Street Find

It was evening and two friends of mine and I left a church on 23rd after attending a conversation hosted by Redeemer about Artist as Creator (more on this to come). We kicked the dirty snow banks as we walked down the dark and now narrow sidewalk.  Old Christmas trees reached their dry branches from the soot soaked snow as calling out to be rescued.

"What's this?!" My friend Ned pointed at this garbage heap.

"Looks like Styrofoam."  Janna replied.

My attention peaked and I started rolling the big block of solid potential around in the garbage snow.  "Yep, I want it." After a brief discussion about bed bugs vs. my incessant will on having the material I grabbed the object and began to try to haul it down the street.

When we reached a major intersection Ned began hailing cabbies. One stopped - looked at the object and drove off. The second stopped opened his trunk and after us trying to shove it in his cab, said no and pulled off. The third was a Van that pulled over and with out even letting us try to pop it in the back said no and pulled off.

I knew what had to be done - walk it from 23rd to 28th st. Ned said his farewell and Janna took up the other side of the behemoth and we began our ascent to Midtown. Stares, laughter and questions came from every direction. The experience showed some of the chivalry still left in the city too as many business suites stopped and asked us if they could help.

After we got to the studio the night guard looked at us in suspicion. Janna thumped her head with her hand and said we couldn't bring it in the front elevators EVER and were only allowed to use the freight elevators during business hours.

My heart still courageous looked at the near subway with ambition and then back at the security guard with a bit of snark in my eyes. Laughing we took it down to the underground and slid it into the car jumped the gap right before the train doors shut. The other car passengers were a little shocked to say the least. We unloaded our street find on the outskirts of Queens and into the storage closet where Janna lives.

Today is Tuesday and my goal is to get it from Queens to the 7th floor of NYCAMS.

FAQ of the night:

Q : What is it?
A: A large block of raw potential made of Styrofoam about 6x4x2"

Q : What are you going to do with it?
A : Sculpt it into a Letter of a typeface that I am designing. Come see April 8th!

Q : What does your font look like? Does it have those little thingies?
A : Yes, my font has serifs and is inspired from the early typefaces of the Italian Renaissance.

It was evident that walking around with this big thing was out of the ordinary. More posts soon about the progress of the typeface and the show as a whole.