R&R

I stopped reading on the subway. It wasn’t a conscious choice. I’ve been lugging around a hardcover title for ten days. Normally I would’ve read this book in a week. It’s a good book. I like the author. But I can’t read on the subways anymore. My concentration is off. I keep losing the thread. I’m constantly appraising the rotating cast of car mates. Is anyone in crisis? Who’s seething under pressure and lying in wait for an excuse to unleash their pain? The constant announcements informing riders of an increased police presence and indicating which stations hold precincts doesn’t have the intended reassuring effect. I’m tense. I’m too clenched to lose myself in the page. 

I RECOGNIZE what’s going on, it’s time for a RESET.

New mothers have to decipher their baby’s varied cries and fussing, adults have to unravel our own behaviors that mask sublimated frustrations. Am I exhausted from over-exertion or just hungry? Am I distracted waiting for a check or avoiding doing paperwork? Knowing the source of my agitation, listlessness or general dis-ease is liberating. The mid term elections are three days away, the news cycle is unrelenting and we’re entering a Bermuda Triangle of viral threats. Everything is a riddle to me, human decency is unfashionable but mom jeans still rule.

I need a RESET to stop the spiral.

Nature is a tonic but art is a multi vitamin for the soul stuck in the city. New York is often both the dog and the hair. My fave escape is to immerse myself in the world of a single artist; to see the world through someone else’s lens.

Balm one: Alex Katz @ The Guggenheim. His signature flatness prompts immediate musing. His wife features heavily in his work, it was fun to see another woman that happens to look like me.

Balm two: Edward Hopper @ The Whitney. Another NY painter devoted to his muse/wife. I love she is forever the same age on canvas.

Balm three: Kwame Brathwaite @ The New York Historical Society. The history of Black artists is indeed beautiful.

Balm four: Virgil Abloh @ Brooklyn Museum. So prolific in such a brief time. He took my breath away multiple times.

Balm five: J A M @ MoMA. So much history. So much art history/ Black art history/ art struggles celebrated with a party. I always learn something on a date with art, either about myself or the world. And a little piece of my soul is restored with each spark of inspiration.