The Good, The Bad and The ArtFULL

FRIEZE ART FAIR
 

Randall's Island

Some people said the tent was amazing, some the art.  I found the mix of people most arresting.  Instead of bumping arms with hermes bags, converse sneakers outnumbered anything designer .  Sipping coffee, drinking wine, munching on croissants, eating pizza, guzzling beer, pushing baby carriages, chatting with friends and talking about art was the Frieze vibe.

I  watched the tent go up.  I knew it was 3 football fields long, still I could not feel the vastness of it until inside.  Walking to the end of one aisle was a work out in itself and then it was time to turnaround and head back down in the another endless direction.

Even though I think the whole book thing is dead, not at Frieze.   Art books of popular and little known publishers, plus limited editions were selling.

And of course there was the people watching

At Frieze, no one spoke in a a hushed tone.  More state fair than art fair, Frieze was a New York moment; as vibrant as a city sidewalk at rush hour.  Maybe this is the way ART is meant to be experienced.

Mabel in Wonderland

Mabel's Adventures

 IN WONDERLAND

Chateau de Lacaze
May 6 - 30, 2012

Lacaze is in the Southeast Tarn department of France. 

  www.mabelodessey.com. 

Shameless commerce division:
DISCLAIMER FIRST:  Mabel Odessey is my sister.

I look for any reason to go to France and visit my sister, who lives in a remote village in the southwestern part of the country.  Even though Mabel lives in an isolated location,  this has not affected her ability to constantly create new cutting-edge work.  Mabel's shows are not just photographs on a wall.  They are installations.   In her current show, Mabel is giving each guest a chance to go down the rabbit hole.

From the Lewis Carroll Society of North America:  "Before there was Instagram, people used chemical emulsifying processes to make their photographs look cool. An American artist named Mabel Odessey will have a site-specific installation at France’s Château de Lacaze from May 6 thru 30th, using the distinctly retro technique of pinhole photography.

" I was immediately captivated by the many levels on which the narrative functions.  The challenge of photographing a dream world was very exciting.  Perception, time and identity are at the core of both the books and my photographic work.  My objective was to evoke the atmosphere rather than to illustrate particular scenes."

Mabel Odessey 
This is part of an article by Mabel Odessey that will be featured in the Spring 2012 Knight Letter number 88, available to LCSNA members.  

Not a member of the Lewis Carroll society, I have to ask my sister to send me a copy. 

All photographs are copyright Mabel Odessey 2012.
No usage without permission.

This is NEW YORK!

DATELINE:  RANDALL'S ISLAND
TIME:  10.38 AM
CALL OVER LOUDSPEAKER:  Package for Phyllis.  Making noise.

I consider myself lucky, some of the time.  We took a page out of an old playbook and made a bed for our new babies in my file cabinet. It's a bit crowded as a temporary home, but as Fred, one of crew members said, "after all it's New York.  Everybody lives in a small space".

I am sure after awhile the sound of chirping might drive me crazy, but right now, it's the sound of life that puts a smile on my face.

The chickens are will soon find their home on our Urban Farm, called The Learning Garden, Randall's Island.  We feel the same mild anxiety about naming our chickens as one might feel about naming a baby.  Yes, it seems just as momentous.  Some of suggestions have run to the retro:  WALTER, some to rock'n roll: YOKO: some to a possible Hispanic origin:  SOBACO and lastly, one of the crew likes a simple name like TONY.  His own name, James is one syllable word.

I love all our baby chicks, no matter their name.  This might change as they grow.  Today, it's a pleasure to have them next to me.

FYI: My name is CABOT

Envisioning
a Great Perfection
A Garden Conservancy
Tribute to FRANK CABOT
 April 30, 2012 - New York Botanical Garden

"It would be heartening if at least one member of each generation came to know and love plants in their infinite variety so that the garden's growing element was perpetually refreshed and reinvigorated by an enthusiast's hand."

A young woman puts change in a public phone booth in London and calls Frank Cabot.  She asks to speak to Mr. CABEAU.  After a brief conversation, he offers her a plane ticket, place to stay and a position as a gardener.  Before hanging up: "FYI, it's CABOT. "
- recounted by Caroline Burgess, Director of Stonecrop

After two hours of tributes, it was clear that Caroline Burgess' story was apocryphal. Frank Cabot's generosity to gardeners was legendary.  He came from a patrician American family, but did not follow the expected path. His life as an investment banker, was overtaken by his passion for plants.

I was lucky to  meet Frank Cabot at his home, Les Quatre Vents (The Four Winds) in La Malbaie, Canada.  I knew who Cabot was:  knew how to pronounce his name:  knew he had founded The Garden Conservancy and given his home, Stonecrop to it,  he had saved the Ruth Bancroft Garden in California: knew he was a passionate plant collector. 

What I didn't know was that Frank Cabot would be on his knees in the garden with trowel in his hand. This was the Frank Cabot everyone remembered.

His son, Colin gave the most personal view of Frank Cabot.  With good humor, Colin gave an example of his father's autocratic nature. Camping trips were de rigeur, but they were not ordinary.  The making of biscuits, drinking of good wine and baking the occasional birthday cake were standard.  

Colin informed us that every family celebration ended with Frank Cabot reciting these verses from Candide.

Let dreamers dream
What worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers,
The fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.

ENSEMBLE (a cappella)
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow.
And make our garden grow!
 
Frank Cabot made all our gardens grow.

WAKEFULNESS: Jon Cotner

"In many ways writing is like a city; there is structure and there are rules, but often beauty comes from improvisation within this framework."
Jon Cotner

"Knows his way, stops seeing." 
Korean proverb
"Wake up as much as possible."
Antonio Machado

"Even an ant crawling by makes its mark"
Korean proverb

A WALK WITH JON COTNER
Recreation is a new interactive walk designed by Jon Cotner. 
To celebrate National Landscape Architecture Month as well as the legacy of Frederick Law Olmstead.

For me, a quintessential Sunday afternoon in the Big Apple, usually means a walk.  This Sunday was a "ramble" with Jon Cotner.  We met at the Southeast corner of the Sheep Meadow, introduced ourselves and briefly stretched before beginning our impending adventure.  Jon gave us a brief intro to Olmstead's intentions in creating the park.  Was the park still an escape from the urbanity and work related "ennui?"

In a clear unpretentious way, Jon elaborated on the meaning of ramble:  amble, perambulate, meander, wander, stroll, saunter, promenade and walk. 

"What I have observed in the Sheep Meadow:  kissing, tumbling, sleeping, sitting, biking, eating, talking, hugging, petting, reading, kite flying, sunbathing, talking, yelling, mediating, etc.etc, etc."

We rambled through the Sheep Meadow for 15 minutes observing the expected and unexpected and 
regrouped at the Northwest corner of the Park.  Jon asked what we had observed? 
Claudia "Two girls were pushing each other and I thought perhaps that one was going to hurt the other, but then one of the girls said, "the tree is the jail." 

We picked up the pace and sauntered over to the rollerskating dancers.  Hugh(one of the participants) had taken off his shoes during the walk in the Sheep Meadow and continued to walk barefoot on stone, brick, cobblestone, dirt, asphalt, etc. I thought that it was incredible gutsy and trusting.  His walk became a sensory experience for his feet.  At the end of our journey "I have felt the different temperatures of the all the materials we have walked over".

As a visual person,  I try to be  mindful when I walk or visit any place.  Strolling around Central Park with Jon, listening to his riff, was a little bit like being with Thoreau or Socrates or one of those guys that philosophize about the MEANING of seeing.  Jon's banter was a little more bookish than twitter.  He is a poet.  Comparing the blowing of spring blossoms to a snow storm is definitely the verbiage of a literary mind. 

Our group parted at  Belvedere Castle, a popular look-out point in Central Park.  And as one of the walkers pointed out, when you hear "the weather in Central Park is..." that forecast is coming from Belvedere Castle. 

Over the course of a hour, Jon expanded on  Olmstead as an artist of views and how carefully Olmstead had created all  parts of Central Park with an eye to hiding the street, the buildings, the traffic.  The Park is all about creating a space away from urban life. 

That space is still there, still intact, still a refuge, still a destination on a Sunday afternoon.  It's the STILLness that's hard to find.  I believe that stillness must be found in one's mind.

______________________________________________________________________
Jon does not have a website.  How you find out what is doing I am not sure.  He did tell us he is doing a walk in Battery Park as part of the River to River Festival.  He will also be doing a walk during the summer at Fire Island from dawn to dusk.  Ten Walk/Two Talks is a book Jon wrote with his friend Andy Fitch.  Jon teaches at the Pratt Institute's Creative Writing Program.