Art and Trash Deluxe at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Art

Cup(s) of the Day #107

"Detail of the Cup Drawings #1 - #655" by Gwyneth Leech

in Luxuriant Refuse at the PFMFA

Installation by Adela Andea in the background

The Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, also known as the Pearl, is a lovely small museum in Spring, a suburb of Houston, Texas. Craving more culture in their own neighborhood, the denizens of Spring stepped up to the plate and funded this non-collecting art institution which opened its doors in 2008. It was a pleasure to be down visiting from New York City for the opening of Luxuriant Refuse, an exhibition of nine artists who make extravagant art with trash, and to lead several community events related to my own installation of 655 drawings on used paper coffee cups.

Gwyneth Leech, the Cup Drawings #1 - #655

in Luxuriant Refuse 

at the PFMFA, Spring Texas

Luxuriant Refuse 

at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Art, Spring Texas

People are enthusiastic about art in this 'hood and they love their museum, which is free. Hundreds of kids and their parents came by for a drop-in art afternoon while I was there and dozens of volunteer docents were kept on their toes explaining the upcycling artwork to these discerning viewers.

River Euphrates by Johnston Foster
Mixed media including used traffic cones and duct tape

The evening reception was attended by an older crowd: museum members and trustees, art patrons, collectors, artists and gallerists from downtown Houston, and a family of my cousins who live in the area - well, to be more precise, who live at the end of a lengthy express-way drive to the Heights neighborhood of Houston, some 50 minutes away.

Luxuriant Refuse 

at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Art, Spring Texas

 

The Collector by Johnston Foster, 2011

Mixed media including found furniture and plastic lawnchairs

A couple of things of note happened around the time of the opening reception. In the first instance, arriving at the museum an hour before the event, I found my cousin Geoff already there. I suggested an ice coffee at a nearby coffee bar. I also suggested we walk. He hesitated, shrugged, and out we stepped from the temperature and humidity-controlled interior of the museum into the blast furnace of a June afternoon.

Consonance by Paul Villinski, 1993-2006

Gold Leaf on found work gloves

 

By the time we reached Rao's Bakery Coffee Cafe in the strip mall two blocks away we were bathed in sweat and the ice coffee was certainly needed to revive us. Afterwards, we walked very, very slowly back to the museum, conserving our energy.

A bit later, we stood outside once again, wearing filter glasses and studying the face of the sun with binoculars. Can you see it? Absolutely - that dot is clearly Venus crossing the face of the sun!!
So that would be two things in one day that one should never do - look directly at the sun and walk outside in Spring, Texas in the summer!

Ivanhoe by Alison Foshee, 2012
Labels on canvas

As for the exhibition, Luxuriant Refuse itself, I was delighted to see my cup installation alongside the work of these fellow artists who so imaginatively use "detritus as a medium, exploring ideas about consumption, creativity, and transformation". Each one takes excess to excess, pushing the creative boundaries of the used, castoff and unwanted. Accumulation is the underlying theme, and the mind is boggled by the sheer number of old computer keyboard keys in a work by Sarah Frost, or food labels in what at first seems to be a painting by Alison Foshee.

Sign Off by Sarah Frost

and Tire by Betsabée Romero

 

Sign Off by Sarah Frost, 2011
Discarded computer keyboard keys

 

Tire by Betsabée Romero, 2007
Carved rubber truck tire

Bioluminescence, a wall mounted installation by Adela Andea is made from thousands of back-lit diced pool noodles - those brightly colored Styrofoam swimming aids found at any pool. It was a show stealer and I was very pleased to meet the artist herself at the opening reception. None of the other artists were present, but since several, including Aurora Robson, Johnston Foster, Sarah Frost and Paul Villinski either live or exhibit in New York City, I have hopes of meeting them and seeing more of their work up North.

Detail of Bioluminescence, by Adela Andea, 2012

Pool noodles and cold cathode

flourescent lights mounted on wire mesh

 

Belch (aka Tarball) by Aurora Robson, 2009
Discarded PET bottles, tinted polycrylic, 
rivets, steel armature, mica powder

Luxuriant Refuse is on now through August 5th at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, 6815 Cyrpesswood Drive in Spring Texas.
Artists include Adela Andea, Johnston Foster, Alison Foshee, Sarah Frost, Gwyneth Leech, Shawne Major, Aurora Robson, Betsabée Romero, and Paul Villinski.
The show was curated by Melissa Grobmyer of MKG Art Management.
for more exhibition information click here. 

 

Jesus Bugs by Shawne Major, 2006
Mixed media including fishing net,
 frisbees, plastic toys and braid tassel trim

Gwyneth Leech: the Cup Drawings

#1 -  #655, 2008-2012

Mixed media on used paper coffee cups 
Photo by Hip Mama Jen

And thank you Hip Mama Jen, for this review of my contribution to the exhibit:

"Finally I can't possibly discuss the show without mentioning Gwyneth Leech's project called simply The Cup Drawings. Leech has drawn on coffee cups since 2008. On each she also records the date, occasion and location of consumption. The cups are strung in multiples on invisible string and hang in strands that gently sway as viewers walk by. The cups appear to be raining from the sky and the variety of images and patterns are stunning not only for their appearance but for the thought that they instill which is this is the amount of waste produced from one consumer."

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In Praise of Procrastiwork

 

Cup of the day #102

Unfurling Leaves by Gwyneth Leech

Colored India Ink on white Ecotainer

A terrific article called "Procrastiworking Your Way to Creative Success" by An Xiao landed in my inbox the other day. The concept is that we should pay close attention to the things we actually do when we are not doing the things we think we are supposed to do. Drawing on cups is the perfect example! How many hours have I spent utterly committed to this art form while I was in my studio not painting in the traditional way on canvases?! And see where it has taken me - from a casual start with cup and pen at PTA meetings to major public art installations in the heart of Manhattan! These public presentations have in turn led to sales of cup drawings to collectors, to further exhibiton opportunities and to an avalanche of press coverage. The commitment and the passion we bring to the things that really grab our attention - even if those things seem absurd - can take us to fantastic and totally unexpected places!

Cup drawing installation by Gwyneth Leech

in the Sprint Flatiron Artspace, February 2012

800 cups drawings were the fruits of four years of serious procrastiwork

 Photo © Marianne Barcelonna, all rights reserved

But what happens when one starts to procrastinate the procrastiwork? I admit I have been in a slower mode since finishing a five month stint of intense creativity and public interaction in the Sprint Flatiron Artspace in NYC. I have not been drawing or writing. Instead I have been looking and listening around the city - enjoying the long flowery spring, going to other artists' exhibitions and catching up on some new directions in the art world, meeting friends for tea in the five boroughs, hanging out with my two daughters. In short, it has been a delightful period of re-energizing and I have a lot of new images and ideas to share here on the Full Brew over the next few weeks.

Taking a break to watch the garden grow, April 2012

During this time I have also been studying the 350 drawings and paintings I did on my coffee cups while in the Flatiron - executed in such an intense and forward moving way that I hadn't time before to absorb the wealth of new imagery and directions they suggest. I have been out to Barbara Ellmann's studio again, finishing the cups with an encaustic process and enjoying the opportunity to discuss a plethora of art, life and philosophical topics while I dipped cups in molten beeswax and she worked on her paintings.

Enjoying Spring and unfurling leaves

Clinton Community Garden, April 2012

And in my art studio on 39th Street I am currently designing a new installation of over 600 of the cup drawings which will ship out soon to a Texas museum. Details to come. Still to finish: photographing and cataloguing the cups, mapping the installation, and packing everything ready for art handlers to receive and install. At the end of the day, there is no rest for the weary procrastiworker. But at least we really, really love what we do!

"Procrastiworking Your Way to Creative Success" by An Xiao was posted on Hyperallergic
on April 24th. For the full article Click here.

 Tea break in Herald Square, April 2012

Alice through the Plate Glass: Observers Observed

Saturday January 21st was a significant day - it marked the start of the final month of Hypergraphia in the Prow. This really is it - the home stretch. No more extensions. In four weeks time, on Saturday February 18 starting at 2PM the cups will come down. 

Cup of the Day #98

Down Jackets by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper cup

In the meantime, Winter is finally here in earnest; down jackets, fur coats and hats abound outside the windows. Wicked winds whip around the Prow, blowing hair to crazy tangled heights. 

Cup of the Day #98

Down Jackets by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper cup

Even in this bitter weather, people stop to study the installation. I enjoy drawing the viewers on cups as they linger, staring in. Then I hang up the cup drawings right away. Now the observers are intently staring out at other people staring in. Something very Alice-like about that.

Snow day in the Prow, January 21, 2012

On Fifth Avenue looking north towards 23rd Street

The heat differential between inside and outside has grown more extreme. The Flatiron's steam radiators lining the Prow hiss and bang, coming on and going off in no discernible pattern. The cups positively dance in swirling drafts and my daily take-out cup of tea cools too quickly after I arrive in the morning. 

View of Hypergraphia

From Fifth Avenue, looking east

It finally snowed over the weekend, enough to cover the sidewalks, creating a white frame for the Prow. All of a sudden the white patterns and negative spaces on the cups pop out and look fragile and lacey against the new backdrop. The installation is chameleon-like in that way, responding to the color and light framing it. I wandered back and forth on the platform, re-arranging the middle section. The composition is three dimensional and infinitely variable.

View from the inside, looking north west, towards 23rd and Fifth

So, in just four more weeks, my five month residency in the Sprint Flatiron Prow Artspace will be done and it will be time to dismantle and move on. Until then, in fair weather or foul, in shirt sleeves or wrapped in wool (depending on the heating situation) I will be in the Prow drawing, hanging and rearranging cups, receiving guests and watching people watch me as I watch the world go by. 

Inside view, looking north east 

Towards Madison Square Park

Where Do Ideas Come From? Finding the Bottomless Cup

Where do ideas come from? Every time I sit down to write about this I draw a blank.

So I went for a walk, a swim and a hot shower. As usual, these activities of motion unleashed a torrent of wordy narratives in my head, even a concept or two, possibly valuable.

Cup of the Day #95

Raining Words, by Gwyneth Leech

India ink on upcycled white paper coffee cup

For me there are two distinct kinds of ideas - the wordy ones, and the visual ones.

Apparently the visual ideas reside in a completely separate part of the brain from the words and since production of visual ideas generally relies on sitting or standing still, bringing them forth can be a trickier proposition.

When I am painting a large canvas in the studio, it is all about executing an idea already conceived. Discoveries and new directions certainly happen as I go along, but for me the struggle is about how to get the painting to more closely match the images in my head. Having said that, the first brush marks reveal limitless possibilities. Then as a painting progresses and decisions are made these options diminish, until at last only one brush mark will fit. I often feel a sense of loss as I paint. Each state could be the starting point for innumerable new artworks, but unlike in the digital realm, going back to an exact prior state is never possible.

But where does the initial idea spring from, the vision bright enough to launch a painting?

Listening for the muse in the Flatiron Prow

Yes, I think about those cup and string phones all the time!

 Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

I was having lunch at Eisenberg's Coffee Shop with composer and singing colleague, Martha Sullivan after finishing up in the Flatiron window and we were discussing the topic. (As a quick aside, there are a number of things I like about Eisenberg's, an unreconstructed lunch counter on Fifth Avenue at 22nd Street: their hot pastrami sandwiches, the owner's flamboyant shirts and the sign outside which says "Either you get it or you don't.")

Drawing with composer, Martha Sullivan 

and sculptor, Hu Bing in the Prow

 Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

Over my pastrami sandwich, I had a sudden insight. (Yes, ideas also come from conversation + food!) I have been making art since I was a kid and there have been only a few periods in my life when I made no art at all: during my first year at the University of Pennsylvania (no Fine Art major back then), right after I had both my children and after 9-11. I did plenty of writing in those periods, but my visual muse fled and was nowhere to be found. And how did I get back into art-making? By drawing on things that had no apparent value - envelopes, programs, photocopies, music. No one saw these, they weren't meant to exhibited. I did them while I was busy with other things - like taking notes in anthropology classes, feeding children or sitting on the subway. But eventually, these drawings led me back to my sketchbooks and from there to the painting studio. The ideas came pouring out as very small drawings - brain to hand to paper - which I then labored to turn into larger compositions.

 Drawing in the Prow

December 2011

 Photo by Theresa DeSalvio

The coffee cup story is similar. While my narrative brain was otherwise engaged at school meetings, artist meetings and at my part-time job as a choral singer, my art brain just took care of itself and made friends with the surface of handy paper coffee cups. It crept up on me while I wasn't paying attention. Now each time I sit down with art materials and a cup, the shape, the surface, the curve, the variety of colors and prints, all continue to act as catalysts and set my hand on a new journey. This time, the artwork is finished directly on the cup - no digging things out of notebooks later, no copying and scaling up from sketches which can be a deadening exercise.

Passing Christmas Tree

Cups in the Flatiron Prow

December 2011

Making art on cups is currently the core of my studio practice and for three year now the ideas just keep coming, each one different. Talk about a bottomless cup!

Readily available and of no value to anyone else but me in their used state, paper cups allow me to risk everything. Nothing lost, everything gained. In short, they are a very useful form.

I like to say, Bach had inventions, Shakespeare had sonnets - and I have coffee cups.

Cups in the Flatiron Prow

December 2011

Season's Greetings from DVF and the Full Brew

"Where on earth did you get that dress??" I exclaimed the minute Rachel walked through the door for rehearsal a few weeks ago. She was wearing an exquisitely cut, sleeveless cocktail dress in Sienna brown, patterned with bright white brushmarks, each with a dropped shadow beneath. If one of my painted cups had walked through the door, this is how it would look.

 Rachel Farrar in the Flatiron window, December 2011

Photos by Gwyneth Leech

"Diane Von Furstenberg, 2010," she replied with a smile. "Great dress, right?"

Absolutely perfect!

Rachel Farrar is one of my all time favorite people; a collegial choral singer, wonderful soloist, fun person with a terrific eye for fashion. She is making her way in New York City as an extra for film and television and has great tales to tell of location shoots, actors and directors. She is a self-proclaimed  "proud member of the Screen Actors' Guild". Beyond all that, she has successfully helped me shop for clothes, which makes her a very special person. I am a famously poor shopper; I just have no stamina.

"You have to come to the Flatiron and wander through the cup installation wearing that!" I told her. She agreed to stop by.

In a pleasing turn of the circle, I was in Soho recently on my way to see my friend, Yvette Cohen's exhibition of shaped paintings at Cassina on Wooster Street. Right next door I was stopped in my tracks by a window full of inverted coffee cups, arranged into a Chrismas tree. A nice effect. DVF? Diane Von Furstenberg again! Art, coffee cups, fashion. It's official - paper coffee cups are cool!

DVF window, Wooster Street, December 2011 

DVF finally "met" my hand painted coffee cups a few days ago when Rachel did make it to the Flatiron Prow on her way to a Christmas party, wearing That Dress. She threaded her way happily in and out of the cup strands while I took photos from every conceivable angle, from both inside and out, having a high fashion New York moment which was shared by at least a dozen photographers who clustered round the windows. I wonder where those shots will turn up?

When I got home there was an e-mail from another friend attaching a photo of Diane Von Furstenberg's 57th Street window. The coffee cup Christmas tree again.

"DVF meets coffee", she wrote. "Have you seen this?"

"Yes," I replied. "And better yet, I've lived it."

The Full Brew wishes everyone a Merry Christmas. I will be back drawing in the window Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 am - 2 pm, from December 27th until February 18th, 2012.

Cups at the Flatiron: 4 Weeks Down and 10 to Go

So what is the hardest thing about being in the window of the Flatiron drawing five days a week? That coffee cart right outside on 5th Avenue. It is just so dang hard to draw! I have now tackled it a half dozen times. Three of the resulting cups passed my keeper test and are hanging in the window. Have a hunt for them.

Cups of the Day #90 by Gwyneth Leech.

Recent cups in the Flatiron window.
India ink on upcycled white paper cups.

After that, it is the perspective of the buildings on all these converging and diverging streets. No, I don't have to tackle them, but it is an irresistible challenge. I peer up Broadway and 5th Avenue to the north and try to figure out that crazy skyline. Am I really seeing buildings as far away as 42nd Street? What a vista!

The view from the inside

the cup installation by Gwyneth Leech, 

in the Sprint Prow Artspace, Flatiron Building,
where 5th Avenue and Broadway Meet.

Visitors outside the plate glass, and those who find their way in through the Sprint Store are always welcome, as long as they don't mind that I usually won't be looking them in the eye - I have to keep drawing, it is nothing personal. Lots of kids come in on Saturdays especially, and don't want to leave. Thanks to Faber Castell and my now enormous stash of empty take-out cups from all over the five boroughs, there is plenty for everyone who wants to try cup drawing.

 

The view from Broadway.

Everyone knows about cups!

Usually mom and dad are too shy to draw, and while little Johnny tries his hand on one, two, three cups they cruise the Sprint store checking out the latest merchandise (which is the new I-phone, by the way).

 

 Impromptu drawing workshop inside the exhibit.

A steady flow of kids on a Saturday afternoon.

I am getting to know the rhythm of the Sprint store by now. I arrive each morning a few minutes before 11am with my takeout cup from one of a selection of nearby places (Eisenberg's, Deli Marché, Argo) and catch the eye of the manager(ess) on duty - Rob, Ashley, Precious, Yanelli, sometimes Matt. Then I go and sit in mental Zen space by the glass door leading to the Prow until the key is fetched from a secret location down a spiral staircase and deep in the bowels of the offices below street level. The key arrives, the manager(ess) unlocks with a smile, there is a whoosh of air as the door opens, I am invariably wished a good day, and finally, I have reached the inner sanctum.

The door is left ajar and will be locked again once I leave. I get myself situated: cell phone and camera out, coffee at hand, pull up the chair, take a seat and bam.... I am in the zone for the next three hours, drawing and looking and dreaming and seeming to float on the current of humanity outside the glass. The buzz and music from the Sprint store recede, people and traffic are a distant hum, there is the occasional low rumble of a passing subway train. None of it distracts me. I have to say, it really is a sweet spot for a studio, right in the heart of the city, and four weeks have flown by! I feel fortunate indeed to have another ten stretching leisurely before me.

The installation from the very point of the Prow.

The exhibit is changing and growing 

as I add new cup drawings five days a week.

Time for A Refill: the Cups Go to Buck House

"Are you OK? wrote a friend this week. "Are your blogging days over? Of course there's always the possibility that they locked the storefront, turned off the lights and didn't realize you had fallen asleep under a comforting pile of pristine cups-in-waiting."

Locked away with my drawing materials! A lovely thought. But no, I have just been buried beneath all those domestic and mundane things long neglected for the sake of art. And in truth, by the end of six weeks in the window I felt as empty as a used paper coffee cup.

Raining cups in the Hypergraphia window

March, 2011

Photo: Marianne Barcellona

In early April, I packed up cup drawings for collectors, exhibitions and the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery and felt bereft to see the installation dispersed. After that, I continued to pack: for the Trans Art Conference in Boston, to clear space so I could repaint my apartment and for trips to visit family.

Then a few weeks ago, I found myself on the Upper East side drinking Arnold Palmer's (half lemonade, half ice tea) with Cheryl McGinnis and Deborah Buck at Buck House on Madison Avenue at 94th Street, to plan a second Hypergraphia Cup Drawing Window Installation.

This time it will be a one-day-only event. On June 9th I will be drawing in the window and from 3 - 7 PM they will be serving coffees, cocktails and chocolates. So if you missed it on 38th Street, here is a chance to experience Hypergraphia for yourself. Or if you loved it, please bring or send friends. Summer is here and I am refilled with fresh ideas and the energy to tackle that pile of pristine cups-in-waiting!
See you at Buck House.

Eat/Art, Stumptown and the Porcelain of Daniel Levy

I was headed West on 29th Street from Broadway to shoot some photos of the many and varied food-related artworks in the exhibition Eat/Art at Atlantic Gallery, where I am showing three cup drawings.

Cup of the Day #53

Trio of Gingerbread Cups by Gwyneth Leech

Colored ink, sumi ink and white-out pen 

on paper coffee cups
in Eat/Art

I was hankering after a coffee but discovered that the blocks I was treading are a culinary desert, being instead the Midtown heart of bling; store after store is an Aladdin's cave of costume jewellery, watches, trinkets and ornamented baseball caps. On each door stern notices are taped:"Wholesale Only, "Tax ID Required", "No Retail". What is it about such admonitions that make me want to buy something?

Just past my gallery destination, a sandwich board annoucing a studio sale at 155 West 29th caught my eye, and I detoured up in a worn freight elevator to Daniel Levy's amazing porcelain-ware production studio on the third floor. He has been working in the neighborhood for many years and had a wealth of exquisite handmade objects for sale. I left with a black and white cup and the beginning of an idea about porcelain coffee cups in my head.

In Eat/Art at Atlantic Gallery, just a few doors away, the shopping opportunities are plentiful. All the artworks are 12" or less, very reasonably priced and can be taken home at purchase. In addition, 10% of each art sale during the show goes to Just Food, "a local nonprofit organization that connects farms to inner-city residents and helps them grow their own food and otherwise increase their access to fresh ingredients."

 Coffee filter artwork by Linda Stillman

Medium: used coffee filter, 

acrylic on panel with plastic cap

in Eat/Art

I still had coffee on my mind, so naturally my eye was drawn to an illusionistic wall mounted half cup by Chris Zeller, a jaunty coffee filter artwork by Linda Stillman, a charming green demi-tasse in oils by Whitney Brooks Abbot, and a light-hearted tea bag mobile by Christina Sun. To go with, there are artworks using toast and Froot Loops, paintings of muffins and pancakes, and several delightful cakes made from ceramics. You can see some of the pieces in a New York Times article here or on the gallery website here.
Better yet, head on down to see the show yourself. It is up through December 23rd, at 135 West 29th Street, Suite 601.

As I was leaving, I  asked Pamela Talese, organizer of group shows at the gallery how she survives working in such a caffeine wasteland. "Oh, you just turned the wrong way when you got off the train. Stumptown at 29th, is just a half block the other side of Broadway. It will more than meet your needs."
Indeed, at Stumptown the beautifully lit display cases of pastry, the juanty fedoras the staff wear and the impeccable fern pattern in my latte foam were works of art in their own right.
And the coffee, roasted in Red Hook, was excellent too.

Kokkino by Zekio Dawson

Mixed media

in Eat/Art

The Windows of Bergdorf's and Coffee at the Plaza

It is here with a vengeance. The night of Thanksgiving, even before December began, I saw my first flat-bed truck laden with cut Christmas trees rolling into the city. This Sunday afternoon, I gave into the moment and strolled up 5th Avenue with my seven year old daughter.

Cup of the Day #52

By Gwyneth Leech

Colored ink on white paper coffee cup

There were gold boxes in Cartier's, opening and shutting to reveal sapphires and pear-shaped diamonds against red velvet. At Tiffany's, it was a frosty tale of the Blue Bird, small snow-covered storybook scenes strewn with more diamond rings. At Van Cleef and Arpels the windows were the sets of charming paper cut-out theaters, rich with undersea treasures - corals and pearls and a sailing ship laden with jewels. 

But the show stopper was, as always, the windows of Bergdorf and Goodman at 5th and 58th. I can't even begin to describe the sheer lavishness of their Christmans windows, always a cornucopia of objet d'art and wild ideas, a spendidly dressed mannequin somewhere in the midst of each display. This year, clockwork creatures abounded and the tour de force was a window filled with icy treasures, including a huge octopus studded with mother-of pearl and crystals.

The windows are the work of a team of artists and artisans led by the brilliant David Hoey- and if your wallet is deep a coffee table book of years of these windows, published by Assouline, can be had for just $550. "If only real life were as swell as the windows of Bergdorf's," quips Bette Midler in the introduction.

Van Cleef and Arpels

Ruby ring in a clockwork oyster shell 

57th Street, NYC, December 2010

Sated with visual splendors, almost at Central Park, we entered the Plaza Hotel on a whim. It is still partly a hotel despite its recent reconfiguration as luxury condominiums and looks resplendent following renovation. We briefly considered tea in the Palm Court but opted instead to descend to the lower level and have a paper cup caffeine break by an incongruously located Koi pond. There is a food market which serves Kobricks coffee - quite excellent.

As a final bonus, we found Santa Claus in a grotto down there, seated on a satin sofa and available for an audience. Why he had a Plaza Hotel monogram on his fur-trimmed hat was hard to explain, but he was jovial and otherwise quite convincing.

"What do you want for Christmas, young lady?"

"Presents!" The prompt reply.

"In particular?"

"New pajamas. My pajamas are old and filled with holes."

Phew, Santa didn't so much as glance at me. Definitely time to leave 5th Avenue and take the subway home!

Bergdorf and Goodman holiday window

5th Avenue, NYC

December 2010