Sunday, February 15, 2009

Dances and Football and Broadway! Oh my!

Over the past 3 weeks Gregg and I have had the opportunity to: attend an art school dance, host a superbowl party, discover some Philadelphia relatives, participate in an Open Studio night at my school and see Wicked on Broadway. Allow me to explain...

Obnoxiously glittery posters advertising a "Winter Bash!!" began appearing all over my school several weeks ago so on the evening of the event Gregg and I decided to check it out.  The first floor gallery had turned into a mecca of yummy food and art students of all ages, colors and confidence levels either on or around the dance floor.  There was no theme for the event, which at an art school lends itself to pretty much anything.  Guests sported anything from suits and ties, to 80's prom dresses, to neon green hot pants.  One of the more interesting bits of the night was a spontaneous circle formed around people trying their best at hoola-hooping. 

Two days later was the super bowl and Gregg and I some how found 4 people to come watch it at our apartment.  My friend from school, Norman, is British and since he had never seen the super bowl before we did our best to provide for him the most quintessential superbowl snacks and explained how the commercials are indeed what the day is all about.  Since all 6 of us were apathetic to the outcome we chose at random 3 of us to cheer for the Cardinals and 3 for the Steelers.  Once again, since Gregg and I arrived in the state of Pennsylvania, our home state team prevailed.  Pretty soon the state will want to pay us to stick around or their teams will start to lose.

The following weekend Gregg received an email from his Dad's cousin Cheri who was in Philly for the weekend visiting her niece who lives with her husband not too far from us.  We spent the afternoon with them eating pizza, playing cards and losing ourselves in abstract discussions regarding the economy.  Well, at least Gregg and I were lost - everyone else seemed to know what was going on with this economy of ours.

The past Friday at my school was an Open Studio Night where the public is invited to walk through the studios of all participating students.  It was a good excuse for me to clean up my studio and show off my work and gave Gregg and chance to see and contemplate the work of my peers as well as students from other programs.  Gregg looked scared the whole time.  

Finally, yesterday was Valentine's Day and Gregg and I took extra advantage of the chance to plan a fun trip by going to New York City for the day to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theater on Broadway.  It was absolutely amazing! The costumes stage design blew me away, not to mention the actors themselves.  In addition to seeing the play we had dinner at a quaint italian restaurant and spent the evening walking through the city. Since we have now been to New York 3 times Gregg is practically an expert on the city's lay out and was kind enough to help out lost group of twenty-somethings led by a charming British woman in a conversation that went something like this:

British lady: Oh excuse me! Do you know where 6th Ave. is?
Gregg: Oh, uh yea, it's that way (pointing behind her)
British lady and group: Oh no, we're going the wrong way! ::grumble grumble grumble::
Gregg: Oh no wait! It's this way. (pointing now in the opposite direction)
British lady: Oh, okay, could you tell us where Abercrombie is?
Gregg: uh, hello!  Look at me!  Of COURSE I know where Abercrombie is!

    We returned safely to Philadelphia once we made it to our bus after accidentally getting on a subway that took us 15 blocks further south than we wanted.  We made it with 3 minutes to spare after turning around and riding north those 15 blocks, running to and around Penn Station, and finally finding our bus.  Apparently walking all day just wasn't enough exercise.  

Gregg sitting in our not quite front row seats.

Wicked!!! - The show was wicked good

Outside the Gershwin Theater

Walking by Radio City Music Hall

The two best looking kids in NYC.

Below are some recent paintings and drawing's I've made.





5 comments:

Craig M. said...

i like where your art is going. it looks like you're developing a style? maybe? i don't know. i like it. we want to come to philly, and we're getting a large tax return so i'll call you guys soon about it. yay!

NukkuMuruu said...

I'm really happy y'all got to go see Wicked! I talked with Gregg about it a bit yesterday. Sounds like y'all had fun! I miss the two of you but am SO GLAD you're getting to have all of these fun real-person adventures! Also, love your new art! Very much looks like you've moved to a big city - take that to mean what you will. It makes sense in my head, but I realize it probably doesn't make sense to everyone else. Anyways, I promise it's not a bad thing at all (ahem: see earlier "love your new art!" for reference). Okay I love you two!

Unknown said...

Rooting for the steelers? Injustice.

But I love the last sketch. It seems like it's clearer from further away somehow, and blurs as you expand it, like a pixelated image.

(JD)

Unknown said...

As usual I like your charcoal work a lot, especially the bottom two. Hopefully we'll get to come pay you a visit sometime. We already have one summer vacation in the works, but we'll try our hardest to make it out there. We'll expect the most expert Philly tour of all time. Keep having fun, we miss you both! - Stephen

chris is short said...

Libby! It's Chris Brower. I finally got a blog on here. I've been reading yours for a little while now. You and Gregg sound like you're having a great time. I'm very jealous. Anyway, it's cool seeing your art. I especially like that last one (and I'm not just saying that to be nice). I guess that's charcoal? I'm a little clueless, but that's what the last person who commented said. Anyway, good stuff!