My NYC Gatsby Wedding!

Every girl dreams about her wedding day. Well, most of us do anyway. So when the time was finally right for my fiance and I to wed after 7 years of relationship, I wanted to show my unique style through our big day. It was time for me to start planning. Where would I start?

Meanwhile, around my city (I'm from New York) the glamour of Baz Luhrmann's film The Great Gatsby movie was being felt through the numerous ads on tv, billboards, buses, trains, not to mention social media. I was fascinated by this age which gave us jazz and gave me the birth of my grandfather in 1928.

With all the fuzz about the movie, I quickly learned about Tiffany & Co.'s "Jazz Age Glamour" celebration which created an "exquisite" line of jewelry for the Gatsby movie. I had found my "something old" and decided to get inspired...

OUR BIG DAY!

I told my husband, "We even match with the bench and the walls" ^_^

Our photographer Mr. Braulio Cuencas captured by the lens.

At the "Wedding Garden" right outside the City Clerk's office.

My sparkly shoes...

El jardin de bodas...

A kiss... <3

Outside Chambers Street Station

141 Worth Street - Marriage Bureau

David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy

David Smith "Blue Construction", 1938 (sheet steel, baked enamel finish) 92.1 x 72.4 x 76.2 cm

I visited the Whitney Museum and upon arrival was immediately attracted to the building’s design. This is my type of environment, I thought.  I walked to information and explained to the receptionist that I was a student at LaGuardia, but had forgotten my ID. She contacted the manager who in turn allowed me in once I probed my student status through signing in to the college’s website. I now assume she thought I was trying to get in for free because she gave me a ticket without me paying. Which was nice, but all I wanted was my student discount.

            Without further distractions, and considering I had other museums to visit that day, I hopped on the elevator onto the 4^th floor where David Smith’s Cubes and Anarchy exhibition was being held and was greeted by his amazing sculptures. I walked around trying to enjoy all the cubes, architectural lines and mathematically symmetric shapes of Smith’s work. Then, once I had reached my starting point once again, I stopped and drew a few of my favorite pieces. Some included The Hero (1951-52), 5 ½ (1956), and Blue Construction (1938).

            I respect the sculptor’s use of cubes, bent steel, roundness, and zigzags throughout his work. It made me feel nice that I could relate to his work and wanted to copy some of his techniques in a sculpture of my own. In some instances he painted the steel to give it a more organic touch which was refreshing. It was also nice to see The Hero a sculpture I had seen before at the Brooklyn Museum in a different context from how I had seen it before. At that moment, I couldn’t recall where I had seen it, but a couple of semesters ago, in my sculpture class I was assigned to visit the Brooklyn Museum. I had to draw and analyze sculptures by Rodin, as well as more contemporary pieces like Smith’s. So it was nice to have that feeling of Déjà vu when I came upon it.

            For anyone who is interested in design like I am, it is vital to look at sculptures such as these and find the principles of design within them. There is rhythm working side by side with proportion and balance. There are lines both present and omitted creating volume and negative spaces through which light can penetrate. I could still see the angles and the beautiful patina in his Blue Construction which he created by using powdered glass and baking it until it melted and blended into various dark hues. Including a royal-like shade of blue anyone would enjoy looking at.

            I had seen David Smith’s work before, as I mentioned earlier, but it wasn’t until I saw so many of his sculptures together that I began to admire the artist as a great contemporary sculptor. I don’t think I’ll be forgetting his name anytime soon.


cites: 
Whitney.org. "David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy". The Whitney Museum. 4 Dec. 2011 <http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/DavidSmith>

NYC Boroughs Art

de kooning: A Retrospective at MoMA

Now Showing at MoMA de Kooning: A Retrospective September 18, 2011–January 9, 2012

De Kooning: A Retrospective is an exhibition at MoMA which shows some of the works of Willem de Kooning a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist. It presents a sort of chronological example of the artist's growth in a span of about 70 years. In exhibition you will find de Kooning's famous Women series making present the familiarity de Kooning had with the female body and its movements. There are also paintings like Seated Woman C. 1940 and his well known Pink Angels. c. 1945 (both seen below). I personally liked Woman With Bicycle (also below) for the careless happiness possessed by the woman which he emphasizes by painting twice and its ambiguity when it comes to the bike. The "bike's" simple shapes left many of the visitors I encountered at the museum wondering how to spot it. This ambiguity is fluent in many of de Kooning's paintings.

Woman and Bicycle, 1952–53. Oil on canvas, (194.3 × 124.5 cm)

Seated Woman, c. 1940. Oil and charcoal on masonite 54 1/16 x 36" (137.3 x 91.4 cm)

Pink Angels c. 1945 Oil and charcoal on canvas
52 x 40" (132.1 x 101.6 cm)