A long weekend in NewYork City during the opening of the art season resulted in miles and miles on my step tracking app. The Gagosian Gallery's Roy Lichtenstein Green Street mural reconstruction was a gift to see, the accompanying images by Roy showed how he used icons of American advertising to develop paintings and find graphics for his work. A marble notebook in a showcase was open to pages scotchtaped with newspaper line drawings for ads to buy mixers, luggage, home products and furniture. 
Stepping into the Shepard Fairey show at Jacob Lewis Gallery was an adventure in itself, packed with people on two floors. Fortunately they were all chatting so I was able to see most of his controversial art, some of it displayed salon style. Laurene Buckley and I wondered which one in the crowd was Fairey so I looked him up on Google images. As his face appeared on my phone, he walked towards us, turned 180' and walked away, smiling, as he saw what we were doing. A moment later he watched us through the gallery office window, I think I saw a smirk and a wink. Wearing a crisp blue oxford shirt with carefully turned sleeves and dress dockers, he wasn't quite what we expected. Neither did he fit into the crowd of hip city folk in edgy fashions and attitude. I went home with a few 'Obey Giant' stickers to share in WNY.
Much of the work at this exhibit was directed at corporate America, in particular oil barons and waste producing unhealthy products. THe litho plates were mounted, along with prints, paintings and embellished works of the same images, most of it in the red/black/warm color schemes of this work. Loved the show!
So, the weekend also included revisiting the 'Sargent and Friends' exhibition at the Met and MOMA's Picasso sculptures, a few other galleries, lots of walking and meeting artist friends and ended with packing my solo show of ocean, jetty and water scenes in Long Beach, where they have been hanging for the last three weeks. 15 paintings, carefully packed, fit into my big leather carryall and I was able to squeeze it through the security lines at JFK as a carry on. Did I mention how much I love this job?
