and made them meet in an uncomfortable place in the middle. It was one of those plays you talk about long after the curtain goes down.

Columbia

Sunday morning we headed down to the Strand Bookstore for Hannah to look for some art books she needed. Columbia has wonderful libraries, including a huge library with only art books; however, you cannot check out any of the books and you can't make color copies of the art from the books. Therefore....the trip to the Strand.

Then we headed up to Columbia where we saw her studio (previous blog post) and dorm room and had lunch at a neighborhood restaurant.

In a way, it's comforting to know that some things are always the same, no matter what city you're living in! =)

I couldn't wait to see the quadrangle of Columbia with the magnificent libraries and buildings. I thought often of Hunter who the past year lived right off the quadrangle in Lerner Hall.

Butler Library

Barnard College

We then checked out Union Seminary and walked over to Riverside Drive to Grant's Tomb.

Grant's Tomb is right across the street from Riverside Church.

The Chapel at Riverside Church

There's a small green market every other day or so near the school along Broadway.

A shout out to Seinfeld!

The coffee shop....

...and the black and white cookie that caused him to break his no-vomit streak.

"I haven't thrown up since June 29, 1980...."

We strolled over to St. John the Divine and walked around inside a bit where I sat down at one of the pianos and played my Gershwin prelude. Not.

We headed back to the apartment and freshened up a bit and then headed over to Hunter College for the 6:00 service at Redeemer. I was holding my breath, hoping that Tim Keller would be speaking that night. When I realized he was, I almost could not contain myself. I do realized I border on idol worship where he is concerned. =)

The evening service has great jazz music which Tony and I enjoyed. Afterwards, we walked over to Sistina for dinner. It was all delicious but the heirloom tomato salad was especially noteworthy. Hopefully we spent some of those calories on our walk home.

The Artist's Studio

We were very excited to see the studio space that Hannah was given as part of the program. The area around Columbia feels very neighborhood-y. There are tons of cafes with outside tables and lots of small mom-and-pop shops, unlike other areas of the city. Of course, the area caters to the young, university crowd but there were many elderly folks in the neighborhood too.

Heading to the studio

Here it is!

Photos for painting

Many of these photos were taken by my dad in the 60's. A few here were taken by Hannah (which, at Columbia, is pronounced like Donna...that's taken some getting used to!).

Some of the paintings she has finished

Tony and Hannah and work in progress