I’ve been to the Met many times but every time I go, I see something I hadn’t seen before. This small sculpture of a baby caught my eye because i have a strange obsession with babies and dogs. The marble sculpture is named Sabine Houdon and was made by her father Jean–Antoine Houdon in 1788. From the intricacies of the carving, the relationship between artist and subject is sensed. The details of Sabine’s softly tousled hair and the gentle folds of skin around her armpits show that the artist knew every detail of her little body.  He understood the fragile skin of an infant and carved the hard marble bust in a way that the viewer can imagine how Sabine’s gentle skin really was. I think it’s a very interesting concept that when you look at something, you can  tell who made it by the details seen.

Over the summer, my wonderful significant other Michele and I visited the Cloisters museum in Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan. The location itself is absolutely marvelous; the walk up to the museum is through a completely green park that gives off a “forestlike” feeling. There’s a rocky walkway with arches and benches that overlooks both the river and the rest of the city.

Cloisters is definitely one of New York City’s best kept secrets. It’s a small “museum” that focuses on architecture and art from mainly medieval Europe (which is ironic, because the walls inside the museum all have outlets for hipsters to charge their iPads before taking pictures). I think the architecture was my favorite part; the villas and the rooftops as well as the pillars pictured below all stuck out to me more than anything else.

The weirdest part about the museum, I’d say, is its hardcore focus on paintings and murals of unicorns. Why on earth would people obsess over unicorns, you ask? Great question, I don’t know either. Might have something to do with imagination and a passionate yearning for discovering the unknown, but that’s just my opinion.

While taking the 6 train this morning to school, I noticed a familiar painting sitting directly in my sight on the wall. The “cartoonish” feel of the painting was created by Marcos Chin and, upon first glance, depicts the Grand Central walkway. The famous clock tower standing in the middle supported my guess, and the gates in the back did as well. Thus it makes sense that the entire population of New York City is depicted, in all their colors, shapes and forms. With that said, I found it interesting that almost every basic color was used; purple, black, green, grey, blue, red, orange, yellow, and so on. Every person is outlined in black and the dominating color of either the people or their belongings is a pinkish-red. I wonder if this is the case because New Yorkers have a cut-throat, fast moving persona about them; it certainly looks like everyone in the painting is in a rush. Also, only one person in the entire image is not looking straight ahead into the “future”; she is the girl on the mid-left side in pink headphones, sporting a pink bag. It seems as though every person pictured has a quirky touch to them and encompasses what the city is about – the guitarist, the shopper, the happy couple. The last detail that stuck out to me was the time; at first I couldn’t tell the difference between the minute and hour hand, but upon closer examination, it seems to be 7:15. Yet the city is always vibrant and energized, so the question becomes: are these people fresh and starting their day, or exhausted from work and happy to head home?