{"id":5339,"date":"2021-05-09T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-09T06:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2021-05-08T10:06:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-08T16:06:48","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-742-featuring-yevgenia-nayberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5339","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #742: Featuring Yevgenia Nayberg"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nMona Lisa may live in Paris, but in Yevgenia Nayberg’s<\/a><\/strong> Mona Lisa in New York<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Prestel, March 2021), she finds herself on an adventure in the Big Apple. <\/p>\n

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Our protagonist is taken off the wall of the Louvre and shipped overseas. At the Met, people “sighed, they cried, and they admired her beauty. It was business as usual.” Mona Lisa is used to this (she’s more than a bit bored by it all), but when she slips through the gates of the Met at night and starts to explore the city, she is surprised that people don’t stop to admire her. She meets a piece of graffiti from Brookyln, named Tag, who doesn’t even recognize<\/em> her at all. When he remarks that it appears she doesn’t know her way around New York City, she says (“with a sniff”), “I know everything.” Tag decides to show her around the city himself: “Maybe there’s something you don’t know yet.” <\/p>\n

Mona Lisa’s curiosity is awakened as Tag shows her the city: “It was brimming with laughter and music.” They listen to jazz in Harlem; eat pizza in the Bronx; dance salsa on the High Line; swim at Brighton Beach; and more. In the end, Mona Lisa surprises Tag with a decision she’s made, but I won’t ruin that for you. <\/p>\n

Nayberg’s illustrations feature rich colors and off-kilter perspectives. As you can see in the spreads featured here, the image of the classic painting is used throughout the book, and Nayberg slips in a host of other classic paintings (or references to them) by artists such as Botticelli, van Eyck, Lippi, and more. (A waiter in the Bronx is none other than the young boy from Pinturicchio’s Portrait of a Boy<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.) In fact, in a closing note Nayberg thanks the famous paintings and their creators included in the book, including: “Tag by unknown Brooklyn street artist.” <\/p>\n

Perhaps Nayberg<\/a><\/strong>, an immigrant herself (she was born and raised in Kiev), is paying tribute to the city she loves and now makes home. The story is also a treat for art lovers; it’s fun to play spot-the-painting, yet doing so doesn’t distract from the narrative itself, which is a love letter to NYC and<\/em> having one’s senses reawakened. Mona Lisa’s world-weariness falls away when she sees the music, art, and energy the city has to offer. Fame may have jaded Mona Lisa, but New York City makes her feel alive again. <\/p>\n

Here are some spreads …
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“Mona Lisa looked up and saw a man with a big red mustache.
He was covered in colorul stripes and stickers. …”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“The night was warm. It was brimming with laughter and music. Mona Lisa felt something she hadn’t felt in years. Curiosity. Tag took her hand and off they went.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“They listend to jazz in Harlem.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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“They danced salsa on the High Line.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nMONA LISA IN NEW YORK. \u00a9 2021, Prestel Verlag. \u00a9 Text and illustrations: Yevgenia Nayberg. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> I turned 49 this past week! Glad to be here on planet Earth. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> My family gave me a disco ball. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> My daughters gave me some hand-crafted beauties. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> I got a Captain Janeway comms badge to pin to my chest. It doesn’t actually work, but I can pretend it does and tap my chest dramatically and say, “Janeway out.” I see that, not surprisingly, someone on the internet has a collection of these:
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