Urban Forest

While walking to work down Market Street the other morning, I came upon this beautiful installation just past 6th Street. In what is an otherwise bleak and fairly depressed area, this little urban oasis brightened my day.

Patrick Dougherty

The other day I was headed into City Hall when I noticed these structures up in the trees right in the plaza. It immediately brought back memories of college in Ann Arbor and how the the same, twisting nest houses greeted me as I entered the Diag, and I could wander my way through them. This time they are up in the trees, floating above the tree line, as if they had fallen out of the sky. I was so happy to see them, almost 15 years later.

Patrick Dougherty has been creating these environmental sculptures since the early 80's, some are more complex than others - I personally love the more simplistic forms - as if they somehow formed themselves.

His latest installation will be found in Connecticut, at the Florence Griswold Museum.

Ernesto NETO

During a visit to Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in Chelsea, I stumbled upon a show by Ernesto Neto that I found really interesting. Neto constructs organic sculptures from interlocking materials such as wood, steel and acrylic. A lycra "skin" is sewn around the entire structure, and makes an almost vertebrate structure, creating a feeling as if you are walking through a large animals stomach. What I enjoyed was the scale, and social interactive nature of the sculpture, where viewers can walk through and experience the work themselves.

Be An Artist

Waterfalls vs. The Gates

This past week in New York I explored The New York City Waterfalls installation by Olafur Eliasson. His series of freestanding waterfalls in the East River is the city's biggest public art project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates". I have to say this project wasn't nearly impressive as The Gates, which I was also lucky enough to witness the opening day of while visiting New York several years back. I guess I do not see enough of a real connection between the art and it's environment in this case.

This particular waterfall is the one under the Brooklyn Bridge (above) - there was one more to the right of it, and another closer to where I was standing (below)


There are 4 different waterfalls which are visible from multiple points around the city, and I took the entire day finding each waterfall for optimal viewing. I'd say the more interesting part of this was the adventure of finding them and interacting with the city, rather than the waterfalls themselves. Although I would have liked to see them when it was dark out... that may have been a bit more impressive.


The Gates had a much bigger impression on me, probably due to the scale of the installation and being able to experience them all at once. Equally impressive was the amount of material that went into the project: 5,390 tons of steel and 9,155 square meters of fabric, which was assembled in a 25,000 square foot Long Island facility, then shipped to Central Park. However, my favorite part of the project was actually the sketches they created, really beautiful.

SOMA lady

It amazes me that people just randomly 'graffiti' our city with these scenes. Never knowing how long it will last, if it will be destroyed in a day or in a year, and probably illegal. But so impressive nonetheless. Under an overpass near my house, we walked past this new little piece of art.

Doze Green

I noticed a new mural the other day while on the corner of Haight & Steiner Streets - The mural on the right was painted by Doze Green, one of my favorite "street artists" - his career started in the subways of New York City in the 7o's. This piece is over 15 feet tall and is said to represent the goddess serving to protect and guide.