Stroll Through The Hood

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

I don’t know what happened but our fig tree in the garden that never yielded in more than one fig a year is on steroids this year. I am not exaggerating to say I had about a 100 figs at least- the picture above is just one day’s harvest. My favorite way to eat them is sprinkled with feta cheese and then baked in the oven …nom nom nom – so good as a side with all kinds of things. That being said – I really hope next year will be another fig year :)

I got a lot of messages about the flooding after the storm a couple weeks ago. It was terrible- but we personally have no damage – we had some water in the basement – but many of our neighboring businesses and friends and family have not fared too well. It is heart breaking to see people being displaced and all the personal belongings on the side of streets. Many places in the city that never flooded before were flooded and given the fact that this is going to be a more occurring phenomenon in the future, I hope we all are doing more to change our behaviors to do our part regarding Climate Change. It is real !

After the storm due to water problems we had a 4 day water boil advisory in place. Another terrible side effect of such storms. Throughout the city were some of those water “thimbles” and stations to get bottled water. In such an event you realize how privileged we are with our clean water …never have to think about it when washing our food, brushing teeth, giving it to our pets etc. I am not complaining – I am just saying it is a humbling experience and we were again lucky, at least one county in NJ (Passaic) had a boil water advisory for at least 2 weeks in place.

I am never getting tired of this view when biking down to Liberty Park.

I left a little mailbox in the park – I am not sure if someone found it and wondered what the heck this is, but it makes me smile to think someone did – maybe a kid – that would be cool. I know I would have delighted in finding this as a kid :)

In cat news …Mingus is being hilarious as always …He loves the banister and railing – we do not like that too much as we are afraid one day he is gonna fall badly.

Bobby Pretzel loves being on my desk- sometimes trying to interrupt me while working on my computer. He is sleeping next to my keyboard as I am typing and if you watch any of my webinars ArtCollab or Spill your heART, he is 90% of the times also right next to me then :)

another ride in the park – this one was a little fall indicator before it got crazily hot again.

Mushroom galore!

Loved seeing some life jazz music on this corner …It is funny how it really changes the mood of people when they walk by and then stop in their tracks and enjoy some life music.

Some new murals! This one is by Distoart , he always amazes me.

“This one is for the workers that built the tunnels.
This one is for Gene from DPW.
This one is for the David’s throwing rocks at Goliath.
This is for those rocks mined from the tunnels being the ones that smash the windows of Kushner’s skyscraper.
This one is a reminder that the truth always wins.”

Insanely and amazing huge mural by Mona Caron –

“Shauquethqueat’s Eutrochium. A so-called Joe Pye weed, (not a weed but a native wildflower here), rises with the sun, facing off the skyline across the Hudson. A vision of Nature winning, of plants being the ones towering over us for a change, putting us back in our place. May we learn. May they come back.”

Hope you enjoyed this stroll through the hood. See you next month for another one :)

Nat