FPM: Last Gasp Summer Dresses, West German Shoes, and a Visit from a Portland Artist

1. These shoes are for sale at a Russian shoe repair shop on East 7th Street. They are labeled as "Made in West Germany," so they are vintage!

2. I had a lovely visit this week from Portland artist Hayley Barker, who makes ethereal, poetic and surreptiously disturbing paintings, and who wore dresses I felt compelled to photograph.

3. I say some lovely dresses at the Farmer's Market and in the blocks leading up to the Farmer's Market.

4. My kids is mad I keep using her camera.

Bouquet of Knives

This is photos is from a bouquet of knives exhibit at PS1, a contemporary art museum in Queens where we, along with other school parents, took a gaggle of kids on the holiday. This knives installation, though, was the most kid appropriate of all the exhibits at PS1 that day. (This room also featured a giant video of a cat eating a dead rat on a dirty sidewalk.) On another level was a giant Fassbinder video installation that a random concerned woman warned me about. "There's nudity!" she whispered conspiratorily (I love that adverb). I tried to look urbane and nonchalant as I guided the kids to another room. The lovely Jennifer took the photos on this post (as I had left my camera at home).

What follows are shots of the Long Island City, Queens neighborhood around PS1, including a building of artists' lofts, I can only assume.

Does anyone feel as low energy as I do, and just dragging oneself through a cold, cold January? I'm feeling a bit down and full of longing. I don't know if it has to do with my grandma's death or not. And so strange to read about Heath Ledger's death this afternoon.