I spent the whole day at the studio in Governor's Island today, starting at 7am. Thats the first time actually I stepped on the island in the morning and I found it to be a more pleasant experience that coming in the afternoon. The weather was of course a perfect summer day with a cool breeze every now and then thats sells of brine and ocean. I often forget, because of its proximity to Lower Manhattan, that the Island is indeed in the middle of the sea. How that fact escaped me is curious, since I have often pined for a studio by water. Perhaps its being situated in a studio facing inland, towards the large cannons of Fort Jay that makes me forget. Vollak's (a fellow ACC grantee) studio has a commanding view of the New York Harbor; I have a view of the field, of wandering geese and scurrying squirrels. (Which makes me think - how did squirrels get to the Island?)
I also loved the fact that it was way too easier to take the subway at 6 am. None of the usual mid-morning rush, and the coffee-totting train-squeezers who holdup the subway traffic by jamming the closing doors with last-minute acrobatics going into the cab. My fellow train riders were construction workers, no doubt taking the first shift of the day. Its curious to note how the New York subway changes its character by the hour, depending in the majority of its population on a given moment. And tourists do not clog the Bowling Green exit at that early, even as the tour agents, hop-on hop-off bus dispatchers and vendors are absent from Battery Park. The Whitehall Ferry is quiet.
Perhaps Ill make this morning trip everyday until my residency is up next month. I do have one full month left at LMCC: I'll make the most out of my access to Governor's Island - as long as the weather holds.
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