Chelsea goes to Chelsea!!!

Donald Sultan Work

The latest adventure i embarked on brought me to the streets of my namesake, Chelsea, and the galleries found there. Although my initial motivation is somewhat obscure and off centered, my experience there was phenomenal. First, I must admit, that seeing places with my name everywhere, was a little bit entertaining. Of course I snapped a couple shots of cute places with Chelsea on the sign, and then I began my adventure at the gallery of Keith Haring. Keith Haring's gallery consists of a stark white room, with three ginormous canvas works hung on separate wall, and there are then two rows of display cases in the center of the room featuring his smaller pieces. His work was not only awe inspiring but I feel like it was a great place to start for me because there was so much to explore. I found it interesting to look at the huge canvas paintings in a variety of ways because with each turn of the head or squint of the eye, a different image popped out. The over all affect of the large works was astounding. They seemed to be interlaced with a story and a message but then seemed so simple, characters jut interwoven and connected by concrete lines. His smaller works were a bit more sophisticated I'd say, a lot of them containing images of phalluses, which reflects a lot about his homosexuality that was part of his defining identity especially in the 1980's when homosexuality was greatly scrutinized. The pictures all matched a number, which, on a separate page, revealed where the images where drawn, which included locations such as, in front of Tiffany's, in Central Park, or at the MOMA. I think this was an interesting way of viewing the art because imaging what he was thinking at each place and why the pieces turned out as they did, is a strange correlation.  He also had a quote that I found particularly intriguing written on one of his smaller works which stated "the relationship between boundaries is realized by composition, composition is realized by isolation, isolation is defined by association, association is realized by observation, observation defines composition, composition is defined by boundaries, boundaries are defined by limitations." For some reason I seemed to find this compelling because I think it can apply to art, as well as life. Finally, my favorite piece of work by Haring that I found in this gallery was titled "eggplant tomato casserole for eight." I'm not quite sure why I liked this piece so much but it just had a lot going on and it seemed to jump out as something fitting to my life. I then proceeded to walk through Chelsea, finding myself in various galleries of artists I'd never heard of,but was equally impressed and intrigued by. One artist I particularly liked was named Donald Sultan, and I thought his work with flowers, was beautiful. I viewed a gallery that included "monumental photos from the 20th century", which included some interesting images that I probably wouldn't have chosen as monumental but viewing them in context made me appreciate them more I think. I visited around 5 or 6 galleries that afternoon,  and it was close to 100 degrees, and I walked around 20 blocks that day total which was killer. I wandered down to Chelsea Piers to see what that was all about, was slightly under whelmed, and then found my way 8 blocks uptown to work for 5 hours. All together it was an incredibly successful day. Seeing those galleries and all of the different artists and trying to grasp their perspective really opened my eyes a great deal. I think this was a great way to start off my summer of art, and I'm so excited to get to the Met and such. Slowly but surely, I'm getting out there and exploring this crazy city, pretty much on my own most of the time, and although being alone is hard at times, I don't think there's any other way to do it because I feel like I wouldn't be able to formulate my own opinions and be as sure of them if I was surrounded by others. So hooray! And I shall move on to the next adventure!

Home Sweet Home

although I haven't posted in over a week, this post, unfortunately does not contain lots of juicy information about adventures in NYC. instead, this post, perhaps one of its kind, is about my trip home this past week. This was the only trip I'll be making home all summer, which is a little bit daunting, when i consider that I have two entire months left in the city. I guess going home was a strange feeling because I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was there. Being in my own bed room, walking through the front door late at night as i'd done in high school, roller blading on the side walk in front of my house. These are all memories from my past that this week I was able to relive. I think that because I left Brunswick and Bowdoin so early, I never truly realized that I was missing out on anything. Of course I knew I was missing my best friends, but I took for granted the little things that a small New England town has to offer. I suddenly became more aware of how unique it was being on the mall downtown, surrounded by people I'd known for years. And of course you see people you don't want to see, and have to fake smiles and give hugs, but it didn't seem as bad as i thought it was. Coming back to the city, and today taking a trip to an area I'd never been to, make me so much more aware of how small I am here. And although I first thought I'd like it, i'm starting to realize that I'm the kind of person that wants to make a different, wants to be known, wants to be heard. At a place like Bowdoin I am able to do that, to be an active participant in the community in which I live, rather than another New Yorker trying to get where they're going on time. Going home was a strange experience because I guess I'd never been away from home in that sense before. Taking a shower and not remembering how to make the water warmer was definitely a first for me. And the smells. The smells in that house brought me right back to all the things I loved. I miss that house. I miss the way you can smell the salt in the air from the ocean rolling off the coast. These things became so apparent after living in a completely different environment. I couldn't help but feel the entire time I was home that I didn't want to return to new york, I wanted to stay here, and live my maine summer at the beach, riding bikes, eating cote's, soaking in everything my hometown had to offer. I know it probably seems crazy, because I never even left my home town, but being at Bowdoin is different, because you don't appreciate things about Brunswick in the same way. Now that I'm back in the city, a lot of these feelings have passed, and I am happy to be on this adventure, but at the same time, in the back of my head, I cannot wait to be back at Bowdoin enjoying life the way it should be. I keep thinking that after Bowdoin I'll want to work In New York at a Law Firm or in Boston or a big city, but I think I'll need to consider that more now that i've had this experience. In the next two months I'm really hoping to find peace with my current state of being more alone than usual, and more bored than usual, and more independent than usual. Really I want to use this time to be okay with my choice of bowdoin, to be okay being alone when i return to bowdoin, to be strong enough to walk away from the things in life that aren't worth fighting for. And I hope that being here, in this city, where supposedly if you can make it here you can make it anywhere, I will find the strength to do all of those things and be ready to face whatever challenges life throws at me.