Sloane’s favorite thing about NYC: surprises. To be clear, she doesn’t care for surprises in the abrupt or scary sense of the word: she doesn’t like being startled, doesn’t like sudden gestures. Rather, she loves the kind of surprises that you discover. When she moves around the city, she always keeps her eyes wide open and tries to pay attention. If she manages to do that, she is frequently rewarded by something unexpected and wonderful.

In NYC, surprises are everywhere, if you are in a surprisable frame of mind.

Here is Sloane at West 28^th Street and the West Side Highway. This street art installation is one of the best surprises ever. When you first spot it you think, why doesn’t someone clean up that mess? And then you approach and see that actually it is a whole little vibrant, intricate, exuberant world. Sloane particularly loves the helicopter, which the breeze from the Hudson sets in jaunty, anxiety-provoking motion.

She wouldn’t ordinarily even think of touching art, but this artist doesn’t ask you not to touch, merely asks that you not deface it or remove any of its parts. So Sloane very, very carefully placed herself in the scene, and suddenly it’s like she’s part of someone else’s imagination, kind of like being in someone else’s dream. She prefers this to installations in museums, where she often feels excluded and self-conscious even when invited to participate, her responses feel forced and somehow inadequate. Here, however, she feels welcome, surrounded by like-minded types, and completely at home. Thank you, stickntwisted, for this art that brings joy and asks for nothing in return.

Sloane is also a street artist in her own right. After a day of taking in NYC’s offerings, she feels inspired to make her own small contribution.

Sloane is made from corduroy pants and a t-shirt. Her tunic is made from an experiment of mine that involved an old sheet, a spray bottle, and black and red paint. It didn’t turn out as I expected, but I think it makes nice artist-wear. Her socks are cut from a vintage necktie contributed by my friend Lauren (there will be more on Lauren and her fabulous vintage tie collection in a future blog post) and her shoes from a fake velvet jewelry bag. Her bracelet is a leather cord that once had some kind of charm on it, her necklace is part of a shell bracelet, and her earring is something I found one day when I was walking around scanning the sidewalk for money. Another experiment of mine. That day I didn’t find any money, but I did find this tiny golden feather.

P.S. Follow @stickntwisted on Instagram!