Supporting the Arts

On Saturday night, Anna and I made the trek up to Williamsburg to go to an opening at an art gallery for an exhibition called "31 under 31: young women in art photography". Williamsburg, although still in Brooklyn, is impossibly difficult to get to from where we are and because the gallery is actually an old warehouse in the run-down industrial hoods, it was really a trek. We came up from the subway, walked down a dark and desolate street, past a seemingly endless row of empty warehouses and factories with broken-in windows and graffiti on the brick walls. Just before we started to wonder where we were and what we were doing there so late and so alone, we saw the lights and the long line of seriously awesome Brooklynites waiting to get in. That's when we knew we were in the right place.

I won't tell you exactly how we managed to cut in front of about a hundred people to get right in but I will say that I am sneakier than I look. I had a serious "wow" moment when we got in. The place was impressive in size, the crowd was ridiculous and 31 amazing photographs lined the gallery walls. Everything about it was so New York. Young, hip, arty New York and we were smack dab in the middle of it all. I didn't feel out of place for a minute, especially with Anna by my side. She is, herself, an amazing photographer and so, when we bumped into some friends from the Slope, I used her as my excuse as to why I was cool enough to be there. It's funny when I think about it... I have pretty much surrounded myself with artists these days. Musicians, photographers, artists...these are the people in my life. Aside from my writing, I don't consider myself very creative but I am sure used to being surrounded by people who are.

There were a couple of photographs that I was mesmerized by and it was fun to pick Anna's brain about the kind of camera that had been used or whether or not she thought the print had been digitally enhanced. I fell into the world of an art photographer and art critic and I liked it. We mingled at the gallery for long enough and then took off to meet some Swedish friends at a restaurant in Green Point. All in a night, all in Brooklyn. Really, truly...I heart NY.