Mikey in New York

Snow in New York

It's been a long time coming, and the snow didn't last the next day, but we finally got some decent snow last night. I happened to be out and about with a friend (Erin) and we frolicked in Central Park after several martinis. We ended up in a snow ball fight with some random tourists who were just as excited as we were to play in the snow!
Have to say that not much is happening right now for me in New York. It's life as usual, working to pay the bills. At the moment I'm seriously considering going back to uni next year and doing a masters in Art History here at Hunter College. It has a great program and it could be the reason I'm actually here. It seems like it would be the perfect bookend to my time in New York and I might actually come home once I complete it. I would start next year, so I'm going to spend this year working and saving as it's NOT CHEAP to do a masters in New York.

Happy New Year!

Current Influences

John Currin

So, it's coming to the end of another year and I'm making my lists of things to change etc etc. One of them is definitely the need to make more art. Seems like it was why I actually came to New York and possibly the one thing I have not done well in maintaining. So... new year....new art. Anyway, these seem to be my current influences so take note. Perhaps sometime in the new year I will post images of my new work and you will understand why these artists are important to me.

Lucien Freud























Lisa Yuskavage

Hello again

"Wow.... he's not dead!" I hear you all saying. You may notice (for the potential 3 people who read this blog) that I have not posted in just over a year. I stopped posting at almost exactlty the same time as I got a JOB. So... why do anything now? Well I've got a week off work.
For those of you who are not in the loop. I now work at Phillips de Pury and company (www.phillipsdepury.com) as an art handler. It's an art auction house similar in operation to Christies or Sothebys. It's been an amazing year, not really sure where to start and I'm certainly not going to put a years worth of information up right now....... but in a nutshell..... I now live in Manhattan. It's my 3rd apartment in the last year and I'm loving living in the city. I moved shortly after my last post to another place in Williamsburg and moved in with Mike and Rick who very quickly became very close friends. It was great living with a couple of guys who were the same age and had been in New York for a few years. I now consider their circle of friends as my own and in fact ended up moving to Manhattan with Eric who I met through Rick (they went to culinary school together).
So much has happened!... I went back to Australia for a month over my birthday in August (next year is the big one....30!), I spent a month in London opening a new gallery for work and lived with Margie and Wes. (Might be back in Jan/Feb to do another one) Like every year it had its highs and lows. Plans change, goals are re-evaluated. My grandfather passed away a few months ago and I was unable to attend the funeral. I've definitely noticed the stress of living in this city on my health! But I stay positive in the knowledge that I'm here doing something I love, working in the only industry that makes sense to me, I've made great friends and plan on seeing this one through. I do want to return to Australia, however there are a few more things I need to accomplish in this city before I can go home.
I've never put as much of myself into a job as I have with this one. It seems that there is so much potential in this city and with this company. It sometimes feels like I gave so much up to come here that I think I need to make as much of a success of myself as I can to make it all worthwhile. So..... the quest continues.
I find myself in quite a happy space these days, so it seems alot more likely that I will continue to post updates. So pop on by again. It might not be every other day, but maybe each fortnight. :)