One of the big reasons I love NYC: The city sees the value of spending money on public art and landscaping.

These showed up yesterday in Madison Square Park. They are made out of painted, knotted rope. Very cool and something I could imagine myself designing if I had thousands of yard of rope laying around. I prefer public art to art in museum for many reasons.

1.       The looks on people’s faces as they walk by. Mostly disgust honestly. Sometimes glee as they take out their camera phones and pose in front of it. Art loses its pretentious-ness when average people can respond to it honestly without knowing they spent $25 in museum entrance fees to see it.

2.       The ability to touch/photograph/let your dog pee on it and not get yelled at by eager docents. I got yelled at twice at the Guggenheim the other day. It hurts my feelings.

3.       How it transforms a mundane experience into something novel. Lets you see your surroundings in a way you haven’t.

So that’s my two cents on the matter. I’m lucky to live in a place with money to put into their parks and even more lucky to have a job right across the street from such a beautiful place.

Alex, Brian, and I went to the Guggenheim Museum this Sunday for kicks and because Alex had never seen the famous Frank Lloyd Wright building. Luckily, the exhibit was good because we will not be making the visit regularly with those entrance fees…. sheesh. Art is not for the common man. And I of course pretended to be a student and it’s STILL too expensive. Not sure how long 18-year-old Kelsey photo will fool museum staff…

Our fav exhibit was by Zarina, “Paper Like Skin”. Pretty much a room full of beautifully manipulated paper. Trust me, it’s interesting.

The bathroom below was also a “piece” that I particularly enjoyed because I could take selfies in the mirror in peace. The bathroom was lock-able. Could stay in there all day.

Last Sunday we went to the NYC Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It was a perfect day so of course half of New York had the same idea. It was beautiful none the less. The feature was an orchid show! So sexy, those flowers.

I’m trying to get back in the habit of “blogging”… aka public journaling. It’s been hard to find the free time since moving to NYC, but it seems like things are starting to settle down finally. Or maybe the time change makes it feel like the days are longer. I think that’s it. We occasionally leave work when it’s still LIGHT outside. A miracle.

Happy April! I’ve never been so excited for April because I’ve never had such a long winter in my life. It’s still chilly up here in the Big Apple while it’s already sweatin’ weather in Austin. On our regular Odom walk through Fort Tryon Park precious little flower babies are starting to bloom. I’d guess 2 more weeks till the park actually has some color to it. Going to be amazing.

Otilie is also hoping for Spring soon with her new do she is sporting. Even with her ridiculous knitted sweater she is always shaking from cold. Must be hard shedding a coat you’ve been wearing day and night for the last year. No, we did not mean to cut her that short either. We took her for her first trip to the groomer and of course they didn’t want to work on her matted hair so they just cut it off. O well, she looks like our little lamb now.

Today was my final review for the Summer London Studio I just took. Of course I don’t know what to do with myself post review so I had to make up something to keep myself occupied… like this blog post.

I ended up focusing on the redesign of the coach station and a nearby block of affordable housing. Here a few perspectives I did. The other stuff was too big to add.