New York City

I had a couple of days in NYC this past week. The weather was perfect - cool enough to walk around comfortably, but bright and sunny skies. Definitely the nicest weather I've ever experienced in the city.

I visited several museums, and wanted to share a few things that were highlights for me.

The lobby of the Guggenheim has a large piece in the lobby by Alyson Shotz. It's made from plastic Fresnel lenses and regular staples. The cool thing about it was the way images and light reflected, bounced around, were distorted, or appeared normal, depending on your location. Here's a small snapshot of it, through which you can see the interior of the Guggenheim.


Here's how much the light changes through the plastic:


I love how the street looks through the lenses too:


Anyway, if you get a chance to see this piece in person, I hope you'll enjoy it too.

Because the weather was so perfect, I spent a couple of hours in Central Park in the morning. You probably already know how I feel about circles, so this photo of the Central Park benches should be no surprise:


The Museum of Art and Design on 53rd Street has a new exhibit of miniature chairs. They don't take up much exhibit space, but there are a lot of them. I really enjoyed looking at these small gems. Some were sales samples, some are from recycled materials; click on the museum link to see and learn more.

I also visited the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum on 5th Avenue. One of my favorite pieces was this lamp with text etched into the glass. Don't you just love how it casts the text onto the wall?


I also popped into a couple of yarn stores (e-mail me if you want info on those), went to see a show, fought my way through the crowds at Times Square, enjoyed the garment district, people watched, and had some wonderful Thai food. A quick, but fun trip!