Art & Friends

I’m going to continue chronicling some of my adventures before I leave New York. I knew I wanted to visit some more people and do some more things in New York City before I left and I actually wanted to go to the doctor, too. I was all set this past Friday to go to the doctor in the morning, meet my friend Estelle for lunch, and then meet my friend Mary for dinner. Then I saw someone somewhere on social media at the new Whitney museum and I decided I wanted to do that before I left. So I cancelled my doctor’s appointment and decided I would head into the city, stop by my old office to say hello/good bye to everyone at Abrams, and go over to the Whitney.

When I stopped by Abrams my old boss/co-worker Marti mentioned to Matt, who I also used to work with who now sell to the Whitney, that he should get me in free, so he emailed his buyer who left a ticket for me and I saved $22!

The new Whitney Museum is amazing. I didn’t get any pictures from ground level, but I took a few of the building from one of the many outdoor terrace areas.

The views from the museum are pretty phenomenal, too. The picture on the left is facing southwest and the Statue of Liberty is down there (hard to see in the picture, but easy to see in person) and the one on the right faces northeast to things like the Empire State Building.  

The inside of the museum was great, too. It’s eight floors and the top five are all exhibit space. The ceilings are high and there’s lots of light. It really kind of enormous, but it didn’t feel overwhelming. I actually went through it all pretty quickly since I wanted to see it all before I left for lunch and while I definitely could have spent the entire day there, I also don’t feel like I missed anything major.

The art itself was also amazing. Since the museum just opened and they finally have space to show all of the collection for the first time every gallery is full of work they own arranged chronologically from the early 1900s to today. I was surprised that I didn’t recognize more of the works, at least some of the older ones, but there were still lots that were familiar to me.

My favorite part of the museum was still the outdoor space. I sat on the terrace above for about 45 minutes waiting to go to lunch. I kept thinking I should go back and look at the art, but I was sitting in the shade and it was just so peaceful. Plus there was free wifi.

Then I met my friend Estelle and we hung out for three or four hours and ate and drank delicious beer. Rather than remembering to get a picture of us when we were sitting outside in the lovely West Village I thought of it when we were parting ways in the ugly water damaged subway station.

After I left Estelle I headed to my old neighborhood in Brooklyn for dinner with my old roommate/current friend, Mary. We went to my favorite Brooklyn pub, The Dram Shop. I had a delicious veggie burger, fries, and beers and hugged the table good bye and had Mary take this sad picture of me out front.

Then we went to get ice cream at my favorite (possibly like second favorite) ice cream place ever, Ample Hills. Mary walked me to the train station and we took a picture together (slightly better location than the subway one with Estelle).

I keep thinking there will be a moment when it really hits me that I’m leaving and moving halfway across the country. Like when I was leaving Brooklyn Friday night for the last time for a while, but no, it didn’t. Which I hope is a good sign that I’m ready to leave, but it also feels kind of strange.