“The Mind is not a Vessel to be Filled but a Fire to be Kindled.”-Plutarch

After sitting and standing, maneuvering and moving in the dark for the last week, candles have became a new-found love of mine. The shapes and sizes they come in and their aromas and auras add a fun twist to these once needed commodities (back in the days when they were needed for light and not sprucing up my room’s decor.)

Here’s some of my favorite candles-not only for their scents  but also for their charm and class too.

1. Voluspa Champagne Rose Candle

2.Michael Aram Black Orchid Candle

3. Jonathan Adler Grapefruit Candle (sold at none other than SOULCYCLE)

Game On

Ever wonder what the difference between a laugh and a giggle is, or what constitutes a chuckle or a crack up? What makes us burst out laughing and how funny does something have to be to make us roll on the floor laughing? This FAVORITE game of mine, Anomia, will definitely diagnose you with a case of the giggles. It’s fast paced, competition based nature will keep you on your toes with not a minute on the clock to waste.

The directions are simple. Draw a card from the center pile and flip it over. Does the symbol on your card match one on another player’s card? If so, you must quickly face-off with the other player by giving an example of the person, place, or thing on their card before they can do the same for yours. If you blurt out a correct answer first, you win their card and drawing continues. Sounds simple, right? Eh. Get ready to rumble with your friends and family of all ages and enjoy, let loose, take a walk on the wild side and GAME ON!

Modern. Magnificent. Monika

While glancing at my spam folder, I casually and carelessly came across this email from the Public Art Fund describing their latest exhibit. After viewing Tatzu Nishi’s Discovering Columbus in you guessed it, Columbus Circle, I fell in love with this organization and am eagerly awaiting my visit to their next exhibit in Central Park.

This 40-foot-tall steel sculpture by Monika Sosnowska marks the threshold between the urban environment of midtown Manhattan and the landscape of Central Park. The artist has used pulleys, cranes, and other heavy machinery to manipulate a spiral staircase to resemble an evergreen tree. No longer climbable, its stairs cascade around the central shaft of the sculpture like weighted tree limbs. The ribbon-like railing forms a twisting red line against the black silhouette of the sculpture. As if piercing the pavement with industrial force, Fir Tree (2012) conjures an image of skyscrapers with steel roots below the city. 

For more than ten years, Sosnowska’s work has explored our psychological relationship to the built environment, creating complex installations that alter our perceptions of familiar objects and spaces. Based in Warsaw, Sosnowska often works with architectural elements associated with Eastern Europe during the Soviet period. Fir Tree echoes the industrial steel staircases found on the exterior walls of Polish housing blocks. Here, this once-functional object refuses to serve its intended purpose. Instead it becomes an animated and outsized metaphor, testing the bounds of a familiar form as it reaches toward the urban skyline.(Publicartfund.org)