I’ve been painting murals at a school in Harlem since November. My job is mostly doing the quotes on the staircases (see below), but we’re also doing some great stuff in the (four!) cafeterias and common areas at the huge public school. It’s been a lot of fun. The project is through New York Cares, which is a fantastic site for any New Yorkers who want to volunteer but aren’t sure how to get started. Projects I’ve done for them range from reading to kids at a homeless shelter to working at a soup kitchen to gardening in Manhattan’s public parks. There’s really something for everyone.

It’s officially spring in New York, and the blossoms (and my allergies) are out in full force. Here are a few snapshots to brighten your Wednesday afternoon.

Several people stood in the center of the crowd, dipping sticks tied with rope into buckets of soapy water, then holding them up in the air. A German tourist laughed as a 10-foot bubble emerged from her rope, snaking through the crowd before it exploded. A girl in the back of the crowd, wearing a light purple coat and clutching a red balloon, laughed as well. She handed her mom the balloon’s string and made her way to the front.

The girl dunked the sticks into the bucket and threw her hands over her head. The first bubble popped immediately — a dud. The second bubble began to expand, floating out of the makeshift wand and toward the crowd. A photographer squatted down to get a better angle, aiming his lens at the sky and the bubble overhead. Suddenly, the bubble popped, covering his face and lens in soap. He began to swear but caught himself, glancing at the nearby kids.

An old man in a bright pink hat stepped from behind him to take his turn, using a practiced hand to create the biggest and most complex bubble yet.

In the background, a young man in purple spandex and a red bandana leaned against the fence, smiling as he finished a street-cart hot dog. Next to him sat a hand cart filled with jugs of soap and extra sticks, but I didn’t see a tip jar anywhere.

I’m relatively happy with the painting I did, but I can’t help but notice a few obvious flaws. I still need to practice capturing people’s likeness and hone my skills in painting skin color. Still, it was fun to work with such a pretty, vibrant model, and it was kind of exciting that Cunningham noticed her style as well.

Right now, the picture looks more like this Seuss book stack (I went to Orlando with my family in February, by the way), with dozens of creative and personal projects stacked just so.

A few things in the works right now:

• Painting class. I’m still taking the portrait-painting class at School of Visual Arts (see my fantastic instructor’s website here), and it’s going well. I think I had a creative breakthrough last week, in which I found a style of brushwork that is satisfying to me and pleasing (I think) to observers. More on that in a future post.
• A Tale of Four Cities. We’re still updating new content regularly, and I’m working on writing a few new pieces for the New York section of the site, which I’m hoping will turn out well. Editing the stories has been an interesting exercise, since most of my editing work has previously been for nonfiction, policy-based pieces or for magazine articles, and I rarely get a chance to delve into memoir or fiction.
• Murals at PS 36. I’ve been working with New York Cares since November to revive the inside of Margaret Douglas Elementary in Harlem. In my part of the project, I’ve been painting inspirational quotes selected by the principal on all the staircases of the school.
• Short film. A friend and I are creating a short film to submit to a film festival here in NYC. Neither of us has made a film before, so it promises to be both incredibly hard work and (I hope) a lot of fun.
• Reading. A few of the books I’ve been enjoying recently: New York Diaries, Other People We Married (read it this summer and am taking a second look), Slouching Towards Bethlehem (I can’t believe I’m enjoying Joan Didion).

What projects have you been working on?

I’ve been in one of those visual moods again — when words aren’t as inspiring as images. In light of that, I give you … an image. Of coffee. (Of course.)

Welcome to the most hated holiday of the year! I have to admit, I love Valentine’s Day, not for sentimental reasons but for the fact that it’s a holiday accented by my favorite colors — red and pink — and a ton of hearts. Plus, I love all holidays, big or small, especially when they give me a chance to decorate! (Above is a construction-paper chain I made for the apartment, and below are the construction-paper valentines I made for my roommates.)

Kisses and hearts!

I’ve recently started going through all my belongings and getting rid of items that don’t have meaning or don’t make me happy. This seems like an obvious thing to do, but I was surprised to learn how many of my possessions just didn’t have a place or meaning in my life but still took up space in my home. I’m slowly culling through everything, and the result has been incredibly satisfying: shelves full of pretty, fun things that make me happy.

For example, the shelf above, which contains the following:

• A mounted photo from the ’80s of my mom, my dad and me.
• Two glass dishes from my grandma, which I use to hold jewelry.
• Two random gnomes, given to me as gifts years ago. (I love gnomes. Not ironically.)
• My first Christmas ornament — Snow White — which sits out all year.
• A wooden jewelry box brought back from Syria by my friend Raja.
• An empty bottle of Crystal Skull Vodka, which I obsessed over for so long and finally received as a Christmas present this year. I’m going to fill it with glitter.
• A birthday flower lei.

I took a day trip to Niagara Falls last month, on a freezing cold but perfectly clear day. Here are a few photos I took from the Canadian side. I’d never been to the falls, and I wasn’t disappointed. They are really striking, and I think the layer of ice covering everything added to the beauty.

Ice from the mist coating the handrails

I’m taking another portrait class at School of Visual Arts in NYC, this time with my friend Sandra. It’s a great class, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning to paint or improving their skills.

At left is my first painting, completed after six hours with the model. There are definitely a lot of things that still need improvement (namely, it doesn’t look like the model), but I’m pretty happy with it.