Finding Inspiration in Art

Hayley Young's exhibition, Orchid Fever      
at the 5-50 Art Gallery, through July 20.         

There's not a thing we humans can't write about. All we need is inspiration. Today I got a cosmic jolt to my imagination when I went to the opening of artist Hayley Young's exhibition, Orchid Fever, at 5-50 Gallery in Long Island City, New York. I've been following Youngs for several years now and continue to marvel at her evolution. In her paintings, I see more motion, rhythm, and symmetry than I am likely to see walking down a midtown Manhattan street at rush hour, with one exception: inYoungs's work, serenity defines the movement. Although orchids inspired Youngs to create the 14 pieces of this exhibition, what I experienced was a lesson in how color and shape can form a vast harmony of water, earth, air, flora, fauna, and humanity that I just can't find in any other form of communication. Yet her art inspires me to try to replicate what she does through words, and while I might not get there, creativity is more about the journey than the destination.

When I posted in this blog 13 years ago a four-part series on finding inspiration, I was trying to explain that a single evening in one's life holds multiple sources of inspiration, in my case a walk, a dinner, a look at Times Square, and a play, on March 22, 2012. During the pandemic, many of us even were inspired by sights we had taken for granted when walking in isolation in our neighborhoods. 

The 5-50 Gallery is a cool space, no more than 200 square feet of a converted garage in a hip area of the city. For a quick subway ride, the first stop in Queens from Manhattan (Vernon Boulevard and Jackson Avenue on the number 7 train), you can find inspiration through July 20 at Youngs's show. Look at the paintings a long time to get the flow and musicality of her work. You'll dance.

Lighthouse International Film Festival at LBI

I have been staying in Beach Haven, New Jersey, for the seventeenth annual Lighthouse International Film Festival. While the weather has not been kind to visitors this year, the movies have been. You could do worse than watch a movie on a rainy day. I've done just that many times over by watching 60 films: 3 feature-length narratives, 3 feature-length documentaries, 43 short narratives, and 11 short documentaries over five days. 

The LIFF is an internationally renowned juried event that screens excellent independent movies from around the world. I will not review any of them here. Enough to say that they're worth watching. You can get a brief description of all of them here. 

But I do praise the festival itself. It is well organized, reasonably priced, and content rich. The 200-plus staff  members are gracious and accommodating, and the venues are comfortable. It doesn't hurt that the LIFF takes place on Long Beach Island, commonly referred to as LBI, a barrier island legendary for its spectacular beach the full length of its 18 miles. The restaurants, bars, and shops are plentiful, and you can take early morning beach walks even in the June drizzle. The LBI vibe is positively chill. You'll feel a cool sense of community and as much entertainment as you can handle from Wednesday to Sunday. Remember the LIFF for next year.