Northern Wanderings

The summer is drawing to a close, and there is much to do before it ends. Today was on off day from my job, and I spent most of it wandering around the the northern part of New Jersey taking care of some important things.

Took care of my first non-art task, then worked my way back to the Parkway and drove up to Paramus. I've been a patron of Pearl Paint for more than 20 years. The original location for this art supply chain is up on Canal Street in Manhattan (within walking distance of such well known neighborhoods as SoHo, TriBeCa, Chinatown, and Little Italy). The building is an artists dream- five floors of just about any artist material one could possibly want, all discounted. The first one that I ever went to was the branch in Paramus, originally crowded into a tiny building, some aisles so narrow that two people literally could not pass each other. Eventually they moved to a larger, more modern building on the other side of route 17, but before and after the move it was the place I went for all my oil paints, canvas, stretchers, charcoal, printing inks, papers, etc, during the years I lived in North Jersey and my semi-annual visits back east on vacations from Carbondale. After I moved down the shore in the mid-90's, I started going to the location in Woodbridge, considerably closer to home. Unfortunately, that store closed very suddenly earlier this year (from what I have read, they closed about half their locations), leaving me with a chunk of money remaining on a gift card.

Today I used that gift card (and a little bit more) to buy some very large paper, big enough to print all four feet of the smoking block when the time comes. And while I was there, I also got some oversized matboard and foam core so that I can frame a copy of the print, and some other incidentals. Luckily, most of the rest of what I regularly use I get mail order or can pick up at local arts and crafts stores.

After a lunch stop, I dropped by my university to take care of some pre-semester tasks, including a parking permit for the fall and making copies of my first day syllabi, removing the pressure to get those made during the first week when there tends to be a line to use the department copier. More time to pull slides and prepare for my fall art classes.

From there, back to Monmouth County, with a quick stop at the Studio to drop off all those oversized art supplies before going home. I won't need any of those things for a while, but I'm glad they will be at hand when I'm ready for them.