Labels: Art, Beauty, J's Photos, Simplicity

I walked by the Municipal Building in lower Manhattan last Friday.

Ever walk by something a million times & never know the amazing story that goes with it?

I'd always wondered what statue was up there.

I finally looked it up & came away with a interesting story.



The statue of Civic Fame on top of the Municipal Building was installed in 1913 & is a gilded figure designed by Adolph Weinman. Standing barefoot on a sphere, she wears a flowing dress & a crown of laurels to signify glory.

Audrey Munson(1891-1996) was an American model & actress, she was the model or inspiration for more than 15 statues in New York City including this one.



The model for "Civic Fame", Audrey Munson, had an even harder & more intense life. At the turn of the century she was a supermodel for sculptors and painters. In some sense that yielded a much more permanent record of her than most of today's supermodels will enjoy as there are literally dozens of important sculptures of her in New York City & around the world bearing her likeness. When the movies came about, she became an actress & entered history books as the first known woman to star in a movie fully naked.

Here's
the Wikipedia article (if you want to know more...like geekhead me).
This woman had the most unusual & tragic life. From the height of fame...through a court case involving a doctor who killed his wife to be with her...to entering a mental asylum at the age of 39 where she died at the age of 104.

Labels: Art, Beauty, NYC, Photos

I just got back from the store.

The girl that waited on me was beautiful.

She sort of looked like a younger Denise Richards but without that crazy look.

I asked her what she was doing for Valentine's Day.

I was sure she'd have fabulous plans with her prince of a boyfriend.

She looked very much like what a princess seems like in every Disney story.

She said she was going to have a quiet dinner with her family.

"Any kind of love is good today", my princess said.

I felt her spell taking over me.

I've always had a thing for princesses.

Labels: Beauty, Sweetness

I went to a book/DVD signing today.

Philippe Petit always amazed me (see below)

I mean, I got the chills just looking out the windows of the observatory on the 110th floor of the World Trade Center when I went up there as a kid & I was inside.

This man spent 45 minutes walking on a wire between the 2 towers.

How could I not want to meet him, touch his hand, ask him about fear.

(he gave me a very poetic heartfelt answer that I may share with you another time)



Wednesday, August 7, 1974...at the World Trade Center at 7:15 a.m. to be precise...the city was busy going to work when a man appeared to be walking on air, 1,350 feet above the world, between the two towers of the World Trade Center, whose construction was almost about done by then. It was the famous French daredevil Philippe Petit. He, too, had eluded police with three accomplices for three days, posing as construction workers and shuttling up all the equipment they needed to the top of one of the towers. The evening before the stunt they fired a crossbow from the North Tower to eventually build a 131-foot-long cable between the two towers. The next morning Petit spent forty-five minutes walking back and forth, kneeling, hanging by his feet and playing other games while thousands of people stopped in their tracks and a traffic jam developed below. Construction workers cheered. Office workers cheered. Even the police cheered. Petit himself said he was laughing with joy, up there in the breeze. “I was dying of happiness,” he said. Then he turned himself over to police. His explanation, in his heavily accented French? “If I see three oranges, I have to juggle. And if I see two towers, I have to walk.”





After waiting in line to meet him & have him sign my book & DVD...



He was just as gracious as I thought he'd be.

Labels: Beauty, NYC, Photos

Do I need this?

Tell me I don't (because I don't).

But it's so pretty...oooooh.

Labels: Beauty, Shopping

OPTIMISM What a buy for only $24.95.

AND

So, you don't think pole dancing is funny?

Think again...it is

AND

Art for a Tuesday:



AND

Creative Inspiration

AND

Fun From Hell

AND

Beautiful Faces

Labels: Beauty, Currently, Music, Simplicity

There is an area in the City...New York...if you have your own city & don't know which one I'm referring to here...that my dad mentioned a little while ago. It's a place all the way over on the east side. It comprises an area from 40th street to 43rd street between 1st & 2nd Ave (a block away from the river).

Tudor City is a little hidden away (as much as anything can be hidden away in NY) section of Manhattan that seems to be like a world of it's own. It retains some of the charm of the time it was built.

"Completed in 1928, it consisted of 12 apartment buildings containing 3000 housing units & 600 hotel rooms. The design by the architect H. Douglas Ives & his team was based heavily on the Tudor Style, an architectural style prevalent during the Tudor Dynasty. Characteristic for this style is the brickwork & the application of fine intricate stonework."

My parents met & courted here. They both worked in midtown & would meet for lunches in the gardens of Tudor City. I never heard any of these stories until recently. My mother is not one to talk of her childhood much. So much so, that we sometimes wonder if she actually had one. She never brings up stories like this either & I have no idea why. My father, on the other hand...comes from a line of Irish storytellers (just ask him...if you have LOTS of time to spare).



They'd meet in the warm months on lunch breaks from work. They'd sit in the courtyards of Tudor City & eat pretzels brought on the street or my father would glom down a sidewalk hotdog (probably with everything on it) & chat. My mother is reserved & proper (most of the time) & dressed to the nines. She'd never dream of wearing sneakers or even flat shoes to walk faster on her way in those days. Those were the days of skirts & dresses & pantyhose (the word alone makes me itch).

I can picture them...my mom all pretty in the black & white suit with the cropped jacket & knee length skirt (one of the few things she saved from back then...she let me wear it once to a job interview...such a well made pretty suit...we both can't fit into the 24 inch waist anymore...sheesh...can't even image the damn thing ever fit either of us), & my dad in a dark suit with a skinny tie.

Labels: Beauty, NYC

Four ‘giant’ waterfalls have been created in New York City this summer as part of a public art project designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. One of the waterfalls (shown above) will be constructed beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, while the others will fall from free-standing scaffolding towers on the East river.

“It’s about seeing water in a different way,” Eliasson told a news conference on Wednesday, unveiling plans for the waterfalls, which range in height from 90 to 120 feet...around the same as the Statue of Liberty from head to toe.

Come see my PHOTOS HERE. (Click on slideshow all the way to the right).



I had a great time viewing these waterfalls from a pier at the South Street Seaport & from a boat ride. The change they made to this busy part of the city was calming & beautiful. They made you take time out of your busy day...time to slow down & just enjoy.

Labels: Art, Beauty, NYC, Photos

I'm a big fan art the art of children's books.

The stories most of all...

But also the painterly art of some of them.

You might not know who Tasha Tudor is...

But I guarantee that you've seen some of her illustrations.

If you didn't see some of her art as a child, you've undoubtedly seen it on a calendar or a card.

What drew me to it mostly was the delicacy of her drawings & her intricate borders of trailing flowers. She was also known for her glorious gardens.

In honor of the illustrator & gardener Tasha Tudor, who died in Vermont last week at age 92, here is a favorite quote of hers:

"Life isn't long enough to do all you could accomplish. And what a privilege even to be alive. In spite of all the pollutions and horrors, how beautiful this world is. Supposing you only saw the stars once every year. Think what you would think. The wonder of it."

Wait...I also like this one..."I believe in moderation in all things, except gardening and antique collecting." I'd add a few things to the list...but that's just me...

Labels: Art, Beauty

Yay...the peonies have finally bloomed.



So excited that my irises are boldly lovely this year.



Thrilled the monarchs are back for the summer.

Labels: Beauty, Photos

Did you see it?!

It was (is) stunningly beautiful.

Right now the moon is so high up in the sky...& if I stand in the driveway & look straight up...I see it.

It started out white, then glowed softly yellow & ended up red.

I stood there like an idiot in my pjs out in the cold with the wind going through me & no thoughts of going back for a coat until I was numb...but yeah...it was worth it.

Labels: Beauty