Sunday, October 5, 2008

Chill Out

Brrrrr.  4serious.  The weather has been in the 40s and 50s for the past few days and, consequently, I've been wearing more clothes in one day than I normally do in a week.  At work on Thursday, as I was peeling away layers and layers of raiment, one of my co-workers snickered and chided, "Oh, honey.  You just wait.  It's not even winter yet."  Thanks, I thought as I tried to emancipate my arm from a cardigan sleeve.  I can't wait. 

 In other news, the semester is proceeding quite fleetingly, and I'm counting down the days until my thesis topic is due.  The prospect of researching and writing one infinitely-long paper over the next two years is more than a little daunting.  I was reading Overheard in New York the other day and someone posted that they were at a party where a straggled-looking, bloodshot, twentysomething girl was stealthily swiping cupcakes from the table, wrapping them in napkins, and stuffing them into her purse.  The onlooker caught her eye and queried, "Grad student?"  The girl slowly nodded as she continued stashing cupcakes.  "Been there," responded the onlooker.  So this is what I have to look forward to: Two years of cupcake-swiping, thesis-writing, and general bloodshottedness.  Eh, so far, my caffeine intake has increased exponentially, but other than that, I'm not too worried.  Yet.
Internships are going well.  The Joan Mitchell Foundation is pretty awesome; it's on the 
fifteenth floor of the Chelsea Arts Tower (in the picture) and has a sweet office space that's all windows overlooking the Hudson, and plushy velvet cushions and artwork puzzles and huge iMacs.  They also have an espresso machine, which, I must admit, secured my affinity toward the foundation.  My tasks include but are not limited to:  anything and everything that no one else wants to do.  Occasionally, I'll get to go shopping for art supplies and last week I got to make some architectural models out of foam core which was actually kind of really fun.  The rest of the week, I'm at Sundaram Tagore which is INSANE.  I have this little desk in the corner, surrounded by boxes and stacks of paper up to the ceiling.  There's no way to tell what time of day it is outside of my paper cell, and I can't tell you how often I have to yell to get someone's attention.  It's only temporary, though.  Thank goodness.
That said, I enjoy my downtime.  I woke up early and walked around downtown in the financial district the other morning which definitely added to my stress level.  I got to take some great pictures on the water, though, in between being bludgeoned by briefcases.

Other than that, I'm trying to keep up with all of the shows at the (more than 350) galleries in Chelsea.  My favorite right now is an exhibition of Derek Buckner's Marshmallow paintings at George Billis Gallery. 
October is a busy month, and I'll keep updating.  Enjoy any glorious autumn weather you encounter, for we New Yorkers are already wearing itchy wool socks and long underwear.  (Or, we new New Yorkers, anyway.)  
Putting the 'arg' in 'argyle',
Ariel  
REL graffiti!

2 comments:

AUNT said...

It is about time. It was 77degrees here and we closed the pool down. Roxy was pretty bummed out but so was I. Summer just went so quick. Have you ever seen any movie stars? I always read about this one and that one living there. Sure do miss you.

Echomino's Family said...

I love the marshmallow painting. I would never imagine any one thinking , "Well, I guess I will paint some marshmallows today." Everything looks amazing. I hope you are having a blast.