Mapping Manhattan

Darcy and I have decided to move forward with the image she called “Mapping Manhattan”.  From the beginning of our collaboration, I told Darcy that I would like to create something that would represent the synthesis of the field of neuroscience and the context of New York.  Initially, I sent her a sketch that I made a couple months before beginning this residency. As before, it was only meant to help me get an idea down on paper, not necessarily being representative of the end product.  I wanted to use it as an opportunity to merge several elements that I recently came across.  I will give some examples below.

In the beginning of this summer, I took my daughter to the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City.  Going in, I expected to spend some time with her, guiding her through some simple drawing or sculpting hands-on activities that the museum provides for the kids.  I was in for a big surprise. In one of the rooms, I saw the work of Sally Curcio and was completely blown away.   Under a large glass bubble, there was a bright reconstruction of the Central Park Reservoir made out of beads.  Next to it, another bubble showed a depiction of Miami Beach, also out of beads. And then there was a large fictional landscape.  I remember thinking that it has been a really long time since I last felt so mesmerized and excited about something. I was hooked on this beadwork.

In August, my family went on vacation to California and while walking through Chinatown in San Francisco, I stumbled upon a gallery featuring works by Joel Amit.  Most of his works were mosaics made of miniature butterflies, birds or fish.  These elements were handcrafted to be similar in shape, yet all of them were uniquely different.  They were protruding to various heights from the surface, creating 3-dimesional images that could be related or completely different from the individual components.  On the way home, I was deep in thought about how I could incorporate something similar in my work.

Given Darcy’s creation of “Mapping Manhattan”, I am currently playing around with how I could merge these elements and marry them to my medium of beadwork.