Art as a Cure-All

Last night, Matty and I went to Williamsburg to see a couple of art openings.

Looking south from Brooklyn. Matt w/ a view of the Williamsburg Bridge (Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges even further south in the background)

Looking west at Manhattan's Lower East Side from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

We went first to the much anticipated Barnaby Whitfield opening of Putto Rising. We got there right at 7 (right after we took the pictures from the shoreline). We saw everything, but Barnaby hadn't arrived yet. When he got there, we'd already had a few beers and had looked at everything again with a more studious eye. We said "hi" to Barn and then had to dash out because we had to catch a few more shows and get back to the city. This piece below is one of my fav's, but as you know, I just love practically all of his stuff (of course, I have my favorites).

P.Utto
2006
Pastel on Paper
22 x 30

We went to another opening up the street, and can you believe it, I forgot the name of the gallery and the artists, so that one is lost to the night. Matt eventually left me and I went solo to Samuel Rousseau's show at Parker's Box Gallery. I had some red wine and walked around. This video projection piece below was fun to look at. It is made of plastic jugs cut out and put together to form a building. The projection has very life-like forms coming and going and moving inside the building - like shadows of actual tiny people. A little creepy, though, cuz my head is still not totally out of the 9/11 anniversary funk. But other than that, the whole evening left me feeling buoyant and satisfied - and a little tipsy. Here's a tip for out-of-towners: gallery openings and shows are great entertainment. Free wine and new art. Yum.
Speaking of out-of-towners, my long-time friend, Jason, is coming up from Atlanta for a visit in October. We're gonna paint the galleries red and light the bars on fire. Weeee!

Plastikcity, 2005, video projection, plastic container, DVD Pal master U-matic, 86 1/2 x 67 inches (219 x 170 cm)