Scribble

June 4, 2013 by brigitaozolins

The most immediate sign of life is movement. Morgan O’Hara The night before I leave for Washington DC, where I just spent four days, I attend a workshop at the Drawing Centre which is just a block and a bit away from the studio in Greene Street. The workshop is free and is called Scribble: an unself-conscious return to drawing. It is run by Morgan O’Hara, who has an international reputation for creating what she calls live transmission drawings, which […]

Categories: Art, Drawing, Drawing Centre, Travel writing • Tags: Art, Drawing, Drawing Centre, Mara Stepe, Morgan O'Hara, Travel writing

Shiny happy people…

June 3, 2013 by brigitaozolins

Shiny happy people laughing Meet me in the crowd, people, people Throw your love around, love me, love me Take it into town, happy, happy Put it in the ground Where the flowers grow Gold and silver shine by R.E.M. This is not one of my regular posts – it’s an album I’m sharing about the shiny happy people who have made my stay here in New York so very memorable. Some I already knew and they just happened to […]

Categories: Art, People, Travel • Tags: Andris Aukmanis, Art, FedEx, Flash Rosenberg, Francoise Grossen, Garis & Hahn, Gerard Willems, Gwen Hardie, Ivars Kakis, Marco Fusinato, Phoebe Rathmell, Simon Muiznieks, Simon Ozolins, Soros Foundation, Travel, Walter De Maria

Good things come in more than three

May 28, 2013 by brigitaozolins

People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.  Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray This post was going to report on just three good things, but by the time I got to the end of the week, the three had expanded to five – more, […]

Categories: Art, Contemporary Art, MOMA, Morgan Library, Mormons, New York, New York Public Library, Pierpont Morgan Library, Travel, Travel writing • Tags: Art, Broadway, Cremaster Cycle, Design, Eugene O'Neill Theatre, Flash Rosenberg, Francoise Grossen, Gwen Hardie, Live at the NYPL, Matthew Barney, MOMA, Museum of Natural History, New York, New York Public Library, NYPL, Paul Holden, Paul Holdengraber, Planetarium, PS1, Ralph Pucci, The Book of Mormon, The Rain Room, Times Square, Travel, Travel writing

When too much art is not enough art, part II

May 19, 2013 by brigitaozolins

Having plenty of time and all the museum’s funds at my disposal, I put myself on a regime to buy one picture a day. Peggy Guggenheim As I try to catch up to the present with the blogging, the present just keeps overtaking. Anyway, in this post, I’m going to try to bring things closer to the here and now, with more observations about more museums. Last time, I introduced the MET, MOMA and the Brooklyn Museum as my three […]

Categories: Art, Chelsea, Contemporary Art, Drawing Centre, Frieze Art Fair, Guggenheim, New Museum, New York, Travel writing, Whitney Museum • Tags: Ann Hamilton, Art, Chelsea, Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Peyton, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Frieze Art Fair, Gagosian, Galleries, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, Glen Ligon, Guggenheim, Gutai, Janine Antoni, Japanese art, Jay DeFeo, Motonaga Sadamasa, Museums, Nari Ward, NEA4, New Museum, New York, Pastis, Paul McCarthy, Rirkrit Tiravanija, The Drawing Centre, The High Line, Tino Seghal, Tom Friedman, Travel writing, Whitney Museum

When too much art is not enough art: part I

May 14, 2013 by brigitaozolins

I am for an art that is political-erotical-mystical, that does something other than sit on its ass in a museum. Claes Oldenburg I’ve been avoiding writing about all the museums and galleries Gerard and I have visited since arriving in New York because it just seems too hard a task! We went to 14 different places in 20 days and returned to 3 of them a second time. So that’s 17 visits overall, and I’m not counting the smaller places […]

Categories: Art, Brooklyn Museum, Claes Oldenburg, Contemporary Art, Dieter Roth, El Anatsui, MOMA, New York, The MET, Tilda Swinton, Travel, Travel writing • Tags: Art, Brooklyn Museum, Claes Oldenburg, Contemporary Art, Dieter Roth, El Anatsui, Galleries, MOMA, Museums, The MET, Tilda Swinton, Travel writing

The 9/11 Memorial, the Kon-Tiki and the Birds

May 8, 2013 by brigitaozolins

On our fourth day in New York, Gerard and I decide to visit the 9/11 Memorial. We would have gone even sooner after our arrival, but the Boston bombings made us feel a little uneasy.  On the same evening, we also go to the Tribeca Film Festival’s Drive-In to see a free outdoor screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds at the Financial Centre Plaza. It seems an odd combination of things to do but now that I’m writing about it, […]

Categories: 9/11 Memorial, The Birds, The Financial Centre, The Kon-Tiki, Travel writing, Tribeca Film Festival • Tags: 9/11 Memorial, New York, One World Trade Centre, The Birds, The Financial Centre, The Kon-Tiki, Travel writing, Tribeca Film Festival

Books books books

May 7, 2013 by brigitaozolins

Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination. Alberto Manguel Before arriving in New York, I was pretty sure the traditional book was slowly dying.  So many bookstores have closed over recent years, so many […]

Categories: Beezlebub, Books, Gurdjieff, Reading, The Strand Bookstore • Tags: Beezlebub, Books, Gurdjieff, Reading, The Strand Bookstore

Blossoms, dogs, squirrels, celebs…

May 5, 2013 by brigitaozolins

The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world. F Scott Fitzgerard, The Great Gatsby Gerard and I have been in New York now for almost three weeks and in that time, we’ve seen the city from many different angles. We’ve seen its unique and fantastic skyline from the water when we took the Circle Line Cruise all the […]

Categories: Blossoms, Celebrities, Dogs, Flowers, New York, New York architecture, Spring, Travel writing • Tags: Blossoms, Celebrities, Dogs, Empire State Building, Flowers, New York, New York Architecture, Spring, Travel writing

I love libraries

May 3, 2013 by brigitaozolins

If every library is in some sense a reflection of its readers, it is also an image of that which we are not, and cannot be. Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night I’m here in New York specifically to visit some of the great libraries of the world to help me develop ideas for a new body of art work about our changing relationship to the book.  So, on the day after our arrival, Gerard and I head off on […]

Categories: Beethoven, Degas, Matthew Barney, Miss La La, Morgan Library, New York Public Library, New York Public Library Lions, Patience and Fortitude, Pierpont Morgan Library, Renzo Piano • Tags: Beethoven, Degas, Matthew Barney, Miss La La, Morgan Library, New York Public Library, New York Public Library Lions, Patience and Fortitude, Pierpont Morgan Library, Renzo Piano, Travel writing

Too much excitement in one day!

April 30, 2013 by brigitaozolins

We did too many things for one day yesterday and they were so fabulous I have to share the experiences now – I can’t let them wait in line for my normally chronological blogging style. I will try to be brief. On Sunday morning, we take the subway uptown to Times Square and walk a short way down 42nd Street to BB King’s Blues Club and Grill to hear the world famous Harlem Gospel Choir sing. It’s a package deal […]

Categories: Arturo Sandoval, BB King, BB King's Blues Club and Grill, Blue Note Jazz Club, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Cherry blossoms, Ed Calle, Harlem Gospel Choir, Japanese Cherry Blossoms, Sakura Matsuri • Tags: Arturo Sandoval, BB King, BB King's Blues Club and Grill, Blue Note Jazz Club, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Cherry Blossoms, Ed Calle, Harlem Gospel Choir, Sakura Matsuri, Travel writing

New York New York!

April 28, 2013 by brigitaozolins

Start spreading the news I am leaving today I want to be a part of it New York, New York   These vagabond shoes They are longing to stray Right through the very heart of it New York, New York Songwriters: John Kander/Fred Ebb. Sung by Frank Sinatra We have been in New York now for almost 2 weeks and there is so much to report I am not sure where to start. I really want the blog to catch […]

Categories: Australia Council Studio, Greene Street, New York • Tags: Australia Council Studio, Greene Street, New York, Travel writing

Chicago is my kind of town

April 22, 2013 by brigitaozolins

This is my kind of town, Chicago is My kind of town, Chicago is My kind of people, too People who smile at you Frank Sinatra. Songwriters: Sammy Cahn / Jimmy Van Heusen The trip from Salt Lake to Chicago takes about 34 hours on the California Zephyr but it just doesn’t seem that long because the scenery is so dramatic, in particular the stretch through the Rocky Mountains and into Denver. There is dense snow outside, and you can […]

Categories: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Cultural Centre Chicago, Hancock Centre, Joel Oppenheimer, Silversmith Hotel, The California Zephyr, Travel • Tags: Architecture Foundation of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Hancock Centre, Joel Oppenheimer Antique Prints, Millennium Park, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Travel writing

Salt Lake City, where Brigham made the desert bloom…

April 15, 2013 by brigitaozolins

It was a paradise for lizards when young Brigham saw it first He said I’ve seen some nasty deserts Lord, but this one here’s the worst Then the Lord called down to Brigham, said “I’ve got a great idea” I want a mighty city and I think I want it here Salt Lake City, that town of righteousness and fame Salt Lake City, don’t sound like much, but hell what’s in a name? Nobody ever sings about it, but Lord […]

Categories: Mormons, Salt Lake City, Temple Square, The California Zephyr, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Travel • Tags: Architecture, Art, Chicago, Travel writing

California dreaming…

April 11, 2013 by brigitaozolins

Gerard and I are on the California Zephyr, the train that travels from San Francisco to Chicago, almost all the way across the US of A. We’re in a superliner roomette, a tiny cabin of our own, two seats facing each other that turn into a bed with another bed that pulls down from above our heads. We can’t keep our luggage in here because it’s just too cramped – only room for the essentials. But we are comfortable. There’s […]

Categories: Alcatraz, California, Coit Tower, De Young Museum, Dylan's Tours, San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The California Zephyr, The Golden Gate Bridge, Travel • Tags: Art, San Francisco, Travel writing