The Last Day

I’ve been having trouble getting started on these last few blog posts partly because I’m mourning the close of my “Summer of Freedom,” and partly because I’m finding it difficult to find the words to effectively wrap-up this whole experience.  Above all, I’m feeling very grateful—grateful for my parents who enabled me to have this experience, grateful for wonderful friends who made sure I never felt like home was too far away, grateful for the time and energy that each SVA faculty member invested into critiquing my work and making me a better photographer, and grateful to the Lord for providing me with this gift of a summer.

Now I’m off to Ft. Worth to celebrate my grandparents’ 60^th wedding anniversary and then finally home to San Diego because the ’09-’10 school year is already beginning and it’s time to go back to reality.

Going home. Eastman's travel light, yes we do.

I LOVE YOU!!

To all my loyal followers, thanks for reading this blog and sharing in all the fun!  I want to go back very soon and think you should all come with me, ok?

XOXO, Lindsey

The Thirty-seventh Day

My last full day in the city was an eventful one, allowing me to cross at least a few more things off my “New York To-Do List.”  The day went something like this…

• Last stop at SVA—Packing up my prints to take home, I felt a mixture of sadness (the program is over) and happiness (the last month was time well spent) as I walked out the door.
• Onion Tour—Prior to leaving for New York, I was encouraged by friends to go on a Big Onion Tour.  It’s an easy and cheap way to get to know the city; all the tours are led by graduate students and each one focuses on a different neighborhood in Manhattan.  Mom, Dad, Natalie, and I joined the “Immigrant Tour,” which trailed through the East Village, Chinatown, and Little Italy.  We all left feeling like we got our money’s worth of New York culture and history.

Touring through Chinatown.

• Gramercy Tavern—We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at this well-known East Side lunch/dinner spot, partly because of the amazing service and well-prepared food, but mostly because Jess filled the 5^th seat at our table.

At Gramercy Tavern.

• LeVain Bakery—Ray added this bakery to my “Must Eat List” before leaving New York so my mom and I, self-professed baking connoisseurs, made the trek up to the Upper West Side to make it happen.  Not only were their cinnamon buns (only available on weekends) featured on Oprah, but the cookies that come out of this hole-in-the-wall bake shop were voted “Best in New York.”  No wonder.  The oven-ready balls of dough were the size of baseballs and each cookie was served slightly warm so that the outside was nicely browned and the inside was moist and melty.  Mmmmm…

That was our first cookie: chocolate chip. After that we had to try the chocolate chocolate chip.

• Cuts and Color—Haircuts at Oscar Blandi and manicures and pedicures at New York Nails and Spa left all the Eastman women feeling groomed and pampered.

Such a fun salon; they serve you cappuccinos while they cut.

• The Last Supper—We continued our Italian streak and headed to Il Buco for dinner, enjoying our last meal in the city and loving the cozy, charming, rustic ambiance.

Another classic family dinner pic.

• Rice to Riches—I passed by this creative dessert establishment on my first night in the city and had been hoping to go ever since.  We stopped in on the way home, succumbing to their persuasively bold advertising (“Go ahead and eat it.  You’re already fat.”), and each ordering our own flavor of rice pudding.  It’s the only thing on the menu but it comes in about 20 different flavors.  I ordered “French Toast” and loved it, but one thing is for certain, no one makes rice pudding like my grandma.

Notice the "Dieting is Optional" in the background. We took it to heart.

• Pack it up—It always takes more time than I think it will but I finally managed to get every last thing into those suitcases.  Departure time:  9:45 a.m. tomorrow.
• Tying up loose ends—Knowing that things will be busy when I get home, I made sure to have all pictures edited and DVDs distributed to the families who modeled for me during my time here.  Shopping at Kate’s Paperie and Paper Presentation, two fabulous stationery stores with extensive selections, I found some fun packaging materials.

The outside of a DVD package. I LOVE this ribbon!

The inside.

• Joshua—Speaking of loose ends, I’m just remembering that I never posted pictures from one of the shoots I did of a little boy from my building.  The whole shoot happened inside the family’s apartment since it was pouring that afternoon.  Here are a few of my favorites:

He looks calm here, but he definitely wasn't.

His true personality was starting to show.

This was his "relaxing" pose.

The Thirty-sixth Day

Tackling the job of hanging my prints in the SVA gallery was my morning objective.  Each one of the residency students was allotted eight feet to hang their work, and given access to a ladder, a level, and hanging tape.  After practicing my layout on the floor, I stared at my prints for a good 20 minutes before finally coming up with my game plan.  Thank God for levels—less than 30 minutes later, all 5 prints were on the wall and straight, too.

All done.

After my final critique I met up with Mom, Dad, and Natalie for a walk to Battery Park, which meant we walked south instead of north along the Hudson.  What have I been doing running north this entire last month!?  I guess I turned into a creature of habit.  Anyway, there are beautiful gardens and parks the whole way down and lots of community activities like tennis and basketball courts, pool tables, chess tables, and an adorable children’s garden.  It’s a gorgeous area!

Our walking destination was Gigino Trattoria, a Mediterranean Italian place with a patio that opens up onto a great view of the water.  I wouldn’t recommend going if you’re in any kind of hurry, but the food was fresh and good.

Walking back to the apartment, we all got around for the SVA show, meeting Robb there right at 6:00 so he could make it to his final work event immediately after.  Not only was it really rewarding to see everyone’s best work displayed together in one place, but I was lucky to have an enthusiastic group of supporters.  Of course, all five Eastman’s were in attendance, and my amazing Aunt Ginny, who took the train from her home in Connecticut to surprise me, soon joined us.  Aunt Ginny is another one of my relatives whom I have not had the chance to see since my last time at the Lake in Pennsylvania over ten years ago; it was especially good to see her!

Total surprise!

The whole fam + my wonderful Aunt Ginny.

The lovely Jessica Wheeler was also kind enough to drop in for a little tour of the gallery.  The Wheeler sisters are both in NYC for a long weekend, and Jess was able to rearrange her schedule a bit to be able to come.

Oh, how I love her!

Adrienne Sherman, and Haley and Ramsey March (Charlotte’s parents) were my final supporters, coming first to the show and then joining us for dinner at Via Della Pace.  The vibe, food, and décor at this Italian restaurant was very fun (exposed brick, lots of candles, staffed by real Italians), but the company was even better!  It was the perfect way to celebrate the completion of my program.

My name tag was misspelled so Haley took it upon herself to fix things...

Thank you, Haley! It's Lindsey with an E Y.

I highly recommend the pasta, homemade and delicious.

Haley and Adrienne...they're so much fun!

All of us.

The Thirty-fifth Day

My final group critique today led to a little more editing and a little more printing.  The good news is that my prints are now ready and all that’s left is hanging them tomorrow morning and then enjoying the show tomorrow night from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.!  Here’s the link with all the info for the show: http://media.schoolofvisualarts.edu/sva/media/16817/small/EVITE.html

We ate another amazing Cuban meal tonight at Victor’s Café in the theatre district where I made an entire plate of fried plantains disappear for the 3^rd time in 1 week.  I can’t stop… it’s becoming an addiction.  Again, such a treat to have Samantha join us!!

This marks our 5,456,999th family photo just like this one, around a dinner table. Eastman's really like to commemorate their eating experiences.

From Victor’s we only needed to cross the street to make it in to Jersey Boys, 2006 Musical of the Year.  The music was incredible and they had all the gray-haired people surrounding me up on their feet, singing and dancing, by the end of the show.  Loved it!

The long walk from dinner to the theatre...

Another terrible iPhone picture but at least you can see how close we were. You get to see lots of flying spit and sweat from the 4th row.

"Oh what a night..."

The Thirty-fourth Day

I worked with Seth during my first critique of the day to edit my work down to the few images I will be displaying at the final show on Thursday.  A few steps down the hall and thirty minutes later I met with Vince Aletti, a well-known “high art” photography critic, who was fairly harsh but I am ok with the fact that not everyone will love me.

Meeting Mom, Dad, and Natalie at the Tavern on the Green was touristy but fun and our lunch was delicious.  Post-Tavern, I headed back to SVA to work in the lab on my prints for a few hours and then headed off to meet up with the fam + Melissa (another cousin who I haven’t seen in about 10 years!) for dinner at Westville East (the same as Westville, just on the East side).  This place continues to be one of my all-time favorites.  A sampling of what was on the table tonight:  sweet potato fries, plaintains, grilled artichoke hearts with parmesean, honey Dijon brussel sprouts, sautéed green beans with slivered almonds, steak bruschetta, and homemade peach and blueberry pie.

Rolling out of Westville with mild food coma, Natalie and I walked a few blocks down the road to 10 Degrees where we got to meet up with Raymond “Ray of Sunshine” Galaviz and Shelli Benfatti, long lost friends from Pepperdine.  My two regrets at the end of the night were that 1) we didn’t take a picture, and 2) I didn’t hang out with them sooner!

The Thirty-third Day

Sleeping on the sofa pull-out bed last night was a slight downgrade from sinking into the soft, pillowly “heaven bed” in the Hamptons but at least Natalie and I got to wake up to a full breakfast this morning, prepared by Mom and Dad.  Ready for my final week of critiques, I headed off to school for my last one-on-one with Laurel Nakadate (she’s great!) and then some time in the lab.

Today was my first time printing on a large scale, enlarging most of my images to around 20” x 30”.  I learned a few things…

1)   It is hard to make color look good, especially when it’s poster size.

2)   Black and white is my best friend.

3)   The number of megapixels in my camera really do matter.  I am currently accepting donations of 5DMarkII’s.

Recovering from a lost wallet scare (I thought it was gone forever but I actually left it in the library), I joined the fam for a walk/run up and down the Hudson and then came home to get ready for our night out.

Dinner at Asia de Cuba turned into a Jamie-got-a-job-today-at-Ralph-Lauren-yes-it’s-true-and-she’s-going-to-work-close-to-Ralph-and-have-a-ridiculous-wardrobe-cause-she-gets-50%-off-and-she’s-kinda-like-Rachel-Green Celebration.  After an intense team meeting, we finally came up with our order (the waitress informed us that we weren’t allowed to order individually) and were thrilled to death with what came out of the kitchen, especially the braised shortribs and the panko-crusted plantains.

Surrounded by good people

Since we’re such crazy late night people, our after-dinner yogurt destination was closed and we proceeded on to Cones* where mom and I felt compelled to order Corn flavored ice cream.  They serve it sprinkled with cinnamon and while I don’t think I’d eat it every day, I was happy with my choice.

*Dan was doing “magic tricks” for the cab driver on our way to Cones and in the process left his Blackberry on the floor by the front seat.  Hasan, if you’re out there and reading this blog, please call the number on the screen!

The Thirty-second Day

Even more happenings…

• Another amazing breakfast—This morning’s “continental” included blueberry scones, chocolate croissants, and Greek yogurt with honey.

My roommates - this photo typifies their relationship so well.

• Sag Harbor—After an unsuccessful hunt for Ina Garten’s house, we walked through downtown Sag Harbor which consists of a ½ mile stretch of road filled with lots of shops and eateries.
• Lunching in the Living Room—We ate Cobb Salads and French Toast at this newly renovated restaurant inside the Maidstone Inn.  Super fun décor but tiny portions.

Funky interior of Maidstone; Natalie was feeling inspired.

• Redeemer—Bus-ing back in to the city, we made it just in time for the West Side evening service.
• Home—We followed up church with dinner at this wonderful little place.  They’re committed to using local and organic foods.  We were committed to downing all our dinners plus three desserts.

We liked their food AND their signage.