Inwood, 215th Street Between Broadway and Tenth Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge




Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

When we last saw this building, it was vacant and looked like this. I don't have a photograph to commemorate its state when it gained a new tenant, the Ming Moon Buffet, and as a result (I assume), the wall art was painted over in a brutal and sloppy way. But now they have come to their senses, and we have this new ambitious and vibrant addition to the street.

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Inwood, Just off Broadway, between Isham and 212th Streets

I must interrupt the 11th Street photowalk for a very exciting event. Yesterday I came upon a new Inwood wall painting as it was being painted.

I have never, in all my walking days, seen street art as it was being made. And I met the artist. Alan Ket. Very well known in the street art world.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

There he is in the red shirt blending into the painting.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


And this is Stak. He did the face.



Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the man. If you want to see his face, click here.

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Washington Heights, 182nd Street Between Audubon and St. Nicholas Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 ……… click to enlarge



Mary Sargent © 2008 ……… click to enlarge

Heading back to St. Nicholas and the subway home. Are these the cutest houses we've seen in a long time? In the first photo you need to know that the sunlit building is actually in back of the darker building, in fact, a block away. It's hard to make yourself see it that way, but you must try; otherwise the house is not cute but clunky.

Though not identical, they are basically the same plan and they both have that asymmetrical little pointy tower in a mirror image of each other. It's as if someone put real thought into the designs. Intriguing given that they are such modest houses.

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Spanish Harlem, 106th Street Between Park and Madison Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This blast of color is on the school yard of the Jackie Robinson Educational Complex. That's the Park Avenue viaduct behind. Time Out called this The Graffiti Hall of Fame, so now I've been looking at websites and videos, and getting all excited and involved and spending way too much time on this. The Hall of Fame apparently refers to the famous graffiti artists who've painted there. And it changes every summer. Look at this:



Isn't that great? I was finally motivated enough to learn how to include videos.

This is what I love about doing this. I go somewhere and see something I think is interesting and then I try to find out something about it and sometimes I find out that a lotta, lotta people already know about it, just not anybody I know, there's just this whole group of other people really interested and involved. Then I compare that and what I now know with remembering me just walking along, innocent and clueless, and thinking, wow, that's interesting, I wonder if anyone knows about that? You know what I mean? It's like there's so much out there and if you look a little further, you find out there's even more. This is a great, great, great city.

Here's something else I'm thinking and this is mainly for us artists of the studio type. You know how they've been saying for years that painting is dead? And we've, some of us, just kept on painting anyway (I was a painter before this)? Well, this stuff out here on the walls is the real answer to that. What could be more alive? Let me hear from you, you artists! Anyone else, you too, of course.

Alphabet City, Avenue A Between 2nd and Houston Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And so, skipping over a few blocks, we come to the last block of our East Village walk, just before crossing into the Lower East Side.

The most you could say about the Best Hou keeping sign is that it seems misplaced. In fact, Nice Guy Eddie could probably teach GE a thing or two about housekeeping.

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

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Inwood, 215th Street at Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Yesterday, September 11, Luka and I got together as we have almost every year since 2001. In the first few years, we did things closely related to the event itself; we went to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and heard the names read, we revisited places we'd been to in the weeks after the attack and we talked about our grief and disbelief. But things do change and this year I realized that now when I see something in New York, beautiful or otherwise impressive, I no longer feel sadness and loss thinking about its possible destruction.

So now our observance seems to be more about appreciating New York. Making it formal. We decided to go to a part of New York I hadn't photographed yet, a new area, let's see, how about the Lower East Side, and also take a look at Luka's first apartment on East 11th when she moved here long, long ago. And of course we would also appreciate New York by having lunch and possibly, dinner.

The day was nice, not as nice as 9/11/01, but nice enough, and began with a little bit of slapstick when I heard on TV that there was a bomb scare at Stuyvesant High School. Since I knew Luka was already out of the house, I phoned her to give her the news. Soon after I had to phone her to say, never mind, that was a replay of the coverage on 9/11/01.

And now, on my way to the subway, how about this? This ambitious mural (it goes around the back of the building) appeared a week or so ago. I wish I'd seen it being made. To see the building pre-decoration go here. To see more of the mural, go here.


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Inwood, Just off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

A new wall painting. I passed this last night on my way to the A train to 50th Street. I was going on a short photowalk before I met Carolyn and Ilana at Chez Napoleon. More tomorrow night. It's too damn late tonight.

See map.

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And there! Is that it through the trees? (You haven't forgotten we're on a mission, have you?)




Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Yes, indeed. A new wall painting. Since there are four earlier paintings at this site, I have now put them into their own category: Inwood Wall Painting, but you will still find them mixed in with Street Art and Graffiti.

I'm not taken with this one as much as the others. The words in the white boxes are too dominating for my taste. It's the white boxes, mainly. What think you?

The End.

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Greenwich Village, 3rd Street Between Broadway and Mercer Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Here is the side of the Gristedes store coming back with no sun or shadow issues.

And another.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

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Inwood, Just Off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

We have a new wall painting and it's anti-war. You can find the 3 older versions on the street art and graffiti label. This one is quite handsome, don't you think?

Here's a closer shot showing a quote from Albert Einstein. You should be able to read it if you enlarge it.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I shot these today on my way to get the A train to go to the 4th Street stop, so I could walk over 3rd Street to Broadway, then down Broadway a couple blocks to Venus by Maria Tash where I got my ears pierced! Yes! Carolyn told me I was one of only two people in the world who hadn't had their ears pierced but I think that's an exaggeration.

If you have need of a piercing, I'd recommend this place even though it has an annoying name because it was reassuringly clean and the two women were nice and without attitude and competent.

Now, let's see, what should I pierce next . . . Hmmm.

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Inwood, Just off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


Today was not ideal for a photowalk, it being gray and threatening to rain, but you go on your walk with the weather you are given. Plus, I had to go to the post office to mail some books. Do you know about BookMooch? It's a great booktrading website – so far I've given away 13 books and received 21. And I'm not cheating! You get extra points for some things, like mailing to a foreign country. Anyway, now mailing those books is more of a chore than it was when I was employed. All of you employed people know what I'm talking about. It's one of those little things that I miss. The copy machine, of course, is major.

So here at the beginning of the walk is a new painting on the side of New Edition Drycleaners. I showed you a closeup first so you can see the funny face above which didn't exist in older versions. To see those, go here and here.



Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Inwood, Tenth Avenue Between 215th and 214th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………………….. click to enlarge

I was all out of photos this morning, so I took my camera to work, hoping that it wouldn't rain until after lunch. But in case it did, I took a few shots from the elevated subway platform at 215th Street. Those of you here in New York know that it did rain before, during and long after lunch today.

Note: this is not street level - it's second story. Or maybe third. I'll check tomorrow.

Oh, never mind, here's a shot to solve the question and orient you.


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Inwood, Just off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

And so back home. But what's this then? Remember, back in February when it looked like this? (Scroll down.)

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Washington Heights, 182nd Street Between St. Nicholas and Wadsworth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Lots of street art in these blocks. There was the long mural at the Rite-Aid I posted on August 8, and here are two more. It's funny how we've come to accept them (haven't we?), and yet it's quite a remarkable phenomenon. These are paintings on the sides of buildings, folks! Just your everyday ordinary building.

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Washington Heights, St. Nicholas Avenue Between 170th and 171st Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Now I've turned up St. Nicholas Avenue; you can see the back of McDonald's at far left. You may have noticed that so far the streets have very few people on them. It's about 11 a.m., I think. This will change, but I don't know if it's because of the later time or the changed location.

Notice the Rite-Aid at the right. I'm showing you a closeup below because this is a kind of street art I haven't seen before. The background is made up of brushy strokes in orange and yellow and then the wall is covered with Spanish written in white, even, neat lines. If you enlarge the photo and you know Spanish, you can read it. If you can, please tell me what it says.



Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

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Washington Heights, Fairview Avenue between Fort George Hill and Broadway

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Here we are, almost to Broadway. Back to normalcy.



Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge


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Washington Heights, Riverside Drive Between George Washington Bridge and 165th Street

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Just walking along the highway, sidewalk's gone. Happy to see signs of human life before me.

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Central Harlem, 111th Street Between Lenox and Fifth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I hope someone likes this is much as I do.

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Central Harlem, 111th Street Between Lenox and Fifth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………..………….. click to enlarge

I've just been reading online about P.S. 208, fronting on 111th Street and P.S. 185 next to it, but fronting on 112th Street. They are called sister schools, with 185 having pre-K through 2nd grade and 208 having grades 3-5. There's something that seems so sweet about that. 185 is apparently one of only a few city schools limited to early childhood grades. I feel like going over to help out.

This is one of the walls of P.S. 208. See that white stuff? That's snow, snow white snow, a rare treat for us New Yorkers. The white part, I mean.

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Inwood, Just off Broadway Between Isham and 212th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

One way to get to the A Train is to walk down Park Terrace East to Isham Park, then walk through the park (it's a small park, only a few blocks long, as you can see if you click on the map link) and down the stairs to a paved walkway that leads to Broadway. This building is on the other side of the walkway. It fronts on Isham Street and backs onto Isham Park.

The graffiti is on the side of a smaller building which faces Broadway, and as long as I've lived here, that wall has been painted, but it changes from time to time. Not being a follower of street art, I can't tell you who did it or if the artist is well known in the street art world. Anyone know?

I have to show two photos tonight. I tried to pick one, but I can't.

Mary Sargent © 2007 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

See map.