My Art-Filled Trip To NYC ❤️
I recently took a trip to New York City— my first time— and I came away so inspired by not only the museums I visited, but also just the shapes and forms of the city. I started my career painting a lot of architectural landscapes, and exploring the endless sea of NYC buildings, high-rises and skyscrapers reminded me of that era from nearly a decade ago.
I was fortunate to visit MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) during my stay, and navigating its spacious rooms and floors meant encountering a who’s who of 19th-20th century art superstars (Rothko, Matisse, Mondrian and Van Gogh were just a few of my favorites). It’s inevitable to feel inspired at such a place, and sure enough, peering out the cafe terrace I snapped a photo of rooftops nearby that I wanted to paint later on. Here is that painting…
I thought it would be difficult to top MoMA, and yet, the following day at The Met (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) did just that. A friend of mine works there, and she was able to guide us around the cavernous museum despite it being closed to the public. If you’ve visited The Met before this is old news, but I was taken aback simply by how huge the museum is. It’s over 2 million square feet! The John Singer Sargent exhibit was the star of the trip for me (Madame X in particular), but his 100 or so pieces on display for Sargent and Paris could honestly be easy to miss nestled among endless rooms of paintings, sculptures and artifacts spread out across wings, floors, halls and whatever other term for “really big space” you can imagine.
There were so many parts that blew me away, and the Astor Chinese Garden Court was one of them. It’s modeled after a Ming Dynasty scholar’s courtyard, and simply put, it’s as joyful and calming a spot that I’ve been in. Sunlight pours in, there’s a koi pond, water sounds and plants growing— really peaceful.
I decided to paint a photo of a rock formation in the courtyard (like I said the lighting was **chef’s kiss**) which honestly perplexed me a bit. It’s objectively an interesting composition, but given the setting, it’s not remarkable considering what else is on the premises. But I think the simplicity is exactly what attracted me to the rock; it reminded me of all the times my kids have handed me rocks they found. At first, my adult brain sort of glosses over—like, okay, neat rock—but if I have the bandwidth, I’ll actually look at it. And when I do, I’m always taken aback by how strange and beautiful they are. Once you really look, rocks are amazing.
That same thing happened here. I was snapping photos of the plants and the space, but this one rock kept pulling my focus. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but later, flipping through my camera roll in the studio, I found myself totally enraptured. The texture, the shape—it was exquisite.
I’m not one to much play the tourist game when I visit new places (I save all my gawking for art museums lol), but with my kids insisting that they absolutely had to see the Statue of Liberty, we took the ferry out to see her. (We also visited the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, a must for anyone making the trip). Lady Liberty is so intertwined with American and New York City iconography, that for me it’s almost too obvious and cliche of a spot to warrant paying money to see, but I’m glad my kids insisted on it. In this current political climate of immigrant persecution and an administration bent on anti-democratic policies, it was quite emotional for me to stand below a massive symbol of acceptance and liberty and justice for all. In my painting of her, I chose to leave in the scaffolding while they repair the structure as a reminder that our country living up to its ideals has always been a work in progress.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
I’m so excited to continue documenting my trip to NYC through more work, including larger pieces to come. Stay tuned!