Category Archives: Art

Portraits of Scariness

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

Travel Theme: Spooky

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!

Just Hanging Out in New Orleans

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?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Create

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Create.

And these two did create quite an impression!

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In Memoriam

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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Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

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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Christmas Tree Light, The Old-Fashioned Way

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

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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Ghosts, Goblins, Superheroes, and Pricesses Dance on the Upper East Side: A Photoessay

By Vladimir Brezina

Halloween. But I was stuck at home working. It was clear I wasn’t going to make it to the Halloween Parade in the Village this year.

But around 5 p.m., unusual sounds from the street below began to penetrate my concentration. I discerned excited voices, children’s squeals, and then—the beat of dance music!

When I emerged to take a look, I found that my block of 92nd Street, between Madison and Park Avenues, had been blocked off and the First Annual Carnegie Hill Halloween Block Party was in full swing!

It was mostly for children. Little ghosts, goblins, skeletons, witches, dragons, tigers, superheroes, knights in armor, princesses, pumpkins, bananas, cobwebbed barrels and even tubs of popcorn, some young enough to be held in arms by their parents who clearly were having just as much fun, cavorted in the street. A little later there was a tiny parade, and prizes were awarded for best costumes. Then, the main business of the evening: trick-or-treating from house to house. Many houses in that block have for days been festooned with their own cobwebs, giant black spiders, and grinning skeletons in anticipation.

Here are a few photos.

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Dance Your Ph.D.

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

It’s the question every science graduate student dreads:  “So, what’s your Ph.D. research about?” You take a deep breath and begin. People’s eyes glaze over…

The problem isn’t that your life’s work is uninteresting. It’s that the conventional way to explain it can be limiting:  Words can only get so far.  What if there were a better way to tell your story? Something like…  interpretive dance!

The first “Dance Your Ph.D.” contest was organized in 2008 by John Bohannon, the “Gonzo Scientist” of GonzoLabs and a contributing correspondent covering the intersection of science, culture, and art for Science magazine (“who, in true gonzo style, will participate in the events he covers”). Since then, the contest has become an annual event sponsored by Science. For the 2011 contest, 55 dances were submitted “covering everything from psychology to astrophysics,” and the winners have just been announced.

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