Notes From The City: July 2020

Sunday, July 26, 2020

An Abundant Life - Playing With Light

The first time I met Sunil Garg was at Novado Gallery in Jersey City where he had an installation as part of a group show with the beautiful Artists Sandra De Sando and Candy Le Sueur who I have written about in these pages before. One of Sunil's pieces was very large and took up a good portion of one of the areas, with colored light tubes descending from ceiling to floor arranged in a way that was lovely and allowed the eye to wander from one to the next as the colors changed according to a seemingly inner rhythm. It was the opening night, and at the end of the evening as I was leaving and the music in the background was turned off, I said goodnight to Sunil and we stood talking in the exit doorway for a moment. And then I started to hear something that I hadn't heard before, and as it seemed to be coming from the area of his sculpture I asked him, "Is is making noise?" he smiled delightedly and said, that yes it was, and so we walked over to it together and he began to describe the inspiration and vision and the mechanics behind it. It had been inspired by the Hindu creation story of water being brought to earth from Heaven, and Sunil would be able to tell the story much better than I can, but I'll try to describe it here. When you have a chance to meet him, ask him to tell you himself because he's a wonderful story teller in addition to being a wonderful and inventive Artist.

As I remember the story, the three Hindu gods of creation, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer, were trying to figure out how to bring water down to earth from Heaven. But because of the amount of water and its power, they were afraid that if it was brought down to earth suddenly there would be flooding and devastation instead of healthy growth and sustainable life. So they discussed it and Shiva offered to let it run through his hair, and so he stood between Heaven and Earth and let the water come down to earth gently while acting as a conduit. I loved this story, especially the way Sunil told it to me, and I loved the beautiful light sculpture even more when I understood that the descending colors and sounds of dropping and splashing water emitting from it had been envisioned and planned specifically with that story in mind. The way it was designed, the sounds and changing colors were configured so that they complimented each other and were timed to run through full cycles before beginning again with another version of their journey, echoing in a way the cycle of life.

Sunil has been an Artist his whole life, but he is also a lawyer and an engineer, and so his mathematical and scientific methods and ideas are very much formulated through professional scientific theory. But it is within those areas that his creativity begins to send his vision into another realm and the moment of inspiration begins to inform his work. As a 3D Experimental Light Artist he has created such diverse artworks as light boxes, structural pieces, an installation in marsh land in Southern New Jersey, light sculptures of various sizes and shapes, wire sculptures that hang in the gardens outside his own and other homes and public spaces that are lit with a spectrum of colors in the evenings and at night, and he regularly explores new technology like light painting on a tablet. I've also had the opportunity to visit him and his beautiful wife at their home and the design of it is lovely. He's an excellent cook and they are excellent hosts, and over lunch or dinner the conversation flows in a way that is enlightening and inspiring.

Sunil has a solo show at New Jersey City University which I have been waiting to see when they finally open back up again to the public, as it was shut down just before it was due to open with a reception, and just recently he moved into a new studio at Mana Contemporary. Many of his pieces are at the gallery at New Jersey City University, but there are a few beautiful pieces in the new space. His former studio was in a warehouse in an area that was difficult to get to from where I live, and so I was not able to visit him while he was there. Now that he's in a studio that is much closer, I'm looking forward to visiting with him and getting lost in the stories he tells as he begins to weave an adventure about the way that we can experience the dynamic play of light.

Sunil Garg
In His Studio At Mana Contemporary
888 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, New Jersey
https://www.manacontemporary.com/

http://www.sunilgarg3d.com/

The Playful And Subtle Changes Of Color

Running Through A Sequence Of Time

Hand Cut Layers Of Design

Enhancing The Patterns Of Light

An Earlier Piece

From The Installation At Novado Gallery

Two Views Of The Installation

From The Show At Novado Gallery

Two Short Videos Of The Installation

From The Show At Novado Gallery

Click On Lower Right To Enlarge To Full Screen

Sunil Garg
Photograph Credit Crystal Gwyn Photo

Courtesy Of Sunil Garg's Website

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

Sunday, July 19, 2020

An Abundant Life - Let The Sun Shine!

I've written about the beautiful restaurant Saku before, as well as the wonderful owner Dan Grey who also owns Grand Vin which is another restaurant I've written about, and just at the beginning of the year I wrote about Melanie Carugan, the gorgeously awesome Mixologist at Saku. When I met with Melanie for the blog post we had such a beautiful afternoon, and I was looking forward to visiting again to try some of the new cocktails on her upcoming menus. Neither of us could have known then that there would be a time when the restaurant was closed to the public. After I heard that the restaurant had closed, I kept following her adventures and Dan's and the restaurant's page itself, and as the restaurant began to open again, first for takeout and delivery of food, I started to see some of their beautifully made sushi rolls and other lovely menu items along Melanie's wonderfully crafted cocktails that began to appear in ingenious sealed containers.

Then one day I saw that they were opening for outdoor dining and building a parklet off the sidewalk where they could have additional seating. I was also seeing posts that Grand Vin was opening, as well as Green Rock, another restaurant owned by Dan Grey, and in addition to those restaurants a new lovely gem of a restaurant, Touch The Heart, was also opening. I have been enjoying watching Hoboken coming back to life after these long months, and when I heard that Saku was opening for outdoor dining and started to see posts about the other restaurants too, I was very happy. These months have been so hard for so many, and it's good to see people doing the things they love and sharing in the feeling of better times ahead. I'll be writing more about Dan Grey's other restaurants as I venture out to return to them, or in the case of Touch The Heart to try it for the first time. But for now I'll give a little taste of Saku, with the name that means to blossom, because that's how I felt when I went back recently with some friends to sit outside on a lovely summer afternoon.

Saku is a beautiful restaurant, with so many lovely details, and though we can't be inside to enjoy it now, the outside is lovely the way they have arranged it. The seats are comfortable and spacious and there are flowers in the flower boxes that reflect beautifully and enhance the colors of the cocktails and food. It's such a lovely place to eat and the staff are wonderful. My only wish is that they didn't have to work so extra hard and could be enjoying themselves as much as we all are. Dan Grey's restaurants always have a way of helping us feel special and at home, a touch of a sunny day even in winter or in difficult times. It takes a very special and talented person, and a very special and talented staff, to create an environment where we can feel uplifted and cared for, welcomed and comfortable, to make us feel at home while still giving us the gift of being guests. It's beautiful days like these with beautiful people like this who help us remember that the sun does shine and brighter days are on the way.

Saku

936 Park Avenue

Hoboken, New Jersey

https://sakuhoboken.com/

A Simple To Use And Helpful

Contactless Menu

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

Sunday, July 12, 2020

An Abundant Life - From The Heart

About a month ago I heard from Eileen Kaminsky that T Salon, Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation (ESKFF), ESKFF Nest, Blick and House of Yes were helping to support a group of Artists who were going into SoHo to paint over the plywood boards on the windows and doors of buildings that had been covered over because of the looting that had caused so much damage in that community. I lived in SoHo for many years and I remember the time when I first went to a performance at the first space of The Open Center which used to be on Spring Street if my memory is correct. A dancer friend in college had invited me to an evening of meditational music, a happening of sorts where after we walked in the door and climbed what seemed like interminable stairs that went straight up, we found ourselves in a room that was filled with all kinds of music-making apparatus, gongs and drums from many different cultures and traditions, flutes, harps, and a variety of different types of stringed instruments and bells. During the course of the evening the performer moved through the room, touching this instrument then that, ringing a bell, touching a wind chime, plucking a string, tapping a drum. It was mesmerizing and very beautiful, but the thing that I remember most about that night is how dark it was in that part of town and how desolate. There was absolutely no hustle and bustle and only a rare streetlight that seemed very dim.

By the time I moved to SoHo, there was definitely more life in it than on that first visit, but Tribeca was still fairly empty, especially on the weekends, and my neighborhood still had a feeling of space and breath and peace. Over the years that I lived there I started to see tour buses driving down West Broadway, and I used to joke with friends that I imagined them pointing to me as I carried my vintage woven bushel basket that I used for my laundry and saying, "Look, there's a resident doing her laundry!" And then all at once it started to become the SoHo of today, and the streets were fuller than full, especially on weekends and I didn't even like to walk down the street on a Saturday night because it was so crowded. But though many of the smaller shops and boutiques that I loved are gone, I still love SoHo and it feels like home when I walk through the streets where I used to live my every day life. When I see a familiar restaurant or shop, or even something new in one of my old favorite spaces, I remember the times I shared there with good friends, Artists and Writers, Actors, Designers, Chefs and Restaurateurs who I've known and worked with for years.

When I heard that the storefronts had been boarded up due to the looting and damage, it felt as if someone had ransacked my childhood neighborhood. This place where I had lived and loved and created and produced theater and art, where I had been inspired to live the life I live and do the work I do to this day, is a beautiful place to walk and explore and discover new ideas. To think of its stores and restaurants boarded up was in a way very difficult to imagine, because it made me wonder how joy and creative expression could ever come into that place again. I lived in SoHo during September 11, 2001, and in the weeks afterward I started the Downtown Revitalization Project to help bring art and commerce and community back to lower Manhattan. But though that time was a profoundly difficult one in so many ways for so many people, somehow the fact that we could still gather together as a community and support one another through art events and performances made everything seem a little bit easier to bear. In the time we are living in now when we haven't been able to gather in groups in any way that has felt like community, to have store fronts out of necessity be boarded up seems to separate us even more from the life that we once used to live.

And then I heard about Art2❤SoHo, a project developed by Artist and Filmmaker Maxi Cohen, Artist Bobbi Vann, and Miriam Novalle who founded the T Salon at Mercer and Prince under the Guggenheim in 1992. Miriam put out a call to Artists, inviting them into SoHo to paint over the boarded up buildings with messages, signs and images of love and hope. A core group included UNLOK Artist Gordon Kindlon, Stefanie Frank, and Gene Seidman from Harlem. Approximately 200 Artists painted in Soho beginning in the first week of June and included Artists living and working in Soho since the 1970's, their children and grandchildren, six year olds to seventy year olds, and New York based Artists from Egypt, Greece, China, Harlem, Brooklyn, and others who came from Boston, Long Island and New Jersey. Misha Heyman, founder of The Health Warrior Project, served a vegan lunch to the group that was comprised of people from every cultural background and faith tradition.

Rob Rinderman, a Strategic Marketing and Communications Consultant and Banker who I met at a design event in Manhattan and began to run into at a variety of other types of events I attend including the Jersey City Tech Meetups, had posted a video on his Instagram page and I'll share it here with his permission. I contacted him to ask if I could share it when I planned to write this post because that's one of the things that I love about the life I have lived for many years. It's always all about community and sharing resources. If you have that footage and share it with me, I'll incorporate it into my post and we'll be able to tell an even more beautiful story through our collaboration. When we create things from our hearts and share them, whether they be videos, blog posts, art on canvas, or art on plywood boards over buildings at a time of great upheaval and difficulty in the cities and neighborhoods we love, God promises he'll multiply whatever we have to give if we give it from our heart. In the words of the Artists' statement in their press release for the project, "Art2❤SoHo is a call to Artists to bring optimism, healing, and love to our world by painting messages of compassion and unity onto boarded up buildings, welcoming the change that's coming." Art heals, reclaims and rebuilds communities and lives, and this project will continue to inspire and live on. I've heard that there is the possibility of a show in the future as boards that had been painted were saved when they began to be taken down for the community businesses to re-open. I'm looking forward to seeing the show and celebrating this revitalization project and the community we all love.

Art2❤SoHo

In SoHo

Video Courtesy Of Rob Rinderman
https://www.instagram.com/zentropa61/

A Few Selected Images

Courtesy Of Maxi Cohen and Miriam Novalle

From A Press Release

Forwarded To Me By Eileen Kaminsky

Artists Have Been Identified Where Known

https://www.instagram.com/art2heart.art/

instagram.com/av_artist and instagram.com/alberto_barreto

instagram.com/topbunartist

instagram.com/maevecahill

instagram.com/gopainttheworld

Stefanie Frank

Blessings,

Jannie Susan

Sunday, July 5, 2020

An Abundant Life - Listening To The Earth

I wrote about Tassa Theocharis Ganidou two years ago after meeting her in person when she came to New York City to participate in the Museum Of Arts and Design annual art and design exhibition and sale "LOOT, MAD About Jewelry" in April of 2018. She is from Greece, but I had known about her work because we had been following each other on Instagram, and I was drawn to her philosophy and to the way that she created stunning and unique pieces of jewelry that were sculptures and wearable art, using gemstones and metal to envision images from nature that could be worn on the body and in that way bring the wearer closer to the earth and the natural world.

When I began to develop the Love & Plenty project to help restaurants get funding to provide meals for people in need, one of the key parts of it was that I wanted to incorporate Artists into the work that I was doing. I've worked with Artists for many years in Public Relations and Marketing and planning collaborative events that often take place in area restaurants or in some way combine culinary arts, and so it seemed a natural fit to invite Artists into the project to collaborate and help them sell their work with a portion of the proceeds going to the restaurants for meals. In the early weeks after the shutdowns happened in the tri-state area, I heard from Tassa through Instagram, asking me how I was doing. When I told her about the project, she immediately sent me a link to an article on Debra Rapoport's page about food waste and recycling and asked if I had heard of her. Debra is well known and well respected as an Artist and as a food and sustainability advocate, and so I had heard of her, but because of Tassa we were able to connect on Instagram. Tassa had met Debra when Debra was in Greece teaching a workshop at Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum where she had an exhibition, and Tassa had created a sustainable hat that was inspired by the messages Debra shared. The hat I saw on Instagram was made completely from the pieces of produce and other products that normally would be thrown away - the skin of a banana that had been carefully dried, towels that had been dyed with turmeric, and other parts of fruit that usually would find their way at best into compost. Instead Tassa had created something so beautiful that was such a work of genius that I asked her if she would like to be a part of the project I was working on.

A few weeks went by, and Tassa began to post about another piece she was working on, hand dying silk for a new vision. When she posted her creation, it was a flying fish made from hand tooled silver with a gemstone eye and the hand dyed silk as its feathery fins. She tagged me in her story and so it was the first thing I saw when I woke up and checked my Instagram messages in the morning, and as with all of her pieces it was so beautiful and unique that I sent her a response asking if this piece could be a signature piece for the Love & Plenty project. There was something very special about this fish, the fact that it was made from a combination of silk and metal, the resulting textures and colors of the hand dying and hand tooling and the fact that it is flying. The Love & Plenty project was inspired in part by the story of the Loaves and Fish, and it also is a project that is designed to encourage and inspire and help people to feel freedom and to fly through their creative life at a time when we are being shut down and restricted in travel and from doing the things that we need to do as humans like sharing a meal with friends, visiting with people, and wandering freely as we wish.

A basic message that Tassa has on her Instagram page is, "look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better!" I think that Tassa has such a beautiful connection and vision that when we look at her work and wear it, we too can find a way to reconnect to the earth and the natural world around us.

Tassa Theocharis Ganidou
Photograph Courtesy Of The Artist
https://www.instagram.com/tassa_theocharis_ganidou/