Massachussets, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont, Quebec.

Back in Montreal.
The past 5 days were quite intense. 10 hours in the car to get down to New York, with a quick stop in Massachussets, had to listen to a lot of talk about cars and sports because I shared the ride with 3 men. It was semi amusing. Once we got to New York, we parked the car in Brooklyn, hopped in a cab to Manhattan and found Stephen Frew's Sister Stacy's apartment rather quickly, she lives right on 3rd Ave and 28th, a great apartment with a great neighborhood.
The next morning we ventured to Brooklyn via Brooklyn Bridge and after a 2 hour detour (maria's navigation system in her head was uhm... upside down) we found the Axelle Fine Art printstudio were Mikael Petraccia (our visiting master printer at concordia) used to work. He had invited us to a little studio tour. It was nice and very interesting, the shop does mostly silkscreen and is working with some big names too. They showed us a Richard Estes silkscreen they printed and it was somewhere over 130 seperate color layers... the guy is crazy.
After visiting the shop we went to Chelsea to see the Artist Edition/Book fair (the one with free admission). This event is much smaller than the Printfair but it is all contemporary work and I had some great conversations with a few dealers about the print scene in Germany.
That evening Stacy and her boyfriend Justin, Stephen and I grabbed some delicious food and chilled.
Saturday morning I met up with Kristin Rufo who I went to Italy with in 2005. She lives in Georgia near my parents' location and she does her masters in Painting at Long Island University. We met at the large Print Fair. The fair was intense as every year, after half an hour of walking through the booths you brain and your eyes hurt from seeing so much stuff! They had the usual my favorite: Käthe Kollwitz. And of course Daumier, Picasso, Albrecht Dürrer, Kandinsky ...etc... but also Richard Serra, Art Werger, Vik Muniz, Chuck Close....etc...
I think over 80 Galleries are represented at this event and it is quite intense.
After 2 1/2 hours we had to leave, it was just too much and Stephen, Stacy and I sat down for coffee with Kristin and her friend. It was really nice to have an hour to catch up with her!
At 7:40 I took the bus to New Jersey where my dear Eva picked me up at the bus station and drove me to Franklin Lakes where Fiona was waiting for me already in the parking lot at Stop and Shop. We went for Sushi and then to Cornelia's who was delighted to see us. After chatting with her for an hour Fiona and I went into one of the guestrooms and basically talked until 5 in the morning. :)
Sunday was shopping day, Fi and I went to Palisades Mall where I found a very nice coat, which is much more Montreal appropriate than my ripped up old blue jacket. Fiona bought me a fantastic sweater as early Christmas gift. And we just had a good time running around palisades.
Upon our return to Jersey we went to Tony's Brothers Pizza, the restaurant I used to work in when I was in Highschool, and the first few winter/summer breaks in College. It was great to see everyone and nothing much had changed... Louis still threw doughballs at me, and Betty was still as welcoming as always. I had pizza for the first time in a year! Good times.
Fiona left shortly after and I sat down and had some time to catch up with Cornelia (my mentor) and a rather interesting discussion about traditional printmaking vs Digital print-outs.
I took the bus back to New York early yesterday morning, and Stephen Frew and I ventured back to Brooklyn to pick up the car. We got there half an hour after the parking restrictions had kicked in and earned ourselves a parking ticket but the car was still there! Yeay.
Off to Connecticut, quick stop in Hartford to pick up some cheap paper at Jerry's artarama and then drove up to Vermont and stopped at Stephen's brothers so that "Uncle Stephen" could read a good nightstory too his niece Lydia. I discovered "Sunbutter" which is the equivilant to peanut butter just made of sunflowers seeds. Very exciting!
I was dropped off at my apartment at around midnight last night. VERY exhausted. But happy. :) I got to see some of the people that are important in my life! I got paper and a coat! And brought back a stack of pamphlets and reproductions/ inspiration from the printfair. So overall a very successful adventure.

Thanks to Stephen Frew for making the whole adventure possible, thanks to Stacy Frew for the 2 night "living in New York" experience, thanks to Eva DeAngelis for the pick up at the bus station, thanks to Cornelia Baker for letting me stop by and stay at hers in Jersey, thanks to my dear Fiona Clark for driving up from Princeton and spending her one free day of the week with me and thanks to Mikael Petraccia for making the printshop visit possible!





Mr. Frew doesn't like pumping gas.













Mikael Petraccia.




















Stacie has a cool plant, we were wondering if it would grow and take over the walls in her apartment.

















Good ol' Brooklyn Bridge.














Stacie and Stephen Frew.














Mikael, Stephen, Stacie and I on the way to Chelsea.










Stacie and Justin.





















MaFiA reunited. :) What better way to celebrate it than staying in bed and talking. lol








For good ol' times sake, I got to rock the focus. Thanks fi!






















There is a secret door... I swear... somewhere... lol .. not.