Lee Everett compares life in the art capital of the world with life in the 16 blocks, what could possibly be different?

I moved to New York from Blacksburg three days after graduating from Virginia Tech and proceeded to work the next twelve straight without so much as break to unpack my bags. I'd always felt a little ahead of the game in VA and now less than two weeks in NYC I was feeling way behind.

The major differences between New York and Blacksburg seem primarily to deal with space and time. For example in Blacksburg I had lots of space to make art but very little space to show it, but now in New York with a seeming endless number of galleries in which to show my work I had almost no space to make it. In Blacksburg I lived in a big house with a two car garage that I used as my primary studio and had a painting studio on campus. Now I had a studio apartment in Spanish Harlem, or SpaHa if you're a hipster, to use as my art studio and my home. For those of you who don't know, studio apartment is a fancy way of saying you're sleeping in your kitchen; did I mention my rent tripled?

I'd always considered myself a sculptor but now with much less room for storage, painting, with its space saving two dimensions, seemed more appealing. So I decided to become a painter, not that I really had time to paint as I was working about 70 hrs a week as an assistant director at a gallery in Chelsea. Assistant director, at least in my experience, seems to be an abbreviation for writer, curator, art handler, installer, graphic designer, gallery manager, handyman, janitor, secretary and therapist so my first experience working in New York was not unlike the time I spent running XYZ Gallery in Blacksburg. Ultimately my day job as a gallerist got in the way of my real job, being an artist, so a couple of years ago I left it to make art full time.

Becoming a full time artist was one of the best decisions I've ever made and is something I couldn't have done in Blacksburg, in fact it was the reason I moved to NYC in the first place. While it's pretty easy to make art in Blacksburg it's nearly impossible to sell it. Not that making art is about making money but it's hard to have the energy to make stuff when you don't have any food to eat.

Speaking of food, other than the art scene the food may be the best thing about New York although my favorite BBQ and mac 'n' cheese can still be found south of the Mason Dixon Line. New York is the only place in the world where you can get every culture in the world and really get it, except for the American South. And for that reason I'll always feel the need to return to Virginia, to visit that is. Despite its fast pace, comically high rents, and air quality matched only by the product testing room at Philip Morris, New York City is well worth the trouble and the only place in America I can see myself calling home for the foreseeable future.