Earth: Photography Show 2021
Here are a few photographs from the Earth: Photography Show 2021 opening, to which I had a great honor to be invited to. One Art Space is a wonderful gallery in Tribeca, featuring artists across all genres and media. Curated by Diego Ponce, the work selection worked very well together, offering a coherent yet diverse views from artists of various backgrounds and ages. Two of my “Winter from Above” pieces appeared next to the work of talented photographers: Carla Pivonski, Robert Whitman, Fernando Espinosa, Susan Magnano, Doug Kofsky, Joelle Soraya Batista Iseli, John Poblocki, Jinane Ennasri, John Mazlish, Joseph Dalton, Steve Prezant.
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Edwina Sandys – All About Eve at Salomon Arts
Salomon Arts gallery proudly presents “All about Eve” – an exhibit by world renowned artist Edwina Sandys. A multidisciplinary artist, over the past decades Edwina has created art of international acclaim that includes sculpture, paintings, collage and works on paper. Please enjoy the photographs from the opening of her New York City solo exhibit. (Thursday, April 16, 2021)
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Norwood's Harriet
Salomon Arts Gallery and Willoughby Advisory present “Norwood’s Harriet – Celebrating Democracy, Freedom and Diversity”, an art exhibit in one of the New York’s iconic private clubs. It is my honor to have one of my pieces featured in this group show, which will be open throughout the month of December, 2020.
The complete roster of artists: Kacper Abolik, Max Blagg, Peter Dayton, Alexis Duque, Saskia Friedrich, Marco Gallotta, Elizabeth Gregory Gruen, Nathan Slate Joseph, Curtis Kulig, Victoria de Lesseps, Noel de Lesseps, Tatiana Lisovskaya, Christopher Makos, Katrina Del Mar, Warren Neidich, Donald Perlis, William Baker Rand, Oscar Riquelme, Barnaby Ruhe, Edwina Sandys, Bert Stern, Barnett Suskind, Lucy De Kooning Villeneuve, Richard Wengenroth, and Filip Wolak
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Day 20 – Home (kinda) sweet home
Friday, May 29 2020
Day 20
There she is. Barely seen over the misty horizon, growing bigger and bigger with each mile traveled. It is the view that is so familiar, yet always making my heart beat faster. The tightly packed skyscrapers – the sign of might and progress of this country, but also a symbol of the tremendous work of millions that shaped the city. The familiar view I have always loved, always admired, always missed when away.
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Lady Liberty – standing proud welcoming us, the travelers, as it did for generations.
There is something something powerfully reassuring in this view. The view I know so well for over 20 years. The place that has witnesses many of my successes and failures, the place that made me and shaped me. The place that gave me the opportunity to grow and expand, to realize make my dreams come true.
From this perspective, everything appears normal, business as usual… But we know, that we are returning to a changed Home. How will the City receive us? So much unknown remains. What will be this City’s future? How can I fit in this changing world? Where will we fit in those insecure times?
Will the road be our new home?
We wanted to thank all those who contributed to our amazing experience. For the help, advice, attention, words of encouragement, friendship and love. In the times of social distancing, once again we have learned how important the human connection is.
Flight Path
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Day 19 – Way home
Thursday, May 28 2020
Day 19
We awoke in Angola, Indiana at Tri-State Steuben County Airport, a land-locked field surrounded by lakes. And upon those lakes—seaplane bases! I talked via email with an awesome pilot from the area who had worked with Indiana lawmakers to change laws surrounding seaplanes, which had made the water of the state much more accessible to them. As a result, this beautiful cluster of bases exists. They host an annual fly in every September which we would love to attend this year.
We grabbed the crew car and had a hearty Indiana breakfast at Timbers down the road. The restaurant was recommended to us by airport manager Terry, and I loved that it was shaped like an a-frame cabin.
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The weather for the day was IFR until mid-afternoon, so we took a drive out to Lake James to see if we could spot any seaplane activity, or at least, some remnants of it. No such luck, but the beauty of the area was lovely and we enjoyed a joy cruising lake drive.
After a while, we returned to the airport to sit it out, I did some studying for work and Filip worked on some photo edits and read about engines from an FBO book. It was a great spot to get things done, and we were happy we’d chosen it.
Afternoon approached and the weather improved, marginally, so we prepped the plane and got ready to depart. Initially our plan was to fly East as far as possible, and stop at an airport directly before a front of weather that looked, from the ground at KANQ, impossible to traverse.
As we flew East, monitoring the TAFs, METARs, and radar, the conditions improved, and the front at our 12 dissipated enough to make it through. We checked ETA and fuel burn and realized, incredibly, we could make it to our home airport in Central Jersey tonight! It was bittersweet, because getting home early was exciting, but neither of us wanted the journey to end, maybe ever. However, we decided to press on and make it home to 47N that night.
We flew and navigated through the front—it was moving North, and we diverted slightly South and missed any convection or precipitation. However, East of the front deteriorated in ceilings and visibility. We’d expected this and were prepared for it, but forecasts were better than actual. Night was falling and our VFR aircraft wasn’t equipped for dropping ceilings and vis. We were so close to home but eventually called it and diverted to Penn Valley, KSEG, in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania to spend the night and wait for conditions to improve.
The airfield was deserted, the FBO locked. However, the front of the FBO was open with bathrooms which was appreciated. The town itself was sleepy, and we ventured out on foot for sustenance, traversing a highway. We secured adequate food and drink and returned to the airport. Empowered, we pitched our tent directly beneath the airplane wing on the ramp and celebrated. Tonight was our last night out, and we were going to make sure it was a full send.
After music and drinks and photos and laughs, we went to sleep late, under an IFR sky, happy the weather had colluded with our secret desires to give us one last perfect Flamp.
We awoke in the morning light and stretched. The airport manager Sam came and greeted us. Not only was he absolutely fine with our underwing camping, he even had a suggestion for a better place to do it next time. Absolutely wonderful. We took the crew car and on his suggestion found a group of Amish farmers grilling chicken and pork steak on the corner by the airport. I’m serious in saying with complete honesty I don’t think I can recall a better meal. Satiated beyond imagination, and with beautifully improving weather, we fueled and fired up. One more leg. Our hearts were pretty heavy on this one.
There it was! 47N, Central Jersey, our point of departure 20 days prior. We’d done it—Coast to Coast and back again. Touching down on that accomplishment felt sacred and immense. And then in a flash of smiles, we saw our friend Andy—on his motorcycle—racing down the taxiway filming us, laughing his head off. We burst into laughter at the joyful reception and taxied to the tie down space following him, where he greeted us with champagne and mirthful congratulations. Such a wonderful way to return.
Flight Path
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Day 18 – It's All about the Weather
Wednesday, May 27 2020
Day 18
Denison, Iowa was a restful stop under dense grey skies that absolutely refused to clear up despite promising forecasts the night before. The entire day was spent in a frustrating state of “hurry up and wait,” we kept almost heading to the plane to fire up and then conditions would worsen and we’d sit back down, defeated. A surprisingly exhausting state to remain in, we took several drives around town in the airport truck with an eye to the sky and it’s low, unfriendly ceilings.
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Finally at 5 pm, after a long day of ground things—the longest we’ve remained on the ground since the trip began—we were rewarded with a window of opportunity and dashed to the plane, taking off into a beautiful window of blue.
Off we flew! Circumnavigating around storm clouds and IMC, our patient waiting gifted us beautiful views of rainbows and sunbeams the entire leg. After a couple hours, we landed and fueled in Moline, IL. Incredibly, I’d been to KMLI, Quad City Airport, twice in the past year to drop off and pick up our company seaplane for a new paint job. Never thought I would return so soon, but there is was, right on our route with the best fuel prices in the state.
We took off again and as night descended around us, we passed by Chicago and some menacing storm clouds, the air smooth, dark, and peaceful. We determined our stop for the night would be KANQ, chosen for good fuel prices, good accommodations, and most importantly, because it was surrounded by at least 10 seaplane bases, which is always a great thing. We touched down around 11:30 EST (we’d lost an hour crossing over from central time), had dinner, and fell into a restful Indiana slumber.
Flight Path (incomplete)
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Day 17 – Onto the Farmlands of Nebraska and Iowa
Tuesday, May 26 2020
Day 17
I awoke on the airport to the sound of a turbine engine, that familiar roaring whine joyfully clawing it’s way into my unconscious brain and shaking me awake—I opened my eyes and sat up quickly, fueled by sleepy curiosity. Outside the massive window to the ramp in the pilot lounge we crashed in was a glorious biplane Ag Cat taxiing by. What a gorgeous airplane to awaken to! While they were first manufactured with a radial engine, this bad boy had a PT-6A-34AG with 750 hp. So beautiful, it looked like it would be the most fun thing in the world to fly, all low altitude operations with all that power.
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I must have been inspired by that beautiful machine and it’s low over the Earth operations, because later, as we pressed on East from Wyoming to Nebraska, I descended low and slow, side by side with an Eastbound train, as Filip filmed it chugging along over the ground. Fantastic to fly in unison with another Eastbound engine.
The lands we flew over this morning weren’t as notable as the explosive wonders we had grown used to flying over for the past week in the West, but the sky was massive and we were flying—life was good.
Our first fuel stop was KTIF, in Thedford, Nebraska, a sweet empty field untouched by time with a big old Ford camper van sitting next to the fuel pump with the keys on the dash for pilot use. We took it to town and grabbed breakfast at a local joint, the Arrow Cafe, that was running an all day Taco Tuesday special. The locals were hilarious and warm, especially the owner, who was busy making, running, and bussing all the food himself, cracking jokes the whole time. We flew overhead when we departed and rocked our wings adios.
Onwards we went, and landed to fuel at Norfolk, Nebraska and check out the massive weather front blocking our smooth VFR passage back to the East. We took a cruise in their crew car and explored the town—apparently it’s Johnny Carson’s hometown, who knew!
The forecast for the next week is questionable and is absolutely going to have an effect on our homeward mission. However, in Norfolk, we determined conditions were acceptable enough to make it to a field two hours East, putting us closer to Chicago, where we have aspirations of shooting the busiest airport in the country, O’Hare. So we fired up and took off into weather that was reporting perfect visibility and decent to perfect ceilings. However, as we flew, the ceiling began to drop without warning and conditions deteriorated rapidly. We were forced to land at KDNS, Denison, in Iowa. It was a happy accident however—the FBO there was gorgeous, empty, with a crew car awaiting us and a great place to sleep. We couldn’t be luckier to spend a night in such a perfect place. And hot damn, were we happy to be on the ground.
To the East!
Flight Path
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