Window on the Square - Grace Weber

I loved the window on the square assignment. In fact, I loved it so much, that it inspired me to do my final project on Edward Hopper! The painting that I did for the actual assignment was of my friend, Melanie. I was trying to emulate looking through a window of Goddard Hall, an NYU dorm on the square. I painted Melanie laying in her dorm room bed, looking off at something. I wanted to let the viewer decide what she was looking at, whether it was another person, the TV, outside, or anything else. It also kind of looks like she's sleeping in the picture, so maybe a viewer might take that as she is just going to sleep or she is just waking up, maybe from a nap.

I also started another painting, but never finished it, of this house on 9th street. I went to go find it after Michael Levy talked about it in class that one day. The apartment is crazy. It's this apartment on the first floor of the building, and there are two big long windows on the left and then one shorter one on the right. When I found the apartment, I saw half of an old man's head in the far right small window, a huge elegant chandeleir in the middle long window, and a huge bird cage with a blue parrot sitting on top in the far left window. It was one of the creepier apartments I've ever seen. The old man was hunched over what looked like a drawing desk, and I pictured him as an illustator, drawing semi-creepy illustrations for weird children's books. This guy just loves displaying his parrot, and the parrot loves staring down strangers as they walk past on the street. It was funny to see people notice the bird, step back, and then either laugh or get a really freaked out look on their face. The bird just sits on his bar, staring. Once in a while he'll walk slowly to the other side of his perch, ruffle his feathers a little, and then resume his post. He's kind of like a watch-dog, but instead of barking at intruders he just gives them a warning stare and taps his sharp claws on the metal cage, until the intruder slowly backs away.

The bird's name is Lord Rescheller the First.