NYC Date with Josh

The Saturday before we moved from New Jersey Josh and I were lucky enough to spend a full day in New York City. My cousin Cara was so wonderful to set this up for us and babysit our kids all day. Josh and I had such a fun day!

This is just a cute shot of Tate and Cara at the zoo on that day :) We've only been away from New Jersey for 6 weeks now and we already MISS living so close to Cara and her family. I'm so grateful for the two years we had living just 5-10 minutes from the Newmans and the fun time it was to be in their ward.

Josh and I rode the train into NYC and then our first stop was to Dominique Ansel's bakery. This was our first time and I loved looking at all the beautiful treats. Of course we were mostly there for the Cronuts, though! Luckily the fad has died down a bit because we didn't get to the bakery til probably 9 am and the line for Cronuts was only about 15 minutes.

We thought the Cronut was really delicious! In hindsight, we should have split one since they are pretty rich and heavy and this was our "breakfast"...maybe they wouldn't have seemed so rich had we eaten them later in the day? We also split a "DKA" (Dominique's Kouign Amann). I actually loved the DKA even more than the Cronut. So good! It was kind of like a crunchy croissant that was warm and soft inside. Yum.

 Afterwards we took the subway down to the 9/11 Memorial, which we hadn't ever visited before. It was really sobering, especially looking at all the names of those who died. 

 The freedom tower

 For the rest of the day Josh and I each chose one NYC thing we wanted to do before we moved. Josh's choice was to spend time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art - not viewing the usual American and European Art that I normally lead him to, but instead looking at all the Egyptian, African, South American, and Oceanic art and artifacts. Neither of us had been through those sections, so it was neat to check them out.

 Josh was loving it. This particular exhibit cracked me up because the pottery was from the years 200-600 AD and when Josh said that he said "These are replicas, right? I mean, there's no way these are really around from that long ago, right!?" Josh was eventually convinced that they were probably legit artifacts. :)

It's so interesting to see how different cultures (and different centuries) depict the human figure and face. I love how the African sculptures were so stylized, especially since we had just walked through the sculpture hall with all the classic European figure sculptures. Such a contrast!

My semester in Tonga and New Zealand studying native art and culture definitely gave me a soft spot for Oceanic art. I loved all the artifacts and beautiful carvings from this region. 

And then on to the Egyptian artifacts...

 Nothing brings people together quite like good Egyptian art :)

Of course we had to pop up to the roof of the Met for the beautiful view of Central Park and the NYC skyline. We will miss this place.

 After walking all through the Met we thought it would be a good idea to do more walking in the hot weather, so we walked across Central Park. Why did I think long jeans would be a good idea for a warm day in NYC? 

Some parts of New York are so crowded and dirty and ugly, but other parts are so pretty. I love the Upper West Side neighborhoods like this one.

Our walk landed us at Jacob's Pickles, where we were so happy to get out of the sun and enjoy some delicious southern food. It was really, really good (better than my picture shows).

 After lunch we headed to one of my very favorite spots in New York: the MoMA. Josh's company is one of the corporate sponsors of the MoMA, so we got in free with his company badge. That's a great work perk, if you ask me! I didn't take pictures of all the famous paintings, but I've already posted about the MoMA at least once on my blog, but here are a few favorites...

(Including that rad black piece above by Louise Nevelson)

Rauschenberg | Lee Bontecou

It's hard to tell, but the piece on the right is three-dimensional, with parts of canvas and steel and wire jutting out. It's made of dirtied canvas from conveyor belts. Bontecou made this piece during the Vietnam War and only felt it was right that his art during that time depicted the fear and ugliness that hung over the heads of Americans during the war. 

 I will always love Matisse. The MoMA has a huge gallery of just Matisse and it's one of my favorite parts of the museum. 

Philip Guston | Matisse

Franz Kline

Frank Stella | Rauschenberg

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns | Rauschenberg

 Cezanne is always another favorite of mine. I love his still lifes the best, but his landscapes also get a thumbs up.

 Alex Katz | Andy Warhol

 One of the current temporary exhibits was a large exhibit of Degas' work. There was tons of good stuff, including lots of his beautiful ballerina paintings that I love and that we're all familiar with. But my favorite part was seeing his landscape and more abstract paintings. (See above). What!? I had never seen that type of work from Degas and I loved it.

- - - 

After the MoMA we decided to call it a day! My cousin Cara was so sweet and was encouraging us to stay later and see a Broadway show, but we were pooped! If you're familiar with NYC then you'll know that our itinerary was taking us all over - Soho, the Financial District, Upper West Side, Upper West Side, and then back to Midtown. So it was a lot of walking (and a few subway rides). 

I'm so grateful to Cara for letting Josh and I have this wonderful child-free day in NYC before we moved. We will miss you, New York!

New York City Ballet

In May when I went into NYC for a temple session I decided to stay afterwards for the New York City Ballet. The temple + the ballet... what a wonderful evening! The LDS temple is just across the street from Lincoln Center Plaza, so it was also very convenient. Maybe I'll do this more often? ;)

The ballet was incredible. This was my first time at the New York City Ballet and I was so impressed. The show I went to was called 21st Century Choreographers and it had four performances: Belles-Lettres by Justin Peck, The Mothership by Nicolas Blanc, American Rhapsody by Christopher Wheeldon, and Concerto DSCH by Alexei Ratmansky. 

I have so much to say about these ballets, but I'll try to keep it brief. Justin Peck's ballet was so beautiful that it made me teary eyed... wasn't expecting that. The Mothership was funky and modern, but entertaining. Concerto DSCH was really beautiful and a great ballet to end on. My favorite was Wheeldon's American Rhapsody - a brand new ballet set to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". It was such a beautiful and fun ballet. I loved every minute of it. Of course the highlight of the night was seeing my friend Robbie Fairchild and his wife Tiler Peck perform the leading roles in American Rhapsody. They are so talented. Watching Robbie dance was making me teary because he was my good friend and next-door neighbor growing up, and now he has reached his dreams and it such an incredible star on Broadway and in NYC Ballet. I could go on, but I'll stop there!

Lincoln Plaza selfie to document the fun night out in the city.

After the show I went backstage and talked with Robbie and some of the other principal dancers. It was such a wonderful night!

(I found a last-minute single ticket for just $30, but next time I need to plan ahead, find a babysitter, and enjoy the ballet with Josh!)

NYC Day

 A few weekends ago I had such a fun day in NYC on my own. Josh had a really busy month in March, travelling for work almost every week. He felt badly about being gone so much, so he insisted I take a full day in NYC on my own. Ok!

I rode the train into the city and started the morning with a trip to the Whitney Museum of American Art. This has been on my "Art Museum Bucket List" for quite a while, but I wanted to wait til the museum opened it's new location in West Village. The new building design is really cool and it's a great location right on the waterfront. Here are a few favorite pieces...

 Jackson Pollock

Gerald Murphy

 Willem de Kooning on the left (I love this one).

Jasper Johns (Love this one, too).

 I'm not normally a big fan of de Kooning's figurative work, but I was mesmerized by the bottom corner of this painting. Those clean areas of green and gray are such a beautiful contrast to the messier strokes above. 

 Franz Kline

 Louise Bourgeois

I wasn't familiar with Bourgeois' work, but I liked this carved sculpture from his "Personages" series,  representing the people she left behind as she emigrated from Paris to New York in the 1930's.

 Charles Demuth on the left, Kay Sage on the right.

Elsie Driggs

I liked the history of this painting called Pittsburgh, which was based off of his childhood near the Pittsburgh steel mills. She stared at the mills and told herself "This shouldn't be beautiful. But it is. And it was all I had, so I drew it."

 A well-known scene from Edward Hopper.

I coudn't get a straight on shot of this one because there was a tour group huddled around it at the time. 

Arshile Gorky

I stared at this large painting of The Artist and His Mother for a long time. I loved the story behind it and thought I'd record it here so that I remember it:

Gorky based this portrait of himself and his mother on a photograph taken in his native Armenia in 1912, when he was eight years old. In 1919 he watched his mother starve after years of deprivation during the Ottoman Turks' campaign to eliminate the Armenian population. The following year, Gorky arrived in the U.S. as a refugee of the genocide. As he established his career as an artist in his new homeland, he remained preoccupied with the photograph; it offered a potent symbol of a tragedy that had killed between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians. Gorky's painting, made over a span of ten years, is not a precise replica of the camera's image. Instead, he worked in broad areas of color and used dry brushwork to create a soft, blurred effect. He furthered this quality by leaving the hands undefined, at once suggesting the loss of physical connection between him and his mother and the fading memories over time. This painting is a testament to the complexities of the immigrant experience and the struggle to come to terms with history. 

 Mark di Suvero

 David Smith

I'm always a fan of David Smith's welded steel sculptures, and I thought this Hudson River Landscape piece was great.

 Sculpture on one of the outside levels... can't remember the artist of these, but what a view behind them!

 Enjoying the beautiful NYC view from one of the museum decks. 

After the Whitney, I walked along the Highline, whose southern end is right at the courtyard of the Whitney. This was actually my first time walking the Highline and it was really cool. I need to bring my kids up here! (They love the book The Curious Garden, so I've been wanting to take them to the place that inspired the book).

 For lunch I popped into Chelsea Market and had fun wandering around the different shops. 

 I ended up trying a Cambodian salad from Num Pang and it was great. 

 Right across the street from Chelsea Market is Google's NYC office, where Josh interned a few summers ago. 

 For my mandatory NYC treat of the day I tried out Doughnut Plant for the first time. I totally over-indulged with a creme brulee doughnut and a coconut creme doughnut. The creme brulee was really good, and a very unique doughnut from anything I'd had. The coconut creme was a little too rich and I couldn't get through much of it, but maybe it had something to do with already eating another doughnut right before?? :) Dough doughnuts are still my favorite doughnut in NYC, but Doughnut Plant was still really yummy!

Enjoying my creme brulee doughnut on the sunny steps of the Lincoln Center Plaza. 

Right after I took this selfie at the Lincoln Center, a big, solemn NYPD officer walked over to me and said "Have you ever taken a selfie before? You look like you're struggling. Give me the phone and I'll take your picture for you." Ha ha! He said the whole thing without even cracking a smile. It was so funny to me.  

I ended the day by quickly switching my jeans for a skirt and going to the Manhattan LDS Temple and doing an endowment session. It's tricky getting into NYC to do temple work, so it's always a treat when I get to go. After a busy day around New York, it was so peaceful and uplifting to spend two hours in the temple and be reminded of my commitment to God.  

It was a perfect NYC day! Thanks to my sweet husband for encouraging me to go and for happily watching the three kids while I was away.