We continued towards Buffalo, with a planned visit to Draves Arboretum in Darien Center, NY. However, it was raining.
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| Lunch at My Saloon in Darien Center had plenty of waffle fries with the Beef on Weck |
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| The Royal sandwich had hamburger-size Italian sausage patties and cappicola |
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| In Buffalo we saw the Essex Street Art Center that was founded by Larry Griffis, Jr in 1969; ahead of its time, it provided studios and living space for painters, sculptors, musicians, photographers, filmmakers, and also provided exhibition space |
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| Simon Griffis was an art educator for whom the student art studio was named; as the son of Larry Griffis, Jr, Simon managed the Ashford Hollow Foundation that operates the Griffis Sculpture Park in East Otto, NY |
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| Essex Street Art Center is located in a former ice manufacturing plant |
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| Station No 5 shows this was the fifth (and final) ice house of the company (c 1910) |
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| In 1907, Webster Ice and Citizens Ice Companies merged to form the largest ice distributor in the region |
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| Together with the photo below, you can see the words "Manufactured Ice" |
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| Although the Webster-Citizens Company had started by cutting ice blocks from Lake Erie, Upper Cassadaga Lake, and Lime Lake, by 1910 they dealt in manufactured ice that was cheaper to produce and did not depend on weather |
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| Today the exhibition space is The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (2018), and the exhibit is Emma Safir: Passionate Wretch, which includes Among the Violets (2026), a tapestry assembled from scraps from fifteen years of studio practice |
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| The tapestry is edged with fabric yo-yos |
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| What the artist calls paintings are photos printed on gauzy fabrics and layered over sculptural forms: Veilchen Blau/Violet Blue (2025) was one of the four paintings |
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| Pinocchio Seedling Fashion (2025) |
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| Two of the Gilded Lily's I-XIVVI that are photos printed on aluminum, which she works using repoussé, the drawing and hammering on the reverse side; the end result is a surface that catches light like a mirror, but withholds reflections |
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| Detail of the repoussé |
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| Another Gilded Lily |
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| A Gilded Lily with full repoussé |
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| Gilded Lily detail |
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| Fairy Ring is a string of glass beads with pewter-cast grapes and rosehips |
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| More Fairy Rings |
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| Fairy Ring detail |
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| Outside the Essex Street Art Center was a sculpture like those we had seen at the Griffis Sculpture Park; apparently sculptures are brought here for repair |
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| Giant water drops on a garage door |
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| The water drops are painted |
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| This garage door has chicks |
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| Statue (2021, by Gillie and Marc Schattner) of Janet Mock, author and transgender rights activist, is supposed to be on permanent display at the Essex Street Art Center, but did they mean to put her in the fenced porte cochère of the former ice house? |
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| These look like bird sculptures by Larry Griffis, Jr |
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| After leaving the Essex Street Art Center, we turned the corner onto Rhode Island Street to see a sculpture titled Don't Drop a Dime on Me, according to a man at the Essex Pub; it was created in 2019 by welders Tyler Griffis and Phil Cunningham from the Essex Street Art Center with pay phones collected by "Big Mike" who used to service them |
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| A garage on W Utica Street |
