NEW YORK
On Friday, the class took a field trip to New York City. I was looking forward to the trip; but fate had other ideas. Originally, we were supposed to meet at 10 AM, and the only bus I could find that would get me to the city in time was leaving D.C. Union Station at 3:30 AM. So I bought a ticket. Then I asked my husband if he would drive me to the bus station, and he thought that was unreasonable and was willing to pay the difference for me to go later.
Fortunately, the class meeting time got moved to 11 AM, so I was able to find a bus leaving D.C. at 6:30 AM. That was perfect, because there is an express metro bus that leaves about 4 houses down the street from my house and it leaves at 5:25 AM. It should take 35 -45 minutes to get to the Pentagon, where I'd transfer to the metro to Rosslyn and walk half a block to meet my bus.
Well, everything was going as planned, except the bus by my house was 10 minutes late, then instead of 35-45 minutes, it took an hour. At Rosslyn, I ran up that extremely long escalator; ran the a fourth of the block in time to see my bus pulling away. Rats!
Time to regroup and go over my options. The bus attendant verified that I had in deed missed the 6:30 AM bus, but they had another one leaving at 7:30 AM. If it wasn't full, I may be able to get a seat on that bus, except it was Friday and Fridays are usually full because people are going for the weekend. Now what?
Well, the day before, I had a major critique on a big project in my Commerical Design class and had not slept the previous 2 days. I was exhausted. I made the call to go back home and do the alternate assignment instead. After letting my professor know not to expect me, I took the metro back to the Pentagon, figured out how to take a local bus back to my neighborhood (all the express buses were done for the morning). The closest stop to my house was a mile and a half, so I got off and walked home (in the rain).
On Friday, the class took a field trip to New York City. I was looking forward to the trip; but fate had other ideas. Originally, we were supposed to meet at 10 AM, and the only bus I could find that would get me to the city in time was leaving D.C. Union Station at 3:30 AM. So I bought a ticket. Then I asked my husband if he would drive me to the bus station, and he thought that was unreasonable and was willing to pay the difference for me to go later.
Fortunately, the class meeting time got moved to 11 AM, so I was able to find a bus leaving D.C. at 6:30 AM. That was perfect, because there is an express metro bus that leaves about 4 houses down the street from my house and it leaves at 5:25 AM. It should take 35 -45 minutes to get to the Pentagon, where I'd transfer to the metro to Rosslyn and walk half a block to meet my bus.
Well, everything was going as planned, except the bus by my house was 10 minutes late, then instead of 35-45 minutes, it took an hour. At Rosslyn, I ran up that extremely long escalator; ran the a fourth of the block in time to see my bus pulling away. Rats!
Time to regroup and go over my options. The bus attendant verified that I had in deed missed the 6:30 AM bus, but they had another one leaving at 7:30 AM. If it wasn't full, I may be able to get a seat on that bus, except it was Friday and Fridays are usually full because people are going for the weekend. Now what?
Well, the day before, I had a major critique on a big project in my Commerical Design class and had not slept the previous 2 days. I was exhausted. I made the call to go back home and do the alternate assignment instead. After letting my professor know not to expect me, I took the metro back to the Pentagon, figured out how to take a local bus back to my neighborhood (all the express buses were done for the morning). The closest stop to my house was a mile and a half, so I got off and walked home (in the rain).
RENWICK GALLERY
The alternate assignment was to visit the Renwick Gallery in D.C. (across the street from the front of the White House). The gallery's current exhibit is Something of Splendor, Decorative Arts from the White House. It was okay, but I prefer the permanent collection. While at the gallery, we were to select 3 pieces, sketch at least 2 drawings of each piece, including a detail. Then write a 2-page paper on one of the pieces.
The three that I chose were: The Ghost Clock by Wendell Castle. It stands over 7 feet high and is made entirely of laminated and bleached Honduras mahogany. The drapery looks soft like muslin, but is in reality wood carved to fool the eye.
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| back and detail |
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| What the Game Fish looks like from a distance. |
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| Detail of the Game Fish |
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| Drift |
My final selection was Drift, by Matthias Pliessnig. It is white oak and bamboo (26 x 96 x 35 in). It is an amorphously shaped piece of furniture made by soaking strips of wood for several hours before putting them in a steam box. When the wood is pliable, it is removed and clamped into place within thirty seconds, after which it begins to cool and become rigid.
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