WE SPY: BEAUTIFYING NYC, EACH IN OUR OWN WAY

New York City, she's a canvas and there are times when she must be embellished with new architecture, people, language and with art; which can take many forms. Mostly, the kid and I take note of the stencilers and graffiti artists. We love the rawness of this type street art. Neck Face and Jim Joe being our favorites. It has become a modern family car trip game if you will, I spy Neck Face!

Terry Richardson Stencil

And then there are the more controlled art adornments like The High Line's Landscape in Path, guest curated by Joel Sternfeld and pictured below is the final installment with Darren Almond’s Fullmoon@The North Sea and it's stunning to see in person.

Darren Almond’s Fullmoon@The North Sea (25-by-75 foot billboard next to the High Line at West 18th Street)

On 57th between 1st and 2nd Avenue there's a Whole Foods under construction, opening Summer 2012, a welcome addition to that neighborhood, to be sure. On view along the scaffolding wall is Nowhere in Manhattan an ongoing project by New York City based artist Matthew Jensen.

Perhaps someone trying to take one of Jensen's pieces home?

"The intent of the work is to locate, explore, document, promote and protect the last parcels of nowhere remaining within the borough of Manhattan. The next phase of Nowhere In Manhattan is to turn billboards and construction sites into temporary virtual green and open space. Utilizing donated billboards, empty storefronts and construction sites, the landscapes will appear and disappear throughout the borough in some of the most congested neighborhoods."

I almost don't mind the scaffolding.

Winter 2011 Park Avenue looked beautiful, thanks to Will Ryman’s colorful sculptures. 

We look for adornment in each new city we travel to and make note of commonalities and differences based on their own home-grown artists and cultures. Most recently Austin, TX gave us these pieces... 

and now the Kid and I are working on our own personal stencils and stickers to beautify NYC. The only rules are he can't put any in his school and neither one of us can reveal our identity.