Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.
I was surprised in looking at my calendar to realize that Spring is actually just a few days away, March 20th. On the calendar at least, outside my window it is currently snowing. But my weatherman this morning promised me that it wasn’t go to be a big snowstorm and he wouldn’t mislead me would he? I think we’ll move on at this point.
This morning I took the bus into New York City and after walking downtown to Trader Joe’s to buy almonds, I took the subway back uptown to the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. When I embarked I wasn’t thinking of the St. Patrick’s Day parade being held today but on the walk downtown it did occur to me to check as to when it started and where it ran. I was cheered to see that it started at 11AM and began on 44th Street, several blocks past the Library. As the library opens at 10AM I felt I could get in and out without having to deal with the parade or its viewers.
This turned out to be true although there certainly were a lot of people in the City for the parade. The front of the Library, where Patience and Fortitude, the two lions who guard it sit, was closed and the police had the steps blocked off which made me wonder about whether it was open. But I saw a sign sending me to the 42nd Street side entrance which was my preferred entrance many years ago when I used to frequent the library on a more regular basis. This was before I had a computer and I would go to the library on Saturday’s to do some early surfing of the web. They also had art exhibits outside the main reading room, one of which was a recurring showing of Charles Addams famous cartoons of his Addams Family. These were and are wonderful.
Today I was drawn there by an exhibition of Mary Cassatt prints. I read about it in the Jersey newspaper but don’t think I’ve seen anything in the Times yet. There are 88 prints in the show with a number of colored ones that are quite beautiful. The exhibit is on the third floor in the hallways on either side of the main reading room. I was very surprised to see that they had a very nicely made 20 page catalog of the exhibit at no charge. Didn’t think they could afford it. The Library has a vast collection of art beyond the vast collection of books, periodicals and other printed matter. These prints have never been shown together in an exhibit. They were part of a donation made in 1900 by a man named Samuel Putnam Avery, an art dealer of the 19th Century. He gave the library 17,000 prints. It was a splendid exhibit, I’m glad I got to see it and managed to escape without being molested by paradegoers.
If you go to the link below there is a further link to the actual 20 page brochure which has illustrations of the items on exhibit.
http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/daring-methods-prints-mary-cassatt And this is a link to an Associated Press article about the show.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/nyc-exhibit-showcases-mary-cassatt-printmaker Thinking about the library and their collections and my love of books and newspapers and paper collectibles leads me to post the following 33 second video. I’m a very tactile person, I like the feel of paper and don’t enjoy reading things on the web, although for my work I have no choice. But this video, the title of which is, “the end of paper” gave me a good giggle the other morning when I received it. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
http://vimeo.com/61275290Andy G.
Paul Delvoux with his mother, grandnother, maid and younger brother (1907)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/centralasian/8548739595/ The Bride La Novia Mexico
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilhuicamina/8558876723/in/photostream/ My Photo Stream-537
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaeljpalmisanophotography/8550598998/ Ugly Sisters
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46768729@N03/8462424063/ French maid 06
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdhousewife/8457444229/ IMG_3181
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alicialee287/8447390604/in/photostream Rocky Horror show
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43744846@N00/8470844976/ Billy Thomas Bungard standing in the grass
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meyersdalepubliclibrary/8551576685/ Carole
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54308594@N05/8461327163/ 130220001
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sissy_chastity/8492972387/ 02-DSC06435
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90446567@N08/8491611846/