HighWaterLine

And we’re off!

Wow! What an exciting day. I can’t honestly say that I was expecting it to be as interesting a day as it was!

We started out early, picking up materials from storage and getting bits and pieces organized. Then headed out to the borderlands. I had Ed & Susannah from the Canary Project in tow. Susannah was there to do some documenting - and ended up going around to meet the workers at the Postal Depot, the MTA bus repair station and finally the DEP in search of a wrench to help attach the handle to the marker.

I mixed up some pigment and chalk (still looking for a small workspace to store and mix the chalk if anyone has anything in mind!), filled up the hopper and off we went! Laying down that first strip of blue line was such a great feeling! Finally there were tracks on the ground, a concrete (well chalk really) reality of the project. It was beautiful - it almost glowed out there on the pavement!

We were in a pretty industrial neighborhood, so didn’t run into too many people. Got some sidelong glances from drivers (particularly the street cleaners!) but not a lot of opportunity for conversation. At one point the line crossed in front of a huge paper recycling center. We thought that was pretty serendipitous.

Finally we walked past a couple of gentlemen standing in front of their workshop. They asked what I was doing - which I gladly explained and we handed over some Action Packets. They were fascinated by the project, and wanted to know where I would end up at the end of the summer (Greenpoint). They both posed with the packets and we went along our way.

A couple of streets farther we ran into a couple more guys and had a good chat (and some photos) with them as well. At the end of the line for today, we went through a little residential section. A gentleman from a second floor window asked what company we were with (it does look a little like a waterworks project). I explained the project to him (his house would get flooded) and he was genuinely concerned, but relieved that he was on the second floor…

Ed & Susannah took over 100 pictures, so there are bound to be some great ones in there. I will definitely post some as soon as I get them, but they are really busy with the Increase Your Albedo project - which if you can’t get out to Canarsie this weekend, definitely get over to the Meat Packing district to see!

If you have some time tomorrow (Friday) or this weekend, come out and join me - it is a really powerful and fabulous experience!