Words

Umbel: Shadows

BY Author Jessica | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Brooklyn, Umbel, Words

It’s interesting to me that “umbel” comes from the Latin root “umbra,” meaning shadow. Umbel, then, describes not the flower itself, or even the shape of the flower, but rather the effect the flower has on its surroundings. Perhaps the word was chosen by an ant, relaxing in the shade of one such plant.

List of unsual words that begin with I

BY Author Lynne Sachs | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Information, Inquiline

Here are some unusual words that begin with the letter I. I painted this watercolor during a cold two weeks in a cabin in the woods at the MacDowell Colony reading the whole dictionary. When I started to think about which one would be right for Abecedarium:NYC, it seemed logical to choose a word that spoke to the experience of living in a home that simultaneously “yours” and someone else’s, namely a landlord. Inquiline fit the bill. It’s really a zoological term we transposed to the the life of a city dweller. Watch Beth Botshon’s video and see what I mean.  Which word would you have chosen?

Watercolor for I words by Lynne Sachs

List of G words from 1968 Dictionary

BY Author Lynne Sachs | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Brooklyn, Georgic, Information, Words

Here is a list of words beginning with G from a forty year old dictionary I pored over during a residency at the MacDowell Colony. It was fascinating and disconcerting to discover how many amazing words have now disappeared not only from our usage but also from this etymological archive. Gone. We chose georgic — which sent me to a community garden in Brooklyn to reflect on agriculture in the city.Watercolor of G words by Lynne Sachs

Watercolor of words beginning with the letter F

BY Author Lynne Sachs | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Foudroyant, Information, Words

Here is a watercolor of words beginning with the letter F. I spent two weeks at the MacDowell Colony looking for a list of thought provoking words for every letter. In the end, I chose foudroyant and spent a day at Colony Island shooting people on rides. Which will disappear first Coney Island as we know it or an obscure word like foudroyant?

Watercolor of words beginning with F by Lynne Sachs

Audile: List of intriguing A words found in dictionary

BY Author Lynne Sachs | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Audile, Information, Words

A words watercolor by Lynne Sachs

Here is a list of A words I painted during an artist residency at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire in 2006. I spent two amazing, exhausting weeks reading the dictionary, searching for words that intrigued me and that I thought would inspire interesting visual responses. Susan and I chose audile from this list for the Abecedarium:NYC project because it seemed to speak to our auditory sensibilities which at times get ignored in the world of the visual artist.

Vaticinate: Charlotte Street, the Bronx

BY Author Lynne Sachs | Posted on | FILED UNDER Categories Bronx, Vaticinate

In 1976, Charlotte Street epitomized the decay and destruction of the South Bronx. President Jimmy Carter witnessed cement rubble on the devastated street and pronounced the need for grand changes that would transform the lives of poor people in the neighborhood and beyond. Rather than living in large, public housing, families needed homes of their own. Carter, along with other earnest city planners, were trying to vaticinate somehow, to imagine city life that would take on the pleasures that would come with a sense of ownership in a single family home.

More than thirty years later, Susan Agliata and I seek out this architectural anomaly in the heart of the Bronx. Charlotte Street is a street of modest but well-cared-for single and double story homes. Each home is surrounded by a six foot high fence and every window is barred. Unlike the rest of the borough which is bustling and croweded on a lovely fall afternoon, Charlotte feels simultaneously inhabited and desolate.

Charlotte Street, Bronx