provides a treasure trove of practical techniques and ingenious approaches. In this captivating guide, noted artist
Jane Freeman shows readers, step by step, how to use modified kit components, and found and handmade objects to create intensely detailed miniature constructions.
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March 19, 2008
Midtown, a Nice Place to Visit
It has been a while since I visited Midtown, but today I had a Meeting (think of that) with a Publisher and an Author to discuss the third in a series of books which I have been contracted to illustrate. The Author politely had hinted to “dress up a bit,” for she is familiar with my carefree freelance sartorial ways. I donned something more or less suitable that made me feel strange to myself, even as I felt strange emerging from Grand Central into the misty midst of Midtown Manhattan. The rain accentuated the somber verticality of the corporate buildings. The sky appeared as intermittent strips of silver duct tape. The office to which I was escorted, at the end of a hush-carpet warren, had windows to mirror images of itself: the ubiquitous plaid of granite, brick, glass and steel; the modulated palette of a fine haberdashery; the geometries of any subway grate or certain tessellated marble floors.
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After the Meeting I found a capacious lunch counter on Madison Ave. filled with well-groomed businessmen (in suits color-coded to the skyscrapers), ties flung over their shoulders, uniformly consuming heroic sandwiches and Cokes. I choked on the menu’s Midtown prices. While waiting for my vegetarian chili, I accidentally caught the eye of a William Shatner look-alike in the mirrored wall. He paused mid-sentence (speaking an inscrutable dialect of financese) and without irony apologized for “interrupting my reverie.” “Oh not at all,” I said, just as apologetically. I explained: “It’s been ages since I’ve been in this neighborhood, and I’m taking everything in, like a tourist.” He asked what neighborhood I was generally in. Upon telling him, he said, “Can you recommend a downtown restaurant quiet enough for a meeting?” I suggested Bubby’s. I rarely go there myself, but it’s popular among the well-heeled. The eateries I once infrequently frequented are all closed now, scooped back into empty caverns of valuable raw square footage with exposed wires, the smell of damp clay and the echoey sighs of ghosts. My old haunts probably would have been too modest for Captain Kirk and his Meeting, but Bubby’s would suit.
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Next I went to the Morgan Library. From the elegant shop I bought: (1) a large sheet of wrapping paper patterned with clipper ships (2) two bucolic post cards of cows by Johannes Goedaert (1617-68) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88); (3) notecard facsimiles from illustrated letters by Van Gogh to (a) Gauguin (ink sketch for “The Bedroom in Arles,” 1888) and (b) Emile Bernard (sepia sketch of “The Langlois Bridge,” March 18 [yesterday’s date], 1888); (4) a Wm. Blake card of “Europe: A Prophecy” (1794). This enigmatic little masterpiece shows God squatting literally in the sun, surrounded by the best storm-radiant clouds ever rendered, as he extends his long compass earthward.
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At home, I pinned the sheet of clipper ships above a wainscoted alcove. It looks like a fragment of old wallpaper from a seafarers’ inn. That’s exactly what I think this rickety old building used to be, around the time J.P. Morgan built his Library.
Posted by Jane on March 19, 2008 5:09 PM
Comments
Jane,
Enjoyed reading about your day in Midtown Manhattan! I always feel as if I can smell and hear and see the city when I'm reading your work. I noticed that this overcast day seemed particularly male-cast as well. From the buildings, office decor and diners, to the heroic sandwiches and even your choice of purchases at the museum. Looking forward to a sunny day entry with a more Womanhattan feel!?!
Posted by: Claudia Cassel at March 28, 2008 2:15 PM
