Dear New York, I miss you…

I am back in Madison. It took twenty minutes to drive home (I live about as far as you can get from the Airport). I miss New York.

The same rain that fell in the city this morning, created a slick surface here, in Madison. And my windshield froze over. And why am I driving anyway? People should not have to drive every day of their lives.

I got home and found that no one had broken into my house. The mail had accumulated in the mailbox at the curbside. No one had gone through it looking for checks and other good stuff. It’s eerily quiet here. I checked my email and answered all those wonderful wonderful people who wrote nice things in my absence.

Then it became horrendously quiet. Great! I have work to do!

I miss New York.

At this very minute, I would like to take a walk and pass places like this.. 

(When I am not driven crazy by it) I miss the pace most of all... 

yeah, little city horse, I miss you too... 

In New York: Monday morning

Today, the city returns to its workday insanity and I return to Madison. Next month, when I am in New York again, the saffron color will be a memory and nothing more.

I have never (before) much liked Central Park, at the same time that I found it to be an idea with genius written all over it. A New York without it would be a city without a heart, without air, without sun, without the seasons leaving a mark.

But this week-end, I loved the Park -- for its community, for its banter (“it is saffron,” no, “it is orange vomit”), for its love of art and love of hating art. People came out and commented outside of New York as well. Friends and strangers wrote emails and blogposts, there, too, sharing something of themselves (who would you want to spend your days with – someone who saw saffron and community, or someone who saw vomit and plastic-coated dirty laundry? Or, who saw no reason to comment at all?).

Just one last look at the ripple of saffron on a rainy Monday morning. It sent a ripple through the city, alright. And the world watched, for once not repulsed by our audacity as we let Christo do his thing, boldly, brilliantly.

black umbrella, bleak morning, saffron path 

In New York: Sunday in the park

Today I felt Central Park measured up to my beloved Lazienki Park in Warsaw. It was a day of play and promenades, always against the saffron banners.

Certainly there are critics who feel compelled to knock down the Gates art project. One reader wrote to me and said: "but it's sooo last century!" Maybe. But my reaction is closer to that of a New Yorker, an older woman who stood next to me on the Terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and said: "This is a real happening! I cannot remember when we have had one of those, it's been so long. The measure of its success? That people came and got engaged. Just look at the crowds that are filling the park!"

Swinging up to an orange gate 

In the far northern corner of the park, mud football against a sea of orange

everyone is climbing rocks to get a better view 

Shadows... 

monster shadows! 

gray and yellow 

flying! 

From the Terrace of the Met: orange troop formations. 

In New York: instant makeover!

I am deeply appreciative of emails that came following my Gates posts of the last two days. Hearing from those who are professionally engaged with the arts was especially cool.

I should admit that I am a very basic poster. I do not work with the photos at all (except to crop out some irrelevant edging). And though I toyed with the idea of doing serious photography back in college years and even took a darkroom class or two, to learn what the hell happens behind closed photo-printing doors, photography went the way of so many other careers I have considered and put aside for one reason or another.

So I was thrilled to get an immensely kind pat on the back from someone who has made a career of photography for several decades now and who liked my photos enough to do some basic tricks to improve their lighting*.

I feel like I’ve just gone to a spa for a professional makeover. I like the results so much, that I decided to do a “before” and “after” post. As you can see, it’s worth getting into basic photo-shop technology. I’m sold.

* The makeover was done by Rick Lee. Many thanks!

BEFORE No.1 

AFTER 

BEFORE no.2 

AFTER