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.

It always amazes me ..and not necessarily in a good way…how the cable jungle transpires. On that note on my way home from the gym last week I saw a truck had snapped off low hanging cables and people came running out of the house because they lost power, internet, cable…who knows what. If you like for some line inspiration in your artwork …well there you go.

Sunset a gorgeous look of Jersey City, Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty.

My friends Dan and Alicia and their band -Forget the Whale had a great concert at Lincoln Park. it was a wonderful treat to see them there – they are really good.

A building that is abandoned and dear to my heart – you can see pieces of the floor – makes me really sad. No I wasn’t in the building but a friend did a tour where you could look through a side window. I am sure next time these pieces are gone – either broken or stolen – like the rest of the building.

Another gorgeous view of Manhattan – it is summer and so there is a lot of biking and hanging out in parks.

I was super excited that we finally got our custom made pocket shutters. They were missing in our front windows and they are so practical and amazing. they fold back into a pocket of the window trim and are hidden and look like part of the paneling. It was so sad that they were just open gaps. Little fun snippet: The company who made them for us also did some staging of shutters for The Gilded Age on HBO. Such a small company!

Looks so good!!! The wood will darken a bit of course. It took a whole day to fit them in because nothing is straight in an old house – and that’s why we love it ;)

Little street art action in Jersey City

I took my friend Sandra to see some of the murals

Amazing, isn’t it?

Speaking of my friend Sandra, she came from Germany for 10 days – a trip that had been postponed for the past two years and it was such a great time. And because she is rocks wallpapering …we wallpapered a wall in her guest room. It was super fun…and super hard…again …no wall in our house is straight. LOL. But the result is awesome.

Do you see the hidden message? “Be a better human and spread love”

Awesome exhibition at Deep Space Gallery- we called up and were all by ourselves seeing some really cool artwork including those gems by Citty Kitty who finds the always super confusing NYC Metro Service posters and creates commentary art on them …sometimes even hangs them back LOL.

We bought 5 for our long hallway and are still laughing – it is hard to grasp I think if you do not see them close up but here are some.

The one on the right that says Update was just an empty poster and the cats say “Uhh…There’s no Update” and ” I hate Updates” . Check his instagram out – love the humor.

That was it for this month – see you next month again for another stroll through the hood.

Nat

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.

We found this astounding instrument made in our neighbor city Hoboken in an Antique Store – it is a Ukelin – a mixture of violin and a ukulele. “Ukelins were sold to people under the impression that the instrument was easy to play, but this was not the case.” (No joke man.. I can tell from just looking at it LOL) “They were also quite limited as to what they were capable of playing because they were designed as diatonic instruments. As a result, many instruments were returned to the manufacturers, who ended up with piles of instruments that they couldn’t sell. Salesmen misrepresented the instruments to customers, who felt as if they had been tricked into buying a worthless instrument.”

Well – we give it a home …it is fun to look at

When you sit on your stoop you sometimes have to look up

I found this cute little glass bottle on the right in our yard it is from around 1890-1900 and was a glue bottle – so interesting LOL- and of course…also a keeper.

succulents …this red one is so pretty- let’s hope it will survive me

Wherever you look you find some little treasures.

And this sign made me really laugh “They earned eternity in a little hour and are not dead” TROLL…I mean, if this is not the original troll I do not know.

This is one of the few know remaining gas street lanterns now on a private property. Very cool.

We found a really nice art deco spice jar set for our old possum belly bakers cabinet in the kitchen- love it.

And I finish with the obligatory view from Liberty State Park. Until next month for a new Stroll my friends!

Nat

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 love my new art deco floor lamp – the colors just make me happy – also green and yellow- a combination to use a bit more often for me.

We found an overmantel that fits great onto our fire place and I love it.

This is one of the oldest houses here in Jersey City – it is from 1740 – it is a little gem.

Lovely view of Manhattan from Riverview Park – we went up their for the Farmers Market and I always love having a little bite for lunch while sitting on a bunch and taking in the view and then do some veggie shopping.

Look at this magnificent facade!!!

Love this little colorful house – the muted green, pink, rost red, and yellow is a fun combination.

Of course Liberty State Park is back on the after-work-bike-ride

As you can tell Lady Liberty is exhausted and needs a bit of a rest – I cannot blame her

This street is just lovely with all it’s brick buildings but I also really love the blue stone-brick sidewalk!

Old Cigar manufacturing building with some graffiti.

Bobby Pretzel and Mingus enjoying our new stair runner. We had this one made by a small company in Pennsylvania – Family Herloom Weavers . What an amazing company! From dying the yarn to the yarn entered into the loom and then being woven, we received videos and photos along the process. The family owned business is doing all kinds of period carpets for museums (for example the Emily Dickinson Museum) and has done work for a lot of TV shows too (think The Guilded Age). I cannot overstate how amazing the quality and customer service was and the price was more than reasonable.

We joined 4000 other bicyclists for the annual Ward tour through Jersey City. It was super fun!

Picked up some art work at Mana Contemporary- always love this building.

And attended an Open House at the Apple Tree House – also from 1740 – which is hopefully becoming the new Jersey City Museum. Look at the amazing medallion! The house may have been the site of a meeting between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette in 1779 and has been used for decades as a funeral home, then fell almost apart and finally was restored in 2006. I really hope the Mayor will keep his promise and we will have a City Museum again and in this building.

That was it until next month – hope you enjoyed the little stroll :)

Nat

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.

It is a late spring here but we are enjoying some time on our stoop with the newly restored banister. I love sitting on the stoop- you meet all kinds of wonderful neighbors including Alvin how walks up and down the block every day to collect trash because as he says “You gotta stay human and we have to be good to ourselves.” Thank you Alvin- you are a treasure!

Loving this Queen Anne house and the magnolia tree – icing on the cake. The soft colors of blue, yellow and pink …yum!

Meanwhile in the studio – someone is really helpful …

Those two Queen Anne Houses on our street are also amazing – I love the right one for all its amazing wood shingle applications – the wavy pattern in the triangle is my fave. The Blue house on the left has an open Turret – so fun!

Such a great building and brick work and my favorite thing about it of course is the old shop sign and the font.

Hello texture and hello gorgeous! The color combo is also intriguing …the different shades of grey and white and the muted red – very inspiring.

How cool is this iron work and also …it is the most beautiful and smart protection guard i have seen so far! Safety but not for the price of making it look like a prison.

I feel watched!

The Liberty Park Nature Center finally reopened after it was basically destroyed in Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Loved seeing those Kindness Stones all around it in the park.

Low tide – always gives the illusion you could just walk over to Manhattan

We took a little bike tour through the park and explored the old Bay View cemetery as well. It was established in 1848 and holds the graves of many mayors and important historic family members of the city and it also holds a Jewish Burial ground. It is in really rough shape which is pretty sad.

Some people might find it weird but I have always found cemeteries very peaceful and beautiful places …

Finishing the stroll through the hood with this magic picture …I love spring :)

Hope you enjoyed the little stroll – see you next time!!

Nat

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.

The front yard got spruced up… it was a bit of a mess with a ripped tarp all over, roots and garbage and some prickly sad plants. We planted our Maple tree PJ2 which hopefully will thank us for getting out of the pot after two years and we left some space for the plants to spread out …The birdbath was left from the previous renters and is plastic…I am on the hunt for a nice new one…but one step at a time.

Also happy to hang those vintage treasures for the Easter Holiday. In Germany it is tradition to Easter eggs form branches…those are fake pussy willows I have to admit though …I find it hard to find them here in the city …I guess because it is not such a big tradition to have them in your vases around spring.

I am so excited that this poor house is being restored and it is getting a new beautiful fence …I will def. walk by often to check on the progress.

Not my poop – in case you were really wondering hahaha. I am curious about the story here …so much to unpack I think LOL. I also need to walk by again to see if that is a continuing story …

I love these simple art deco apartment buildings with this really beautiful blue decoration on top.

Left over gate part from a long gone house I guess…I love that someone decided to leave it at least ..it is like a little nudge to find out what came before right there.

Another interesting renovation project- this old house facade is nice but in a really bad shape, it made me wonder that someone would tear down the hole house behind but go to lengths to keep the facade …and then I learned that you get a renovation loan if you just keep the facade in the front …it is not a new building …go figure…well…at least it will have a beautiful restored facade I assume alas the rest of the house is probably another box without any charm.

And if you do not know it by now…I am in Jersey City …aka Jersey City Tough …aka Peacock Nation. For my international readers- sorry – it was March Madness which is a time in March when Collages are playing Basketball single eliminating against each other in a short period of time . Our tiny St. Peter’s University team which was given no hope or chance beat some pretty tough teams and went further than any team ranked that badly before. The University itself is a Jesuit University with about 3000 students, here in my neighborhood and it was a huge deal for them and a huge deal for our city. I have never seen our city so united and happy about something.

The guys got a parade and all the neighboring schools participated. It was wonderful to see all the school kids being so happy …we needed this after the pandemic. It was a great afternoon.

This guy was super sweet- his siblings both went to St. Peter’s and I forgot how the Wrestling was connected to his siblings but he want all out and asked us very nicely if we could take a picture of him in his gear in front of the Sign and well known Student Pub. Not all heroes wear capes but some do.

Spring in the dining room. I really love how this room turned out- it is an eclectic mix of time periods and colors and had fun putting it together.

Love this sign and the font – I wonder how old this is. In any event …it is a sign that this has been a corner store for a long long time.

Hope you enjoyed the little stroll, see you next month for a new neighborhood walk :)

Nat