"CUCHIFRITOS" - Be Delighted by an Art Gallery Inside a Traditional Market at the LES

These are 2 art pieces that are as intriguing and fascinating as they're creating an image of harnessing "electricity" to convey an artist's creative expression to the curious viewer. It reminds me of some characters in old Frankenstein's movies!




Somewhere in this posting, you'd be led to a photo that's almost white, except for some dark colored parts, inside its framed borders. Can you see the forms of two white, low-flying birds from the photo (inside a photo)?


Imagine my delight at seeing in person the one who's actually the main subject of a photo in this current exhibit. I was glad I noticed the similarities in an instant. when two visitors glided in the small gallery where I do volunteer intern gallery work mostly on alternate Mondays for over 8 months now. Deciding fast, I asked the visitor to pose for a photo beside his portrait (on the opposite, in a role fitted in another costumed attire), and he agreed without much prodding; looking just as cool! He was even asked to make the same pose by his companion, but he thought another pose would be more fitting. Look at what can be seen as similar between the two subjects (one in photo set against in contrast to his photo on another portrait!).

Given the quality of some of the photos in this posting, you'd surely fail to give notice to those shots that are almost blurry (which could have been almost a mistake when I decided to post them here...what can I say to explain these photos? poor technical capabilities of my equipment ha ha ha ha!). They're actually jelly-like creations made out of used water bottles. They're clear plastic rehashed to look like the dreadful jelly fish, that are themselves opaque when you see them swimming in the open sea (most probably getting nearer to bite you!), ready to prey to their desired targets. These hanging plastic jelly-fish-like pieces are much safer, than the real thing, which I know bites and causes terrible wounds if treated badly out of panic.














Have you also noticed the etchings in black with CUCHIFRITOS more about it here! written backwards? They're of mylar tape, that prompted a regular visitor, who's an Italian sculptor (I figure he's traditional, in approach) based in Brooklyn, who visited that day, to remark: "Fantastic!" The creation excited him, and reminded him of decaying outcomes of industrialization, and the dehumanizing ill-effects of the use of technology in various aspects of human activity. He's always sounding profound to me, which can be utterly confusing to me whenever I ponder on what he shares me while I attempt to just listen to his opinions on the artworks he'd be seeing in other previous exhibits in the same gallery. He's been actually not as generous in his praises for some of the artworks he's seen here.



Another friend liked the photo on a forest with all the foliage showing all through out, and with a bloodied naked body with its back against the viewer. It could just be interpreted with about any idea related to something on the apparent wanton denigration of our ecosystem.


You'll also notice somewhere along this posting a photo showing weird looking wooden used tobacco boxes with some cute looking objects inside. elaborately mounted. Look at the individual photos, and you'd see more closely what's inside each box. Looking like stuffed laboratory specimens in 9 different wooden boxes, these are actually parts of skeletons of various animals and insects. Look more closely on each photo, and let your imagination be reminded of what kind of animals these could be?


This exhibit has been so far my favorite among all exhibits I've helped work for in presenting to an interesting mix of curious visitors, and guests inside a traditional market in the Lower East Side (LES). Last Monday, I remember two women, who could be a mother and daughter team (they looked Indian to me), pored with studied curiosity on the photos and the hanging objects. They never realized that there is a big number of art galleries at the LES, as I gave them a brochure of a listing of galleries, as they're more aware about the bigger and well known ones located in Midtown Manhattan. We got into a conversation on how these artists get themselves be exhibited in that small gallery. I remarked that these artists are basically those who are still working themselves out to be noticed by a market that's as finicky and unpredictable. The older woman remarked that these artists are certainly better, as they're "hungrier," which quality shows and get depicted better, as these creative expressions come from the gut (as she points to her tummy), and which has got me to thinking of artworks such as those shown here in this posting: more to the core of us human beings; more visceral; and more in touch with the artist's inner passions, creative longings, and desires.

Come, take time to visit and support art galleries like this!

Catching A Half-An Hour Moment W/My Camera on Hudson River Park Before Sunset

I easily got enthralled while taking shots at couples who are caught in the depths of the demanding steps of their lovely, romantic dances set to old but still popular ballroom tunes. Most of us around in the City that time would still actually be at work or rushing to go back home or somewhere else, but I'm intrigued that these enthusiastic couples are spending their precious time away here at the park dancing their concerns away. They look so carefree, whiling their cares away in a lovely dance, just like all the other promenaders. Some are even curious to learn a few set of steps to be able to join the participants. Practice will allow them to bring these lessons to be commanded at will to be demonstrated at some other time. Those who braved to do more would have results shown to all interested onlookers.

Without plans at all for a visit, I found myself walking towards the Hudson River with another friend when I had to rush to the West Village house of one of my employers who forgot her housekeys. The Park, located 4 blocks away from the house, looked so inviting at that time of the day. My friend's happy and delighted to have been introduced to the Park, as he has been wondering where to go to find a wide open space that's close to a body of water. This visit turned out to be serendipitous. I happened to have brought my camera with me this time. Originally, I was not in the mood to take shots. I was prompted by all the activities and scenes available right there in half an hour prior to sunset time.

















Somewhere among the photos included here, on one of the photos showing the Jersey City on the other side of Hudson River, you may take note of the glimpse of the moon (no, it's not just a simple white blot caused by the camera lenses, or some kind of white-colored dust or dirt)---its appearance looking like a huge solitary rough piece of diamond set on a wide blue cloth-like spread on the expanse of the photo shot, plus the Jersey City skyline as the main decorative motif towards the midpart, and the Hudson River set across horizontally to provide some contrast at the bottom.




Taking a curious shot from where I stand at a photographer who's busy catching the fascinating and well coordinated movements of dancing couples in her camera. Note the green outfit, leggings, socks (barely visible from the photo) and shoes (good also for dancing?) she's wearing. There was a number of others in the park who also were busy taking shots at anything that will catch their fanciful and prying eyes. They knew it was something memorable to be recorded on camera. Subjects won't care at all; everyone's pretty uninhibited to curious onlookers.










































I got attracted by the Journal Square Tower as it takes charge from among all the buildings surrounding it (I found it Moorish in its appearance that time).




Take a closer look at the water vehicles plying the river. These water vehicles are always fascinating to look at. You don't see them that often, as most people live away from water bodies. Water vehicles carry a certain air of romance in them. Set against water, they provide wonderful opportunities to meditate on the passing fancies and other fleeting concerns in daily life. These scenes with water vehicles, e.g. boats, yachts, ferries, as they ply their huge masses of space on water, remind me that my situation now will not here all the time, that I'd be moving soon anytime. From one of the photos, where the pier cuts across the boundary of the engulfing movement of the river, I got myself thinking of some other phases in my life that I gotta pass and get over with in time.

Whenever I catch a view of the Empire State Building, and I happened to be close to either one of the Rivers, I get myself reminded that New York City, is primarily an island, surrounded by moving bodies of water, that allows for creative ingenuity to be shown by providing various modes of transportation, in the delivery of logistics, and in putting up marvels of infrastructure. New York City's vulnerability hinges on its very geological make-up, so it seemed to me. Yet, it's very structure also serves as one of the primary sources of its strategic strengths, like other great cities in the world.

Days after this unplanned visit, I still get to hear myself humming some of the tunes to which the couples enthusiastically danced themselves away. Something great, something creative, something memorable comes into my mind all at the same time. I was already in bed, preparing for my rest. I then smiled, and went on to post this write-up with accompanying photos.