I am still adjusting to being home from my one month long professional yoga teacher training at Kripalu in the Berkshire. I am missing some special friends, teachers, food and doing 12 hours a day of yoga, meditation, experiential work, lectures, eating good dark chocolate, and enjoying the absolute compassionate environment at Kripalu. I am home now, officially a Certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor and have already begun teaching.
Now that I am home, I am trying to catch up on some very exciting exhibitions in New York City. And so, I left the unpaved roads around my home and headed into the NY to see three exhibitions and decided to see them all in one day!
First, I went to the Park Avenue Armory on the upper East Side of Manhattan at Park Avenue between 67th and 68th Street. Actually, my old stomping ground as it is right around the corner from Hunter College where I went to college while working in NYC. If you have not seen the current exhibition presented by the American Folk Art Museum called “Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts.” Run. leap, fly, gallop to see this spectacular exhibition of 650 red and white quilts most from the nineteenth century. Joanna Semel Rose, a quilt collector extraordinaire, was asked by her husband what she wanted for her 80th birthday to which she replied “something I’ve not seen before and something that would be a gift for New York City.”
And a gift to New York City this this exhbition is indeed and admission is free! Upon entering, I was swept up, up and away as my eyes were lifted to the cavernous ceilings of the armory only to see suspended from brillantly engineered hanging devices, hundreds and hundreds of one of a kind huge red and white quilts. The armory is rather dark and the quilts are lit brillantly. Morevover, they are hung in the round and I was able to literally stand beneath them revealing in all their beauty. Everywhere I turned I saw another personally designed quilt, many of them quilted by unknown women, who were merely creating quilts as part of their tradition and for practical reasons. All around me people were gasping, awed by the combination of seeing so many red and white quilts together which are so theatrically displayed! Go, go, go see the show. It closes March 30th so you have three more days to catch it.
From there I began to walk down 5th Avenue until the cold got the best of me and I hopped on a downtown #32 bus to 7th Avenue and 32nd street. From there I saw the Empire Quilters exhibition “Urban Inspirations Quilt Show”. It was heartwarming to see so many quilts in varying styles in one place. The exhibition is just for this weekend and it is at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I especially loved Roz Manaor’s piece “Traditions”. She incorporated several hand quilted blocks depicting a holiday, ritual, rite or symbol of Judaism sewn onto a hang quilted background. Of course it was wonderful to see my dear friend Benedicte Caneill’s piece “Circles and Paisleys” which she created using an airbrush and textile paints. There were many other artist friends in the exhibition including Jane Broaddus, Carole Hoffman, Ruby Horansky and Victoria Findlay Wolfe. It felt wonderful to see all the quilts and to support the guild.
From there, next on my exhibiton journey was my final stop at Hebrew Union College at 1 West 4th street to see their current exhibiton “A Stitch in Jewish Time: Provacative Textile” curated by Laura Kruger. The exhibition includes both ceremonial textiles, holocaust pieces, recycled art, tapestry, garments, textile used as portraiture, knitted and embroidered work and a range of other styles and techniques. Through all of the artists’ voices, the exhibition depicts their understanding of Jewish values and history.
Following this third and final exhibition I realized I was really hungry and found a darling little cafe called ‘Mom’s place” on 8th street and enjoyed a steaming hot bowl of lentil spinach soup. From there, jumped on the uptown #3 express train to 72nd street, caught the local for one stop and got off at 79th street on the train to the upper West Side. I stopped in for a hot cup of coffee from the one and only Zabar’s and hit the road back home to my three little doggies.
Yes, I good day indeed. Inspired, grateful and ready to do some yoga!
