Category Archives: Art

At Play in the Land of the Giants

Posted on December 2, 2012 by | 37 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

It started like any other kayak trip.

The night before, we prepared. We made sure we had our paddling equipment (life jackets, spray skirts, tow ropes, pumps and sponges). Navigation gear (compasses, GPS, charts). And clothing: it’s definitely the season for drysuits now, with plenty of insulation underneath. And pogies–can’t forget the pogies! (Pogies are kayaking “mittens” that allow your bare hands to grip the paddle, but simultaneously sheath them in delightfully warm neoprene.) The Jetboil, so we’d be able to make hot coffee during the trip. And food, water, all the usual.

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Posted in Art, Kayaking, Nature

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Halloween Spooktacular 2012

Posted on November 1, 2012 by | 25 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The famous Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village was canceled, or at least postponed, because of Hurricane Sandy. But on the Upper East Side, the Carnegie Hill Neighbors’ second annual “Halloween Spooktacular” block party, held among the elaborate Halloween decorations on East 92nd Street, was even bigger than the first!

A few highlights:

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Posted in Art, New York City, Society

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Portraits of Scariness

Posted on November 1, 2012 by | 24 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Elsewhere, it might have been quite enough that this big scary thing was going to join the party.

But on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, people take their Halloween very seriously.

No mere hurricane was going to restrain their Halloween decorations!

Here are a few highlights:

Click on one of these photos to start a slideshow:

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I think these portraits qualify, too, as an appropriate response to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week, Spooky…

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Posted in Art, New York City

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Travel Theme: Spooky

Posted on October 26, 2012 by | 46 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Ailsa’s Travel-Themed photo challenge this eek is Spooky.

This is still an old photo, from Halloween 2011. But I will head out any day now to take fresh photos of this year’s Halloween decorations that are now cropping up in our neighborhood. It should be a spooky Halloween this year…

… unless of course Hurricane Sandy spooks us out first. Current forecasts have it arriving in New York City precisely on Halloween!

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Posted in Art, New York City, Photography

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Just Hanging Out in New Orleans

Posted on October 22, 2012 by | 34 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Most architectural sculptures work hard at their jobs.

Caryatids carry things on their heads….

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… atlants bow down under the weight of entire facades

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… even gargoyles make themselves useful when it rains

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But these guys are just hanging out, shooting the breeze…

What was the sculptor thinking? Any ideas?

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Humor

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

Posted on June 22, 2012 by | 50 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Create.

And these two did create quite an impression!

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Posted in Art, Photography, Society

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In Memoriam

Posted on April 22, 2012 by | 28 Comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

The old World Trade Center…

It was the posters that finally made it real.

Everyone has a 9/11 story. Mine isn’t all that exceptional. I was in Midtown Manhattan that morning, preparing for a sales trip to New Jersey. I’d been awake since about 2 AM, working on a project for work.

… and the new World Trade Center

When the sirens first started, I didn’t think much of it. At least at first. But they kept going… and going… and going. Finally I looked out of the window and saw the column of smoke rising into the clear pale-blue air—and realized something serious was going on.

Then I turned on the TV and saw what everyone else did: the smoke, the helicopters, the collapse of the towers one by one.

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Posted in Architecture, Art, Culture, Life, New York City, Society

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

Posted on March 31, 2012 by | 41 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Arranged: “… find something in your environment which was arranged by a human hand …”

Hmmm…. how about a human hand arranged?

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Posted in Art, Culture, Photography

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Christmas Tree Light, The Old-Fashioned Way

Posted on December 27, 2011 by | 38 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

At this season, there are Christmas trees everywhere you look in the city, in stores, banks, apartment building lobbies. Most are only superficially decorated, standing under bright lights which reveal all there is to see at one glance, mere abstractions of the idea of the Christmas tree…

To me, a proper Christmas tree should be large, dark, mysterious, and excessive, full of possibilities. No doubt this is some Proustian attempt to recapture the Christmas trees of my childhood. I remember that Christmas trees were so much bigger then, with spreading branches that allowed glimpses into the dark interior where all kinds of ornaments glinted in the soft candlelight. (Many of the ornaments were wrapped candies that I hunted for in the days after Christmas…)

So, now that I have to be my own Santa Claus, a few rules: No artificial trees—it has to be a fragrant, real tree. As large as possible. Richly decorated. And above all, lit not by artificial Christmas lights, but by the unique, unmistakable glow of real candles!

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Posted in Art, Culture, Life

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Art At, On, and In the Water: The Marine Art of New York Harbor

Posted on November 27, 2011 by | 9 Comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Now that New York City is once again embracing its waterways, all manner of the city’s activities are spilling over into the harbor—and that includes the city’s art. As I kayak around the harbor, I can’t help but notice the number of works of art that don’t stop at the water’s edge, but plunge right in…

Here are a few examples. In some cases, they use for their effect their location at the interface between land and water. In more extreme cases, they can only be appreciated, indeed can only have been created, from a boat on the water…

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Posted in Art, Culture, Kayaking, New York City

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