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Behind the Painting
From the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library rooftop, I sat on a tall chair and painted in perfect fall weather. Behind me, people studied and sipped coffee. Families talked in a scattering of languages. Others sat quietly, taking in the view.
A man told his friends about the stone lions outside the NYPL. “And they have names. Patience and Comfort.”
Close enough. A college kid protested on his phone, probably to his parents. “Listen, it’s not a Mickey Mouse class!”
A girl in a sash that read “Miss Three Rivers Teen” smiled for photos in a tiara and sparkling purple gown.
A mother held up her very young son to see the canvas. “See, painting requires a lot of attention. You have to be present in the moment.” She talked to him like he was an experienced artist. I liked that.
Pulleys raised a bucket and a man wearing a hard hat and hi-vis. He was repairing the stone cornice. Up here you could appreciate the detail, intricate stone carvings you could never experience from the street.
People in black coats hurrying in and out of Bryant Park. Traffic slowed, stopped, then sped up again, racing down 5th Avenue into the New York afternoon.
I left the roof and walked down the street I’d just painted to find a cafe chair in Bryant Park.
