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SCRAPPY is one of those qualities that helps so much in life. We have all had scrappy friends, foes, or family members that seem to gracefully walk through those invisible walls that are put up all over life. Is SCRAPPY something we learn? Is it nurture? Or is it nature? Like so many things, I’d imagine it’s a complex mix of the two.
I had this friend in college, Abe, and every time I was putting on the brakes, he was grabbing me by the arm and hitting the gas. And the thing is, applying the gas almost always worked. We all lived in campus housing and hated it. Abe decided five of us deserved better and found a great home to rent instead. We had more space, and somehow it was cheaper too. There was a pool, and it allowed pets (I got a dog). Abe was always different, always making something out of nothing for the betterment of others. I thought it was magic...but really, he just scrapped his way right past those invisible walls so many of us are busy building.
This week, I’m talking with two people who know SCRAPPY. Kate Fauvell is a single mom, a full-time artist, and a New Yorker who lives from painting to painting as she scraps her way through the city she loves to do the only thing that ever made sense…art. Barbara Anderson can walk through walls…really! During COVID, she saw Manhattan’s storefronts going dark and shutting down. She knew the city was better than that and did something about it. Thanks to Barbara, those empty spaces are now converted into galleries and artist studios that beam back out onto the city and its people. How’d she do it? She walked right in and refused to take no for an answer.
Two powerful women who know how to turn obstacles into opportunities, using their SCRAPPY spirit to do wonderful things in (and for) New York.
The work of Kate Fauvell.
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