Tag: morningside heights

summer of mischief

The Humble Fabulist2 Comments

there were turtles and peacocks and ethereal angels,
a huge creepy face and menacing eagles,
smiling piglets and playful hounds,
proud looking stags and graceful felines –

all kinds of furry, feathered and mischievous creatures
dancing and stalking and flying –
sweeping across from wall to sacred wall
of one of the world’s largest cathedrals ”Ursus”, Dan Ostermiller

‘‘Sun Face”, full scale production section by Greg Wyatt, Plaster cast

”River Mates”, Tim Cherry

”Circle of Friends”, Gary Lee Price

”Trouble”, Bob Guelich

”Eagle Rock”, Kent Ullberg

”Peacocks”, Dan Chen

”Stella”, André Harvey

”High Four” and ”Tickled”, Louise Peterson

”Two Peacocks”, Greg Wyatt

”Hope”, Elwira Jarecka, La Guardia Community College

”Hidden Behind”, Chitra Mamidela, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts

”Scottish Stag”, Wesley Wofford

”Top Gun”, Stefan Savides

”Wild Instinct”, Joshua Tobey

A Summer of Sculpture was an exhibition that featured Cathedral Artist in Residence Greg Wyatt’s Peace Fountain and Animals of Freedom; A Blessing of Animals, curated by the National Sculpture Society; and the Art Students League of New York’s Model to Monument Retrospective. It ran in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, until September 2017.

June 29th, 2017

Nature’s artwork @ Sakura Park

The Humble Fabulist6 Comments

Blossoms under the tireless supervision of the massive bell tower of the Riverside Church.

”Conceived in 1896 as an addition to Riverside Park, this two-acre park was sited on land donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. overlooking the Hudson River. In 1912 over 2500 cherry trees were planted as a gift from Japan, a gesture of friendship which also included the donation of 20,000 trees to Washington, D.C.”

Sakura Park

April 14th, 2017

The largest cathedral in the world is, of course, in New York. And it’s still growing

The Humble Fabulist5 Comments

Adjacent to the creepiest, most unsettling children’s sculpture garden in the city sits the Cathedral of St. John the Divine; the whole 121.000 sq ft (11.240+ sq m) of it.

Originally envisioned in a Romanesque-Byzantine style it was later changed to a Gothic Revival design with massive granite arches that support the building – which has no steel or iron skeleton – and a dome so high it could fit the Statue of Liberty underneath, made of Guastavino tile and intended as a temporary covering. The dome was supposed to be removed when the transepts were built, but so far only half of the north transept is constructed. For this 120-year-old gigantic church is, as yet, unfinished. 

St. John the Divine is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and, as such, the largest cathedral in the world. By some accounts, it is also the world’s third largest church – or is it the fifth?

But, size and grandeur aside, the cathedral is an active house of worship, a concert hall with excellent acoustics and an exhibition space, year-round.

On the day we visited, it was hosting ”The Christa Project: Manifesting Divine Bodies” with works by contemporary artists ”exploring the language, symbolism, art, and ritual associated with the historic concept of the Christ image and the divine as manifested in every person—across all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and abilities.”

Edwina Sandys’ ”Christa”, the project’s centerpiece, was first displayed during the Holy Week of 1984, inevitably attracting mixed reactions: positive in general, there were also those who condemned it as a ‘blasphemy” for changing the symbol of Christ and ”sexualizing” it (by depicting it as a female figure). It seems this time the statue was welcomed unanimously, since it remained on display for several months.

Seeing Christa displayed prominently in this glorious setting it occurred to me that, had this been in an Orthodox church – let alone a cathedral – in my home country (Greece), there would have been riots, threats of excommunication – the full stereotypical drama!

The Poets’ Corner was created in 1984 in honour of American writers and literature. Located in the cathedral’s Arts Bay, it is modeled after a similar alcove for writers at Westminster Abbey in London.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue, 112th Street

January 21st, 2017

 

The creepiest, most unsettling children’s sculpture garden in the city

The Humble Fabulist16 Comments

Sits next to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in Morningside Heights. It is adorned with little bronze statues, the “Animals of Freedom” created by children artists selected in a public competition in 1985. The statues are circling a larger bronze sculpture the “Fountain of Peace”, created by Greg Wyatt, sculptor-in-residence at the Cathedral. Laden with biblical symbols and connotations, some peaceful but mostly violent, such as a tranquil Moon and a joyous Sun, Archangel Michael, the Prince of the Archangels and Defender of the Faith, a decapitated Satan (defeated by the sword of said Archangel), a giant crab, giraffes and several other animals all sitting on a pedestal that resembles the double helix of DNA – the tree of life, while four sets of hands rise up from the ground.

Spectacular? Yes
Peaceful? Wouldn’t say so, what do you think?

Morningside Heights,
Manhattan

January 21st, 2017