One of the greatest things about spending a weekend in NYC looking at art – high and low, in the gallery and on the street – is returning with the vision to see everything as art. Even this rainy Monday.

This is city life…this is art: Me on a bench in business clothes working on a laptop in a city plaza. Two young men in front of me juggling a soccer ball, beginning a 12-hour marathon fundraiser. A pile of blankets on the bench to my right with a dirty sock poking out. Adjacent to us, a slumbering, sunburned sailor with Patagonia clothes and the trappings of a past ‘good life’. The park employee cleaning the barrels hands a resourceful homeless man an extra trash bag for his possessions. Meanwhile, thousands of commuters stream by us, never picking up their heads. How can we not see each other on this great canvas of a plaza?   

People have said more degrading things about my artwork but “It looks like a turkey” was the first poultry reference I’ve ever heard…about my artwork, not me. (Full disclosure: I’ve been accused of talking in circles like a hen; My sister says the adorable messages I leave her in French sound as if a turkey hijacked my phone; and I have refined an excellent pigeon impression.)

The turkey comment came from a Boston police officer as my fellow artist/arts-activist/patron/friend and I walked through Chinatown last night with Soft Spore White in a clear plastic bag. I’d finally delivered it to her –  a work from an installation she helped make possible in January 2009 – and suddenly, I wanted it back! It is the best conversation piece. Ever.

Imagine if you will, a 16” irregular sphere of iridescent white with 3” conical spikes all over it, which have been folded and smooshed up against the side of a bag. Its shape is not perfect and it sags into the corners like a lifeless fair prize goldfish at the bottom of a bag of water. 

What is it? 

A spore! And we’ll release it on you if you don’t stop staring!

One woman said it looked like a dumpling. I call it art. The whole thing…the piece and the interactions with people while walking through Chinatown, and later sitting by the Chinatown Park waterfall.

I have visions of creating one enormous spore and suspending it in plastic over the plaza…what would people say then?

I added a nose to a community totem making project led by artist Judy Motzkin at the Cambridge River Festival. (the other side had a lovely face but the artist forgot it was a 3D object. )I love participatory projects...and I love saying that word, participatory.

Call it a pillow if you must. This sculpture, Soft Spore White, from an installation in '09 is heading to a client in Boston where it'll have a new life as a decorative bed pillow. Filled with microbeads, it's a fun, squishy companion while still being l'object d'art. Contact me if you're interested in your own customized sneezy, squeezy sweet dreams! (silk, thread, batting and microbeads)