I had just been in airplanes and airports for 30+ hours, coming back from my vacation. I was groggy, sleepy, and needed a shower. Needless to say, I was not in the mood to look around and notice art around me. But then, standing in the line in the International Arrivals hall at JFK Airport, I looked up and saw what looked like a gigantic sketch across the top of the wall. I was stunned. It was so intricate. I immediately recognized it as a drawing of Manhattan. After all, how can I not, having been born and bred in this city?

Then I read the information besides the “sketch.” (It seems so silly to call it that because “sketch” makes it seem like it was done in a hurry. But I know this sketch took WORK. The grueling kind.) A man named Stephen Wiltshire drew it after a 20-minute ride on a helicopter. That’s it. After just TWENTY minutes on a helicopter, he was able to draw this entire sketch. No kidding, I immediately pointed this out to my family—who gave me the look of death because they were as tired as I was. It was just amazing to me. Twenty minute ride and the result was THIS?

I have done some research on Wiltshire and he is actually famous because he can draw from memory! (No kidding, right?). Wiltshire was born in London, England and had autism. He didn’t learn how to speak fully until the age of nine, but rather communicated by way of art. (Sounds pretty amazing, I know.) After he developed his skills and graduated from City and Guilds London Art School in 1998, he began to draw more and more. His “from memory” drawings include the NYC one (which, by the way, is a nineteen-foot-long drawing of 305 square miles of New York City) and a detailed drawing of four square miles of London after a single helicopter ride above that city. He has also drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid, Dubai, and Jerusalem.

His longest ever drawing? A drawing of Tokyo on a 32.8-foot-long (10.0 m) canvas within seven days following a helicopter ride over the city.

Show me someone who thinks this isn’t amazing, and I’ll…you know.

These drawings—because they’re so long—are very small and I don’t want you to strain your eyes, so here you can find a gallery of Wiltshire’s works.

Some people think art is only what sells for a million dollars at an exclusive white-collar auction. Because this art is valued for a higher material price, no one really notices the art that is around them everyday.

I was probably one of those people. But now I’ve come to a new reckoning and that is that art is everywhere if only one looks.

Something that any person can see no matter what is the art that fills cities and towns. Art made up of objects that are already there—art made up ON objects that are already there. For some, this art will be on a trashcan, for others, on a wall, on a sidewalk, on stairs, on a random pipe poking out; the list really goes on and on. Who’s to say that street art is any less valuable than art in an auction? To the artists, their creations are masterpieces because everywhere around them, there are people that will see, that will love—that will be inspired! Who’s to say that street art has no meaning, no message? To the artists, everything they create is a little part of them—a little part of their message.

And for those who can’t afford expensive tools and canvases for their paintings, the world IS their canvas.

The Guggenheim Museum was definitely a very new and unique experience. The building itself was astonishing because it really allows one to get insights into many prospectives all at the same time. Standing in one spot and being able to see many things from that one position really is an eye-opener.

I imagine Wang Jianwei had a similar experience in the museum. He said himself how the structure of the Guggenheim inspired much of his exhibition. The set of four paintings that depicted different “stills” as time went on is one way I feel Jianwei used the Guggenheim. Just like the Guggenheim, the paintings were all part of one another. As our tour guide astutely pointed out, in order to get the whole picture, one would have had to walk back and forth to take all four paintings in. Plus, each painting depended on the ones that came before or after. Just like this, the Guggenheim also requires people to walk back and forth, up the ramps, in order to get the whole picture of the museum. All of the “floors” are connected and provide unique views for the individual.

Another interesting fact about the exhibition was the fact that Wang Jianwei testifies that each piece can be taken for themselves and still “make sense”. For me, that held very true; so much so that I actually felt like I “understood”—however little or much I actually did—the pieces more separate rather than all together. Each piece separately meant more to me than the whole exhibition.

The video installation inspired by Kafka’s Metamorphosis was very…ambiguous. All of the events were relatively easy to understand, but I didn’t really understand the reason of making it 50 minutes long when it could have easily been explained in a lot less. The theme of time did poke through, though, so I do think this video installation was very much a part of the whole exhibition.

All in all, I’m glad to have experienced yet another “adventure” of sorts, getting to know the city I live in. The Guggenheim Museum is definitely a place to go as a tourist attraction and for a casual, yet enriching visit.

Whenever I am asked if I read poems, I never know what to say. I always think, “Does it count if all I did was read the words?” The reason for this is that I hardly ever successfully interpret poems. I know it’s supposed to be all up to the readers mostly to interpret things the way they see fit, but it’s still a confusing question for me.

When I read Laurie Ann Guerrero’s poems before class, I didn’t really feel confident that I understood them. But, when she spoke in class about her background and her drive when she was writing the poems, I suddenly understood. Or at least my efforts were doubled so that this time I was determined to understand.

I came to the conclusion that sometimes a little background knowledge is important to fully understand a work of art. For me, putting the pieces together throughout the class was the fun part. In the intense and emotional time that Laurie Ann was in our class, I felt inspired because poetry really can express the essence of a person.

What I found really interesting was her “crown of sonnets”- mainly because I was in awe that she actually wanted to put herself through that grueling process! I remember in my junior year of high school, I had to write a normal sonnet and it was SO DIFFICULT. I mean getting the iambic pentameter right, then the rhyme scheme, all the while making sure the poem makes some kind of sense…it just goes on and on. The point is, one sonnet consumed so much of my time. But then in class I heard from Laurie Ann a couple of poems from her crown of sonnets and suddenly I was inspired to try my hand in poetry again.

Laurie Ann said that she attempted the crown of sonnets when she needed something to distract her and I’m thinking now that that sounds like a good idea. Who knows? I might try one!