My Trip to New York
Earlier this year, I met a man named David Allmon, who was wanting me to make an addition to a tattoo he already had. He booked an appointment, and during our session, our conversation drifted to art, artists, galleries, and museums! It seemed as though David had a stronger interest in the arts than some of my other clients, which was exciting because he shared a lot of information with me. He began telling me that he moved from Texas to New York about four years ago, and the art culture in New York would take my breath away. Towards the end of our appointment, me mentioned that if I ever wanted to visit New York, and if I bought the plane ticket myself, that I would be welcome at his place for a few nights! A few months later, I gave it some serious thought, jumped out on a limb, and sent him an email inquiring about his offer. As it turns out, he was completely serious and we coordinated our schedules. I'm very grateful for David, because he gave me the opportunity to see New York for the first time this fall!
My mission was to make this trip not only a vacation, but an opportunity to learn. I wanted to know what it would take for me to expand my artistic abilities; I also realized that in New York, I'd find the best of the best. I wanted to spend the majority of the trip going from gallery to gallery, studying what "grade A" modern fine art looked like. Also, I wanted to network with some of the public galleries, and find out what I needed to do to get my work shown in some of them one day.
I arrived Friday morning around 10:45am. I met with David on 5th Ave. where he worked, so that he could give me a spare key to his apartment. It was a 20 minute walk through central park from his house to his job!. After I dropped off my luggage off at his place, I spent a few hours walking through central park, where I found out that there is always something going on, especially on a beautiful day. The coolest thing that I ran into was a jazz quartet playing on the sidewalk!
I made it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with intent of seeing the Ancient Egypt Exhibit. I could easily spend the entire day in that museum, but since I knew that time wasn't on my side, I had to move as quickly as possible. After the Egyptian exhibit I stumbled upon some incredible European sculptures; sculptures have always amazed me. One particular sculpture that they had was "Ugolino and His Sons", which is one of my all time favorites!
Saturday, I got a Metro card, and learned how to ride the subway system! At first it was intimidating, but the system started to make sense once I figured out where I wanted to go geographically, using a map. Before I went out and explored the city on my own, David and I visited some Galleries in the Chelsea Arts District. The Galleries there are some of New York's most prestigious, and it was truly inspiring! Before I made my way down to brooklyn, which is where a lot of the galleries are that I wanted to visit, I walked across "The Highline". The Highline is a cool 1.45 mile long park/walkway on an elevated section of the New York Central Railroad spur called "The West Side Line".
As night fell in Brooklyn, I remembered that it was halloween! In New York, they trick or treat differently than we do in Texas. I noticed that instead of going door to door in the residential sections of town, the local businesses celebrated Halloween by opening up as candy pit stops for all the kids! Almost every store, boutique, bar, and restaurant had signs up that invited the trick-or-treaters inside. Closer to 10:00pm I wanted to see what halloween in Times Square looked like. It's incredible how many people can fit in a five block radius! Nevertheless, as crowded as Times Square was, the huge mass of people is what makes it fun!
On Sunday, I tried my hand at biking trough the city. I didn't realize how efficient it was to use a bicycle, until I tried the Citi Bike rental system. I started in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and biked through Midtown and the East Village, and finally crossed the Brooklyn bridge. Today's mission was to visit all of the galleries that I had missed on Saturday. The pace of the city is intense, but once I was apart of it, I felt energized! The city's architecture was something that I've never seen before, and bicycling through it was the best way, in my opinion, to see it.
Monday was my last day, and I tried to get in a little more sight seeing before my flight home. I rode the subway down to Grand Central Station in the morning and decided to stay for brunch! After wandering around there for a bit, I rode down to Chinatown to pick up some souvenirs, and to see what the shops down there were like! It's a place that needs to be seen with your own eyes, but the way that the local markets had fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, shellfish, etc., out for sale was fascinating! Before my flight back to Dallas, I was determined to make it to Washington Square Park to finally sit down and relax! The city of New York had a beautiful balance of nature, and industrial scenery.
I can't wait to go back and hopefully spend a few more days there! I didn't feel rushed when I was there, but since things are constantly happening, and at such a a quick pace, I couldn't capture everything. Below I have some pictures from my travels. Some of the Galleries allowed pictures, but only a few. Please enjoy the photos, and feel free to leave any questions or comments that you may have, down below!
