Olrik - Walks in my New York: a story in paintings, photographs, and text

Walks in

My New York

A Story in Paintings,
Photographs, and Text
by Mikael Olrik

Translated by Eva Hage and Myrna Treston

Prologue

From Denmark and Provence to New York

My place is Denmark but the place that has been my inspiration as a painter for the past ten years has been Provence in Southern France. The lights, the landscape, the villages have constituted my universe as a painter. This is where I matured as an artist and over the years, this is where I developed my personal expression.

Scenery inspires me. It kicks off my inspiration and the process that follows turning the white paper or canvas into a final picture. With this project I used the watercolor and photography to portray my story about New York by way of small personal segments fragments which, as a whole, may turn into a mosaic of the places and the impressions that I, the architect and painter, have captured.

I am not an expert on New York but in recent years I have been there so many times I feel quite at home. Every time I return I discover something new has happened. The city is always changing. Streets in the Times Square area have been given over to pedestrians and cyclists, the New Jersey skyline across the Hudson has more high-rise buildings, and Ground Zero is no longer only an active construction site where Tower One is rapidly rising towards its 108 floors, but also a beautiful, public memorial park.

Almost forty years ago when I first visited New York, it was considered the most dangerous city in the U.S. Though I didnt really notice it at the time there were places where one needed to keep an eye out. Today, New York is the city with the least violence and crime. It is also much cleaner than I remember it being from back then and, on top of that, the city has turned green. There are newly planted trees everywhere.

In November and December of 2010 the Bikuben Foundation, a Danish charitable trust in support of art and education, granted me a stay in their SOHO apartment. This gave me the opportunity to start working on this project, which is my story of New York City. The basis consists of 31 watercolor paintings in the size of 30/30 cm. The watercolors were made more or less spontaneously, depending on which area I decided to visit on any given day, and they illustrate something characteristic about each location.

In my acrylic and oil paintings I have the idea that the observer should be able to take a stroll in the picture, even look past their frames and sense what may be in the space beyond them. As a matter of fact I follow that same idea during the process of painting the pictures. I have further developed this idea in the book by wanting to cross the line of the paper, hinting that even more stories and pictures are taking place beyond the borders. This could be something happening behind, next to or above the picture, or something that is not visible from the point where I was when I made the watercolor. Therefore the watercolors are elaborated upon and supplemented by text and photos that reveal some impressions and experiences as well as providing information about the particular area the watercolors are from.

View from My Window

This is my view from the workroom of the apartment where Im staying: 65 Thompson Street, 6th floor, Soho, New York. The apartment has two other rooms, in addition to two bathrooms, a bedroom and a large living room that faces the street. Theres also a kitchen and a staircase that leads to a terrace on the rooftop with its panoramic view of New York, New York, New York! The strange thing about this city is that people who havent even been here have a feeling for its pulse and even a sense of what it looks like, thanks in great part to the many movies shot here. I have chosen this particular scene, first of all, since it is my view during my two months in this apartment, but also because, cinematic as it is, it also seems to represent so much of New York.

In many ways New York is a city of contrasts. Here we have the older buildings of moderate height up against new buildings powerfully rising behind them. This is New Yorks leading building entrepreneur, Donald Trump, who has built yet another glass building. However, this one is actually one of his better ones architecturally, since the glass, which acts as a magical mirror, gives the smaller buildings a new perspective.

Our living quarters are very elegant and elaborate, with plenty of space for me and my dear wife, Lone. But what makes the apartment especially interesting are the holes in the brick walls the windows - which give us a more specific idea of where we are. Living quarters in Copenhagen, Paris and New York are not necessarily so very different from each other. It is the view from the windows that makes all the difference. That is what is unique to each and the fascinating part the world on the other side of the glass.

A view of Lower Manhattan will quite often be of something green: trees lining the streets; a profusion of rooftop terraces where mixed vegetation flourishes, even with trees. People reclaiming small pieces of the city on the behalf of nature.

One becomes a voyeur living in New York. The closeness can seem almost intrusive. The windows facing the street are three big panes of glass for anyone to look right into from the apartments across the street. But we dont close the curtains since it doesnt seem to be the thing to do around here. We look into each others homes but do so casually, discreetly, pretending nothing has occured even if we happen to both look out the windows at the same time. Acknowledging each others presence would violate the unspoken social norm.

Theres a girl living right across the street. Perhaps shes a student. She often has friends visiting so theres a lot going on. Early one Friday evening we were wondering why the large group that had gathered there was behaving almost lethargically, when all of a sudden everyone began jumping around. This went on for about ten minutes, then everyone disappeared. Wonder what kind of tobacco they had in their pipes! A funny experience on an ordinary day a glimpse of a tiny slice of reality. Like the day a new chimney was to be put up on the gable end of the neighbors house. A man was lowered down on a rope and managed to weld all the pieces together while hanging there in midair.