Today at the park...

Our class went to Central Park today, even though some people were apparently unenthusiastic about it. I really couldn't wait to go since until I moved to New Jersey, I used to go to parks all the time by myself. As Bo Ae put it, "Bayside is just full of parks!" Anyhow, we weren't allowed to sit next to anyone today, which I completely forgot at first. Once we left to go find our own spots, I first followed Michael, and then I saw Ali lagging behind all by herself. Michael had to go to the bathroom, and he didn't want us to wait for him, so Ali and I walked to try to find something interesting. We walked past the baseball field, then past all the screaming kids on the carousel, and then saw a statue of Shakespeare (I think this area is called "Literary Way"). We soon stopped in front of a weird tree that had all of these knots and bumps on it. We sat down where it was quiet, and she drew another tree. After a few minutes, I got bored, and I thought I saw a few people walking by themselves (we saw Christina earlier, and I could have sworn I saw Henry walking by the other side, but who knows), so eventually I told her that I was going to see her later so I could try to get lost...

(Trees, left big tree was the weird one)

So, according to the map that I'm now looking at, I wound up somewhere past The Lake and into "The Ramble" area. No wonder Danielle couldn't find me! I've been to that area before, and usually there aren't many people in that area. Most of the people that were in that area were either bird watchers, lonely people, hikers, and some bicyclists. Some of the paths are just dirt and not cement, which added to the whole atmosphere of being (somewhat) alone in the woods, even though we were still in the middle of a big city. After doing some gesture sketches of squirrels (which didn't photograph well), I then moved closer to the lake area since I felt a little too alone (wearing a short skirt when there are only men around would kinda make a person uneasy, right?). So then, I sat on this rock that had a bunch of other larger rocks around it (which seems to be a big thing in Central Park), and so I started to sketch that area since it seemed interesting. (I don't get what goes through my head either sometimes...)

There were a few other people that walked by, but most either seemed like they were set on a destination or were walking with other people, so most of them weren't taking in the whole environment. When you are with someone else, you usually wouldn't notice the different sounds of the birds, or the brown-nosed squirrel that wants someone's attention, or that creepy guy that just walked by ten minutes ago and is back again only to sit on the rock next to yours and wants to stare at you for about 20 minutes without you noticing even though you were just talking to a random Mourning Dove? Yeah...So, while I was drawing, I noticed this one old lady that looked pretty sad, and she was just standing by a tree feeding the birds. I wouldn't have noticed her if I was there talking to a friend or just walking by, and I also wouldn't have noticed that when she was done with the bird food, she stood by another tree to get a smaller bird to climb onto her hand. A few minutes before she came, I was trying to do the same thing with a squirrel since it wanted a piece of my sandwich, but it evidently didn't like the bread that I had and preceded to get some more food out of me. The pigeons instead ate the bread, and they were really fat ones, too. I, however, didn't feel so alone when I saw the older lady, and it was possibly the only thing that could make her have some happiness and escape from the rest of the world. A few more minutes passed by, and I tried to do some sketches of the birds that were flying around. Pigeons are easy to sketch since they just walk around humans all the time and are generally lazy compared to the other birds that are more shy and fly away whenever someone moves. I saw the usual birds- pigeons, sparrows, starlings, and fat robins. Then I saw a blue jay, a male and female cardinal, mourning doves, and even some woodpeckers. Eventually, I saw some other birds that I had no idea whatsoever what they were since I have never seen them in my life. There was also one that was kind of greenish, but it was probably someone's lost parakeet... I was then aiming to do about 30 gesture drawings of them, but then I noticed that guy that came back and was staring right at me. It just ruined the whole mood and brought me back to humanity instantly. If he tried to do anything, what could I do- hit him with my sketch pad, stab him with a calligraphy pen?

It was about 3:30 anyhow, so I started walking back so I could try to find a place closer to do at least one more drawing. I walked around the lake again, bored still, but then I saw some pretty trees budding with flowers. I feel bad picking things off of trees for some reason (not sure of they have feeeeelings, but who knows), and I also didn't know if I was even allowed to do that since they had a fence around them. So, I picked some petals off of the ground, and walked some more. Further down, I saw some more trees blooming, so I took some more flowers, and I sat down on a secluded rock where there weren't any screaming kids. A few minutes later, this happened :

There were a few people that walked by with their dogs, and they probably thought that I was crazy. A girl dressed in black gluing random things on a piece of paper in the park isn't exactly normal. I then thought what else I could do... (There were so many dead leaves everywhere, so why not...a tree with dead leaves...)

I then thought what could be weirder, and something that someone else might not do. With only a few minutes left until I wanted to walk back, I thought that I could glue some dirt on the paper. At that time, some family was yelling for their kid that was running away, and then these other parents brought their kid around to annoy me. I don't understand why you would let your kid run around someone when they are in the middle of doing something (this also happened to me when I was drawing the birds). This time though, the mom saw me sprinkling some dirt around the page, and so once again, I guess me being dressed in black doesn't really help with the weirdness of the scenario.(for some reason, it didn't dry in the middle, and i'm getting other ideas for dirt in art...hmm...)

So, after I was done gluing, I was going to wait a bit to let it dry, but people were getting annoying, and so I walked back to our meet up place. No one else was there, but eventually I spotted Bo Ae. We walked back to the spot, and a few other people showed up. We then left early after we showed Danielle our drawings, but I didn't want to go because I had to either go to Port Authority and wait on a huge line during rush hour (which is oh so much fun even with a thin portfolio), or take a longer trek and spend more money for the PATH train. I took that PATH, but then there was some weird businessman looking at me maybe wondering why I had dirt on my shoes, it made me wish that I was back in the park with the birds and squirrels. It's probably illegal to have a pet squirrel, right? Hmm....