Our night started in Union Square Park and immediately we saw this statue of Ghandi. Not only did he have a necklace made of flowers, but in front of him was an entire garden. The beautiful plants in bright colors were a great start to my night and really got me in a nature mood.
Although at times it was questionable which neighborhood we were actually in, we were all too distracted by the apartments to really care. There were gorgeous townhouses and walkups all decorated lavishly with beautiful wrought iron doors. I admit I proclaimed “I NEED TO LIVE HERE” a few too many times. When Zohar went to check her lottery ticket, I let her know that if she won, she was absolutely obligated to buy me a townhouse.
What was really interesting to me was the opportunity Halloween presented for the average person to be an artist. Almost every building had some form of Jack-O-Lanterns in front of it, and we found some pretty unique ones. I think that the pumpkins were an outlet of creativity that most people usually don’t get. For just a little while, every one of all ages and backgrounds get to unleash their wild spirit into a pumpkin face.
After finding many different Jack-O-Lanterns, we actually passed an apartment building that had a whole pumpkin on display in their courtyard. Walking down a main street with shops, we found a florist who had incorporated pumpkins into their windows. I think it’s safe to say that pumpkins are a pretty vital part of natural art this time of year.
Of course, this is not the type of art most people expect to hear about. Through walking, and in our interviews, we got to hear about various other types of art. We passed many cool galleries that were unfortunately closed. These ranged from regular art exhibits to “drawing workshops.” In an interview with a security guard, he even told us that the New School often exhibits student artwork. Two girls sitting in a Starbucks let us know about a Lower East Side walking tour, which we unfortunately could not take because it was night. (GAAAAHHH!) In my favorite interview, someone who works at Blue Man Group told us about street art and street performers. I would have loved to see these! Graffiti is awesome because people can really do whatever they want. They have no pressure to make their art in a certain way or to please a certain group of people. Street performers are extremely cool because it’s pretty much live theater for free. They perform for everyone, so people on their way to work, people shopping, people just walking around all get a little art in their life. This can be in the form of music, a live statue, or even a “human robot.” I think as much as people don’t like being asked for money, street performers make everyone smile a little bit…
Proof that the entire ZENS group was together.
