My friend Nancy and I were spending an afternoon strolling around SoHo and Nolita, and we spied these flyers posted on a wall. The quote “Shop Less, Think More” is credited to Vivienne Westwood, and the more densely written blue flyer lists a few fashion-related affirmations:
I took this picture through a bus window on a rainy day, so it’s not especially sharp. But this graffiti made me smile, and I wanted to capture it and share it.
I don’t know why this graffiti in the Herald Square subway station made me laugh. Maybe the chalk-on-black-wall medium reminded me of Keith Haring’s early subway drawings. I’m not even sure whether this gadget is meant to be a cash register or a cell phone or something else. Is it a warning against commercialism? Is it a statement about our 24-7 plugged-in mentality? Is it a private message left by one individual for another? Is it just some contemporary form of “carpe diem“? One thing is for certain: I can’t depend on it being there when I return tomorrow.
Image: photo by Tinsel Creation.
When I’m walking through the streets around Times Square, I tend to keep moving as quickly as I can, while focusing on my destination rather than my actual surroundings. If you’ve been anywhere near Times Square over the past decade or two, you’ll understand.
One afternoon, however, I was forced to wait for a traffic light to change, and as I stood on the corner of Broadway and 46th Street, I did something that New Yorkers often forget to do: I looked up.
Continue reading “On the Street: I. Miller, “The Show Folks Shoe Shop” of Times Square”
I was doing some research at the New York Public Library’s main reference branch yesterday, and when I left the library and crossed the street, I spotted this mural. It’s painted on a pair of doors off to the side of the Andaz Fifth Avenue, a hotel that I’d never really noticed before.
The painting is signed by artist Aimee Cavazzi. I looked her up when I got home and learned that she is “artist in residence” at the Andaz. She painted this work just a few weeks ago, and she says,
“I would take the train in the spring time and early summer as a young teenager and felt, just as the picture depicts, inspired, overwhelmed and in awe of the immensity and intensity of the city.”
I know what she means, and I’m glad I still feel the same way in New York sometimes: energized, happily astonished, percolating with ideas, drawing inspiration from my surroundings.
You can see some photos of Cavazzi (and her students!) at work on the mural here.
Image: photo by Tinsel Creation.
