Honestly I should call this blog post The Met Visit, because that’s what I loved the most.
I mean, yes, NYC is gorgeous, but for someone like me, it was too much.
Please don’t judge NYC based on that statement, because I also thought Las Vegas was too much and even sometimes four people is too much for me. So if you haven’t been in New York and you have the opportunity to visit, please go.
Let’s start from the beginning of this trip and definitely my favorite part.
A few months ago I received horrible, devastating news, that I’m still doing my best to live with.
But, around those days when I was crying all the time, hubby bought flight to New York City to celebrate our anniversary. But I wasn’t OK, definitely not in the mood to travel and have fun, while things were happening. So he waited, and waited…and waited.
Meanwhile I stopped painting, then I kinda come back, but not really. And hubby has always believed in me. Always. And that’s something that I’m beyond grateful for.
So, when things settled down a bit and I felt better he surprised me with the flight tickets.
“He told me this trip was to have our anniversary dinner that we couldn’t have (because I was crying all the time) and to remind me who I am, what I love the most, to take me to The MoMA and The Met, and remind me that my art will be there someday, as it has been my dream. He kindly reminded me that I should go back to painting because is what I love and enjoy the most, he wanted to take me to this museums that I’ve never been in to remind me the dream and to assure me that he truly believes in me and he totally thinks that is possible.”
. . . break for crying a bit . . .
So, four days after hearing this lovely words again, we took our flight and
landed at New York City!!!
It is AWESOME!
I read blogs and watched videos before our trip and in all of them I read/listened that New Yorkers don’t talk to you much because they are always in hurry, that you shouldn’t be in their busy way and that basically you shouldn’t expect anything nice from them, not that they are rude, but they just simply won’t talk or connect with you.
I usually don’t expect much from people, so I was fine with the warning.
First stop was the hotel, the people in the front desk was amazing, super polite, super kind and all smiley, BUT I wasn’t expecting anything, I watched enough YouTube videos.
Then we went to have breakfast and OH-MY-GOD.
It was the best salmon, cream cheesed bagel I ever had in my life. It was the best bagel of my life, periodt!
Then my first official art stop was at Kremer Pigments because I’ve been a little obsessed with them for a while. I tried to buy an specific shade of pink but it was out of stock (that didn’t refrain me to buy some others), so the guy in the counter was SUPER KIND to me, made jokes about me not being a morning person and he made me feel so good when he told me: who is really a person after 10am?
SO WISE, lol. He was amazing, he did some computer magic in order to get me my pink watercolor sent to my home in Oregon. It was another GREAT New Yorker, I guess the blogs were wrong? Still, expecting nothing.
Those of you who know me, know that it’s hard for me to navigate in a timeline. So I can’t really remember the actual order of the trip, so bare with me and enjoy the review.
After a nice walk in the streets of New York city, I saw it.
All beautiful and with an indescribable presence, The MoMA. I was beyond than happy, I almost didn’t believe after years of imagining being there and have my own exhibition, I was there…not in my own exhibition lol…YET, but there, in the beautiful space that gives a home to the most wonderful art, history, the place that writes the new history, the space where a few minutes later my tears would exist suspended in the room, when I saw The Starry Night.
Once again, tit feels that ime stayed suspended in the cosmos, Vincent brushes and my soul imploded and I felt a huge, cozy void and I couldn’t stop crying for a little while.
I was able to see Vincent, Dalí, Matisse, Picasso, Rothko, Magritte, Klimt, the girls! Georgia, Frida, Leonora, Siqueiros! Andy, Pollock, oh I don’t want to left anyone out, but I will. My eyes, my heart!!! All my being was melted into the beauty. I know many of you will agree that you can feel the painting, the painter, the bush strokes, the colors, the theories, the story behind the image.
It all smells like museum, it smell sacred, it smell like tons of stories collide in one moment, in one space.
I was there with the love of my life and my number one cheerleader, one of my reminders of my dream and that made the whole experience more cosmical.
I was there.
And I think I’ll forever be. Or maybe is otherwise, maybe The MoMA stayed in me.
And I’ll come back
one day I’ll comeback, with my pair of boots and a cute, grunge and elegant dress to my own exhibition.
We also visited The Statue of Liberty, which I wasn’t so thrilled about, but I knew we must see, and I was really surprised by her beauty and her presence. The whole little trip in the ferry, the holding hands with hubby, the talks, the view, the reminder of what Freedom means to me, us. We also crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and I really felt like running, but then I remembered that I go out of breath at minute 5. We kissed at the top of the Empire State. We had a lot of coffee, had romantic dinners plus or anniversary dinner in a beautiful restaurant that looked like Harry Potter’s dining room, we walked A LOT.
But also asked for Uber services, aaaaand…
You guessed right. We had chatty, kind amazing New Yorkers. I was confused because the blogs I read were telling the opposite.
ALL of them were super kind and friendly, told to us about life in New York City. And all of them confessed their deep feelings about family, solicitude and life. It was so beautiful to connect with them in such level. We heard their stories, the didn’t ask much about us, and we didn’t mind. We knew we were serving for a greater purpose. And it got our hearts fluffier.
Also, a gorgeous waitress opened her heart to us, about how she was feeling. And it was very touching. I won’t write about her story or any specifics because I find it very personal and sacred.
She was super grateful to us for listened to her, she was amazingly kind and she told us the most beautiful praisings.
I still feel super grateful for all of them to open their hearts to us.
I repeat, it’s so sacred.
And in another hue of sacred, we went to The Met.
WOWSIES
I wasn’t expecting that. I was so obsessed with The MoMA that I just assumed The Met would be great and I didn’t think much else about it. But geez! I was so shocked.
I told hubby I would love to live there, he asked me: “In New York?” he laughed when I told him “No, here in the museum, not out there.”
I love it ALL. The rooms, the art pieces, the architecture, the lighting, the ambiance, the store, the smell, and there they were: The Egyptians.
I’ve seen Egyptian art before, like in The Louvre. But at that moment I realized I didn’t know much about them, just the alien theories and bits of information. But that day in The Met, something made sense inside of me, some level of sacredness was activated. So as soon as get back to my tiny town in Oregon, I started studying the Egyptians.
And inspired by them, by their history, by the modern artists in the museums and my inner journey I started a new oil painting series, that if you want, you can look in my Instagram or Vero.
It was a magical trip. Impossible to me to put it into words I think. So many pictures, so many moments, laughs and tears. Gratefulness and love.
I have a mission and I will fulfill it.
And now, in this trip, I met an angel. And I have a new mission to accomplish for her.
So if you are or know a good hearted lawyer in NYC, please contact me at contact@ishaniart.com
Apparently,
this visit to NYC isn’t over…
.