New York's Architectural Detail

These are a few of the many photos I took along the streets of New York City. Everywhere I looked, the doorways had been carved, or were decorated with bricks. Very interesting. It was a feast for my eyes.

Looking at these photos now, or in the future, would provide much inspirations. As if I might ever run out of ideas. . .

It was easy to get a sense of the history in New York, the age of the buildings, some modern, some older, a great soup of architecural styles. I haven't included photos of the more modern buildings here, but they live in New York too, right alongside the older classic styles.  It is as if anything and everything is honoured here. There is history, new stories, many styles, many different kinds of people, all have a place here. All honoured as having a place here. It was a treat to take it all in. 

Classic New York

I wanted to include a few general photos of my trip to New York City in March 2011.  I was quite taken with the city. It felt quite familiar, because we've heard of all the landmarks in movies and on tv. And there were all the landmarks, right alongside my travels. Central Park, Macy's, David Letterman studio, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Chrysler Building, Yellow Cab, etc, etc. It seemed comical in a way. I flew in on a clear bright morning, right after sunrise, and noticed the shadows from the highrises as I landed, snapping photos all the while. Quite a sight.

I was also quite surprised by the straight streets and avenues. Seemed very orderly. One can stand in the middle of the avenue, and see pretty far, with no obstructing buildings in the way, or curves in the road to mess up the view. And New York is built up, so many of the street level views are like concrete canyons. It is quite different from anything I have seen before, so it was quite intriguing.

Most people get around New York by walking or by cab. It is not far or expensive to travel in Manhatten by cab, so I did that a few times. It seemed most of the vehicles on the roads are cabs. It is also not far to walk anywhere, so I did a lot of that, along with many, many other people. New York is very heavily populated, and there were an uncomfortable number of people out and about.

There also isn't much greenspace around, so it is no wonder that people hang out in Central Park. It definitely is a concrete jungle. New York certainly made an impression on me.

New York: 300 Years of Red & White Quilts

I've been wanting to write about a trip I did to New York City, specifically to see quilts, in March 2011. I've had the photos on my computer for all this time, and I was just looking over them, after my Houston experience, and realize now that it was an amazing journey that changed me forever.

I found out about this Red and White display when I was looking around on the internet one day.         It was put on by the American Folk Art Museum. Check out the link here.  Once I knew about the show, I had to go, I knew I would forever regret not going. All these quilts, 650 of them, had been collected by one quilt fan, and she generously decided to share them with the public all in one display. She had collected more quilts, but these are her red and white ones.  Many of them are very old, dating up to 300 years old, and some are more modern.

The amazing thing about this display was the way the quilts were displayed.  Many quilts you see in a variety of displays are hung all on one level, and you walk around to see them one at time.  In this display, the building was vastly huge and dark, and a professional stage lighting company had been hired to set up lighting specifically to highlight the quilts.  The other amazing thing about this display was that the quilts were hung on many levels, sometimes three or four layers up, with an intense circular spiral thing going on in the centre. 

So when I entered the huge vast room full of quilts, it took my breath away. It was stunning to stand inside the entryway and take in the enormity of the project. Wow. I was just in awe. People walked softly and spoke in hushed tones, and for the most part moved around in near darkness, because it was only the quilts that were lit. It felt somewhat surreal, but very effective.  It took some time, taking in each quilt, giving each piece its due.  I spent most of a day there, taking in the quilts, taking photos of nearly all of them, absorbing as much as I could, since I was aware that this was a once in a lifetime experience.  

There were other quilt things going that same weekend in New York, which I will write about in other posts.