Hooray for NYC winter wonderland yesterday. It's really too bad the snow is all smooshy and unbeautiful immediately. It was very difficult to shoot, I needed some sort of all-weather cover for my camera. But I enjoyed the creative energy of all these artists working on snow sculptures in McCarren Park. I peered through a plastic bag and lifted it in order to make the exposure. That did not stop the snow from getting all over the lens. Ahhh, who needs straight photography anyway?
I did not finish my story from now, gasp, TWO days ago. I know everyone's dying to hear it. At last week's X Initiative, BYOA, show (that's Bring Your Own Art), New York Magazine art critic Jerry Saltz flitted about, giving quickie critiques to anyone who would subject themself to it — as long as they were his friend on Facebook. I'd never heard about this, "Be Jerry Saltz's friend on Facebook" thing, although it is apparently a "thing." Before I even saw him giving the critique, a friend of a friend was gushing about it as we wandered the show. And then, we bumped into his group.
Personally, I am not too impressed by celebrity. When you examine my attitude, what I am is a recovering hater. But, as I watched the man give his critique, I was impressed. He had so much energy, and even though he was being rough on the guy, I felt like it was the kind of roughness I could maybe take. He was constructive, he was enthusiastic, even in his criticism he seemed supportive. He projected that he actually wanted the guy to make good work. Mr. Saltz did not emit the airs of a "too cool for school," pretentious New York art worlder. So, when he asked if someone had work nearby to look at, I raised my hand.
He asked if I were his Facebook friend, and I held out my iPhone and said that I was trying to become one, right at that moment. He grumbled but walked over to my photograph. And then he made my night. "Now, this is actually a very nice photograph. It's mysterious and working to present a timeless scene. And yet, the subject's costume is very much in the present, which makes the work feel modern." Or something like that.
I was so excited. Almost nothing lifts my heart more than a compliment on my work, work that it seems I have to fight to even find time to make. I watch people get compliments on their work every day, but I have not gotten my work out there enough to even know what the world would think of it. To have received validation from such an authority, I felt genuinely encouraged.
So, my night was made and I partied on with my friends, infused with my own private giddiness. The world is not necessarily so forbidding. The artist's life continues.
