Things Seen but Not Posted

Ad agencies can come up with a definition for a non-existing condition that we should be aware of and take immediate action to cure it. Mine has something to do with spring. A garden preparation, painting, and travel disorder that prevents me from posting about all the art I’ve seen lately. But I will blab on Facebook and Twitter or put a picture up on Flickr - because it’s easy. I don’t know what to call my condition yet, but I’m sure it’s fatal.

Anthony Gromely’s installation of his life-sized nude self in steel, in the Madison Square Park area of Manhattan, has gotten a lot of press. It’s one of those things that New Yorkers will take for granted and think, oh that.

As I was walking through the park on my way to get a burger at the Shake Shack, my eye spotted something out of place, a man perched high on the roof of the Triangle building, then another a block away. There’s one on the ground in the park that gives you a feel for the material and scale (recently got tagged via:C-Monster). From this vantage point you can see high off in the distance another and a few blocks beyond another, 31 in all, if you can find them. They’re somewhat creepy, alien-like or maybe just another tourist.

One of the best painting shows this past spring, hands down, was Amy Sillman’s at Sikkema Jenkins. Luscious swashes of paint, with her personal flair for moving the eye around the canvas -- more, more.

Several airports are now providing space for art exhibits. However, if the work is not installed on my path to the gate, the only time I have to view it is while I’m waiting for someone's flight to arrive. Recently while awaiting a flight arrival at the Albany airport, I noticed an announcement for an exhibit on the upper level observation deck. I didn’t know the space even existed, and it's great for plane watching, too.

For Material Witness: A Collaboration with the Rensselaer Schools of Architecture and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, first-year students were challenged to imagine new spatial and structural possibilities in found, discarded, or recycled material. Some very interesting work. Trash Walls, pictured, is one example.

Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra played the Basement Series at Vermont Arts Exchange again this season: I posted about their last show. The band is touring to promote a new CD, Honker. Ethan is as entertaining as ever. In his lounge-lizardy manner Lipton highlights those moments of life we may consider mundane with poetry, intelligence, and great wit, backed up by a truly superb band.

Gabriel Alegria is an Afro-Peruvian jazz group that came through this past weekend on their way to a date in Montreal, also touring a new CD, Pucusana. Afro-Peruvian jazz! There are bright spots in the world and much of it is through cultural exchange, but I'm preaching to the choir on this blog (literally).

This past week milady and I visited the immense Brimfield Antiques (and junk) extravaganza. If you're a collector or like to walk miles and miles of furniture, tools, books, silver, jewelry, fashion, musical instruments, and more, Brimfield is a must. It happens three times a year.


This has been one of the nicest springs in some time. The Baroness and I are calling it our fourth, since traveling in Spain, China, back to Baltimore, and now in Vermont. I love the change of seasons, and it's great for the sinuses too.

I was a bit bold and already planted tomatoes, peas, salad mixes, and herbs, but the tomatoes will have to be replanted. We've begun harvesting asparagus and now the rhubarb. Rhubarb pie, ice cream, rhubarb everything for the next few weeks.