Photo By Gail
Ugh, gross. I hate looking at Dump’s hideous face but, thank god, he is on his way out. I don’t know the artist who painted this mural on the security gate of a vacant storefront, but I love how they captured the essence of his idiotic, extra-long, red tie by painting it out onto the sidewalk. Also, what a facial likeness, right?
Good riddance!
This piece is located next to the Lucky Bar, 168 Avenue B in the East Village.
All Photos By Gail
The Holiday Season is upon us and, as predicted, we’re still wearing face masks to keep ourselves and others safe from the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Masks are now a part of everyday life, so it makes sense that consumer mask design continuously evolves to create products that are more comfortable, effective, and — very important — stylish. Previously here on The ‘Gig, we reviewed a line of fashion and lifestyle accessories from Pomchies, a certified woman-owned company with an interesting back-story.
Pomchies Hair Scrunchies 3-Pack in Holiday Colors
Heather Logan Clark created Pomchies in 2002 out of a desire to utilize swimsuit material remnants from her previous swimwear company. All Pomchies products are created using the highest quality swimwear fabric that is durable, waterproof, washable, reasonably priced and also eco-friendly. Earlier in 2020, Pomchies launched its Pom Mask line in quick response to the need for comfortable, breathable facial masks at the onset of Covid-19, and the company is now celebrating the sale of two million masks in just seven months!
Pomchies Pom Mask 2-Pack in Seasonal Holly Berry Print and Coordinating Gold Fabric
Thanks to popular demand for these easy-wearing masks, Pomchies has released a line of fun and cheerful seasonal holiday masks for all ages. Worleygig received a few sets of these masks for review on the blog and we are loving them!
Post Continues After The Jump!
All Photos By Gail
The late Supreme Court Justice and champion of women’s rights, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has been honored with a gorgeous collage mural depicting her face among vibrantly-colored, iconic images that reflect her wildly-accomplished career. Created by street artist Elle over a period of about ten-days in the first two weeks of November, the mural’s location at the southwest corner of First Avenue and 11th Street was formerly home to this mural by Shepard Fairey, which was completed in October of 2016. With the way this year has been going, we needed a fresh and inspiring new artwork in this space, and Elle really delivered.
The mural is close enough to my home that I was able to visit the site at various stages of completion; my very first sighting occurring on November 13th, during one of my twilight-time walks. What luck to also capture this very colorful graffiti box truck, which was parked on First Avenue at the time.
See More Photos of Elle’s RBG Memorial Mural After The Jump!
Photo By Gail
In the 1980’s, Andy Warhol befriended several young artists of notoriety, including Keith Haring, with whom he also collaborated. Celebrated for his public and socially conscious art, Haring is pictured here with his then-boyfriend, DJ Juan Dubose. This portrait (1983) is rare, within Warhol’s oeuvre and in the visual culture of its time, in its depiction of intimacy between an interracial same-sex couple.
Photographed, Against a Wallpaper Comprised of Warhol’s Silkscreened Celebrity Portraits, in The Jewish Museum in Upper Manhattan
Photo By Gail
An example of a ‘backhanded compliment’ if there ever was one, this felted wool artwork declaring “You Were Pretty Once,” in a lovely vibrant Pink color, was spotted by me last week while I was on a brief gallery crawl in Chelsea. It remind of something a (understandably) now-ex boyfriend once said to me along the lines of, “You looked really good last night. Of course, its been all downhill since then.” Needless to say (but you can see I am about to) we did not stay together long after that.
Photographed in the Field Projects Gallery.
Photos By Gail
How did an ancient Asian tradition become something quintessentially British? The fashion for Tea drinking in Great Britain started at court in the later seventeenth century and spread among the aristocracy. Tea remained a heavily taxed luxury until a century later, 1n 1784, when tea duties were slashed from 119 to 12.5 percent, making it affordable to the general public.
In the eighteenth century, the rise of the East India Company — founded to trade with India, Southeast Asia, and China — led to a British monopoly on tea distribution. This global grip established the nation’s mercantile empire, critically dependent on colonial occupation and the movement of slaves. In 1771, American colonists famously protested Britain’s commercial control, dumping imported tea into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party.
Ambitious British pottery manufacturers and retailers leveraged tea’s popularity to their advantage, cultivating an enormous national ceramics industry. Vastly expanded production yielded new wares, materials and consumers. Profit margins on ceramics were slim, so quality mattered, as did efficiency. Resources and skills were often shared, as innovative makers sprung up and sometimes quickly failed. These developments signaled a shift — creative and economic — toward mass manufacture in a remarkably nimble market, generating a booming export industry for Britain as a result
Photographed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
Casual Modern Dining Space (All Images Courtesy of Modsy)
A few weeks into Manhattan’s Covid lockdown it became clear that I would be working from home for the long haul, so I created a small budget to upgrade my home office with a few new items. A new task chair, a small colorful rug, and a set of strategically-measured storage cubes helped to create a pleasant and comfortable workplace within my apartment, while optimizing the functionality in the 50-square foot room. Now that our homes are often serving as offices, and even classrooms, you might also be looking for design ideas for the way we live right now. With that in mind, Modsy, an online interior design platform, has just released its 2021 Trend Report, which is brimming with quarantine-inspired interior design trends, emerging style predictions for next year, product sales comparison insights, and survey data from thousands of people across the U.S.
Livingroom: Elegance Meets Modern Design
Let’s get inspired with a closer look at some of their findings!
Post Continues, With More Design Ideas, After The Jump!
All Photos By Gail
On the Friday before Joe Biden’s electoral victory was officially announced, I had a late afternoon appointment near Madison Square Park. It was already twilight when I exited onto Fifth Avenue and 25th Street and I decided to walk home to take advantage of an unseasonably-warm evening and what I think of as the romantic atmosphere imparted by the newly-restored standard time. Darkness at night: what a concept. As I crossed Broadway I noticed a new piece of public art in the park which resembles the Statue of Liberty’s torch, entitled Light of Freedom. New York native Abigail Deville is the artist. I snapped a few photos and then continued on my way.
This past Saturday, I had the chance to check out Light of Freedom in the daylight, where it’s easier to see that the torch’s flame is comprised of disembodied mannequin arms; something which I find very appealing.
Let’s zoom-in for a closer look.
Here’s is an excerpt from Madison Square Park Conservancy’s statement on the piece:
Light of Freedom carries many cogent symbols. DeVille has filled a torch — referring to the Statue of Liberty’s hand holding a torch, which was on view in Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882 — with a timeworn bell, a herald of freedom, and with the arms of mannequins, beseeching viewers. The scaffold, which prevents access physically and metaphorically, recalls a work site, an insistent image on the urban landscape. But the scaffold is golden, summoning the glory of labor and the luminosity in the struggle that can lead to change. Formative to Light of Freedom are the words of the abolitionist, author, and statesman Frederick Douglass, who proclaimed in an 1857 speech delivered in Canandaigua, New York: “If there is no struggle there is no progress.” The torch refers to the light of democracy and its foundation in ancient systems of government by citizens.
DeVille has described working on this piece: “In my research, I have found that the first Blacks to be brought to New York City were eleven Angolans in 1626. That makes people of African descent the second-oldest group of settlers in New Amsterdam, after the Dutch. Unfortunately, history has erased the contributions and victories of this group. I want to make something that could honor their lives and question what it means to be a New Yorker, past, present, and future.”
Light of Freedom will be on Exhibit in Madison Square Park Through January 31st, 2021, so see it while you can!
Yves Tanguy’s debt to the still and imaginative landscapes of the Italian Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico is apparent in this work’s perplexing array of imagery that includes a small school of fish and child flattened by a cart. The plain white tower in the background — a favorite iconographic motif of de Chirico — secures the connection between the two artists. The title of this fun painting from 1926 is unknown
Photographed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.
All Photos By Gail
To be at an exhibit called Pink Jungle (at NYC’s Makeup Museum) and then to be further surprised by the discovery that they have a Pink Ladies Room is to be a very happy girl indeed. So. Much. Pink.
The bathroom was also very clean and well-stocked with supplies. All good.
