things i think about while powerwashing 144

Shortcut to anonymous subscriber submission link: https://forms.gle/2MABf8jNr2V8kEY87

It’s been about six months since I moved to NYC, and where I live is kind of halfway between the great, shiny new buildings they’re building in Long Island City and the small but shrinking neighborhood of warehouses, mechanics shops and — as I found out on Saturday — artist’s studios.

Thanks to Open House New York (and a special thanks esteemed subscriber Emily Ding for telling me about it and finding the places to go to!), I was able to tour two artist studios in LIC — Nikolas Weinstein’s and Stickbulb.

Weinstein’s studio lies a few blocks south of the Queensboro Bridge on the second floor of a warehouse. After saying hi to the Open House volunteer and walking into the studio, you’re greeted by an interesting contraption designed to cut glass tubes and in the next room beyond: an amazing light-filled studio with glass tube sculptures hanging from the ceiling. Prototypes lay on top of their realized selves beneath tall walls of carefully organized tools: hammers, clamps, saws.

Weinstein’s work is all glass tubes — suspended in the air by wire and flowing across and around the room and sometimes out of the ground. Though it looks ethereal, there’s a science to it. Every tube is modeled out in CAD; creative design is translated into actionable puzzle pieces that are then packaged up and shipped to their destination. Beyond the art, there’s a strategy at play. Logistics and deals are like the moons flying in orbit around the great big planet Jupiter that is the art of it all.

Looking back to the Earth from the sky, Emily and I walked over to Stickbulb in Hunter’s Point — a lighting boutique that’s been focused on reclaiming wood from demolished buildings and water towers around town. The lights themselves start with a simple form — one bar, that can connect at the end. The lights are inlaid in the reclaimed wood, which is apparently stronger than new wood that is grown fast to meet demand. At the end of each of some of these bars are connectors that attach to these forks, allowing the bars to grow into shapes like stars and branches.

The space is a stark contrast to the airiness and serenity of Weinstein’s studio — it’s grounded in the wood that shapes the lights, with the founder’s dog Panko running around with kids following behind it. Each of the lights are assembled in LIC, with the wood being milled in four other separate locations.

Tying the whole location together was a huge arc of wood and light with an mirror that made it look like a huge circle. Somehow ethereal but grounded in the wood at the same time.

Open House New York was a blast! It was so inspiring to see artists in their workplace and getting to hear from them about their workflow and their thought processes — can’t wait to do it again next year!

museum of the week

A long time ago, I took pictures of Humans of Los Altos (HoLA~) — one of many Facebook pages that popped up in the wake of the legendary Humans of New York page.

It was me and a few other people I didn’t know — one girl was in high school, and the rest of us were in middle school. We did a few meetups in downtown Los Altos, walking around and taking pictures. I guess that was kind of my first reporting experience! I remember being really, really nervous when asking someone to take their picture — a feeling that did not go away even through my college reporting stint. The general “Humans of New York” page disappeared from my mind for the next decade (am i old??).

But about a week ago, when I was walking through Grand Central with esteemed subscriber Akshay Pawar, I saw that every single ad had been taken over by HoNY. He was back! And he was doing a Grand Central exhibition.

A week later, I finally got a chance to take a look at the exhibition. I thought it was mainly going to be displaying his work, but I found that in a very 2020s move — and kind of a callback to the wave of Humans of <insert city> Facebook pages — all of the content featured were from smaller creators.

The exhibit is mainly split into two rings: the inner ring features eleven creators that focus on subjects across all five boroughs of New York (featuring work from Jamel Shabazz!) and the outer ring, which displayed submissions from students in NYC.

Besides Shabazz’s display, I found myself more drawn to the students. Many photos of varying technical skill adorned the walls — mothers, fathers, teachers. But in true HoNY fashion, each photo was accompanied by a short paragraph on what each person meant to them. One featured their art teacher who was indispensable to the arts program at their school. Another, a family member who worked tirelessly at the family restaurant. There was a third grader’s mother, and the best friend of a high schooler.

As I sit now and write this, I think back to that time I was working on those Humans of Los Altos posts. The purpose of those were to shine a (positive) light on the people of our community. While that was the express purpose of the HoNY page, maybe all along I really should have been trying to showcase the people most important to me in my life.

Dear New York is gonna be around until Oct 25th at Grand Central — I highly recommend!!

anonymous subscriber news

Well anonymous subscriber, I sincerely tried lol.

Submit here: https://forms.gle/2MABf8jNr2V8kEY87

• anon is disappointed: I'm a tad disappointed there was no before and after comparison pic of the shoes :(
• anon is pre-seasonally depressed: at first I was sad that the days are getting shorter but then I realized that the holiday season is upon us and now I'm less sad
• anon cross cultures: I learned that Amish romance novels exist

animal of the week

SEND IN ANIMAL PHOTOS TO THIS GOOGLE FORM! https://forms.gle/NT3nSkKVbpkjCr1u8

Esteemed subscriber Emi Chan returns again! She slithers back into this newsletter with another reptile!

An unhappy Italian wall lizard, caught at the Villa del Balbianello. It’s the filming location where Anakin and Padme get married!

Send me your animal photos at ryan@torrtle.co OR at this form https://forms.gle/NT3nSkKVbpkjCr1u8!