Over the past few months the subject matter for my blog entries have varied greatly. My online persona is in the middle of an identity crises. When I first started blogging I would recap my days, and occasionally take on a longer entry. In spring I felt compelled to write positive pieces for libraries to raise awareness against the proposed budget cuts. I also continued to write about my skateboarding. I started taking a lot more pictures starting with my Vegas vacation entry. I wrote about my family with my entry on helping my parents clean out a house on the farm. Basically I’ve been all over the place, and I’ll end this entry with thoughts on that. But now for something completely unheard of on my blog, on this entry I’m going to write about art, and a great accomplishment or public show that my sister was able to take part in.
From an early age both of my sisters showed an aptitude and interest in art. I think to be different from them, I didn’t really try it out, that was something that they did. When I was a sophomore in high school and Beth was a Junior she really started to spend a lot of time on art. Our older sister Tiffany was at college for art, for painting, and that was always an entertaining visit. I always enjoyed the things that both my sisters created. Beth also went to college for art but was introduced to sculpture there.
She came to NYC in 1999 and a few years later started working for the Art Students League. A lot of people think of artists as deviants, lazy, con artists, immoral, and basically non-productive people. Walking around the Lower East Side or the village you might think of artists as trust fund kids with no direction. My sister and my brother-in-law both have a strong work ethic, and work incredibly hard on their craft. I think to develop skill of any kind people work hard for it. The slackers, or partiers most likely don’t last long and end up doing something else for a living. Through various grants and work Beth is learning her craft well. Along with sculpture her water colors are great.
For a year my sister has been involved in a project called Monument 2 Monument. The idea is to have art in public parks in NYC. The Parks Department and the Art Student’s League collaborated on this project. This past week on June 24th they had the opening. Beth worked incredibly hard for this. Apparently on her piece ‘River Gazers’ some measurements were off, and needed to be adjusted quickly. So in summer heat my sister worked 14 hours days while still taking her duties with the baby, otherwise known as Emperor Kamil. On last Saturday the 25th I went to the ‘after party’ because a lot of people could not make the Friday afternoon opening. About 40 Art Student League supporters came and mingled for awhile. It was a nice celebration, and I could tell my sister and the other artists were very happy. This part of Riverside Park is a stretch from 60th street to 70th street along the Hudson River in Manhattan, and is amazing. There are plenty of places to sit and watch sunsets. The path is well maintained and varies enough to make things interesting. 7 sculptures are strategically placed along the path. All the sculptures are interesting, and they will be there until May of 2012. If you live in New York City plan to go to see this along with a sunset, you will not be disappointed. Soon a group sculpture will be placed in a Bronx park.
Now to end this entry, my new goal is to write in this blog a minimum of twice a week. With my entries on library advocacy my views did increase because people were concerned. Fortunately most of the budget was restored this year. I also learned with blogs that the titles used and tags put in matter for searches. This was been a kick to see on my stats more people viewing my entries. But I do not want my blog to be focused solely on one thing. And I should remember my original intent which is to practice writing. Twice a week is a lot of entries and eventually I’m going to have to think of different ideas. Perhaps I’ll be more scattered brained, or varied rather than focus on one thing.
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