urban inspiration

I gather inspiration wherever I go. Most often it's waiting for me right outside my back door. But as much as I love living surrounded by trees, sometimes I need a little urban shake-up. My family and I spent a jam packed weekend in NYC (yes, this road trip was on my mind when I created the felt board!).  I've come home with fresh ideas and new perspective that I'm sure will shape the artistic direction of my fall. I'm still digesting it all, but yesterday's visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was especially rich and delicious.

My husband and children had already seen the Doug+Mike Starn on the Roof:  Big Bambu exhibit during the spring... now it was time to bring their mama and grandma. 

Perched above Central Park, with the city skyline on the horizon, a bamboo sculpture towers into the sky  and defies any description I seem to be able to come up with this sleepy morning after... so here's the Met's description:
The monumental bamboo structure, ultimately measuring 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 50 feet high, takes the form of a cresting wave that bridges realms of sculpture, architecture, and performance. Visitors witness the continuing creation and evolving incarnations of Big Bambú as it is constructed throughout the spring, summer, and fall by the artists and a team of rock climbers. Set against Central Park and its urban backdrop, Big Bambú suggests the complexity and energy of an ever-changing living organism. Big Bambú is a growing and changing sculpture―a vast network of 5,000 interlocking 30- and 40-foot-long fresh-cut bamboo poles, lashed together with 50 miles of nylon rope. It will continue to be constructed throughout the duration of the exhibition. The first phase of the structure―measuring about 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 30 feet high―was completed by opening day, April 27. The artists and rock climbers are continuing to build up the eastern portion of the sculpture to an elevation of 50 feet. By summer, the western portion of the sculpture will be about 40 feet high. An internal footpath artery system grows along with the structure, facilitating its progress.

 They have their own flickr set for more glimpses into this amazing installation.

Between that breathtaking experience, catching the last day of the American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity, and a day of window shopping in some of my favorite places in the Flatiron district... I'm settling in with my notebooks and camera to savor and organize the light bulbs that kept flashing in my happily over stimulated mind. Stepping outside of my everyday world is a sure way to breathe new life into my creativity. Where do you find your inspiration?