Tess Senay Raynovich Art & Earth Fund

From Chelsea Domaleski

One of the best days I spent with Tess was when she came to visit me last fall. I was living in New Jersey at the time so I took the train into the city to see her and our friend Brian (who's house she was staying at). This was the first time I had seen her since she got back from Alaska, we had just been texting when she was gone, I was excited to here about her trip and see her tattoo. Of course we had to have our spaz out reunion with our fake accents that pissed everyone off but as soon as we saw each other it was like no time had gone by. We didn't see each other all the time, but when we did Tess was the kind of friend who you could immediately pick back up with, it didn't matter if you had been separated by months and most of the US. First thing we did was hang out in Union Square, it was a beautiful day, and Tess was taking pictures of the kids skate boarding and me and Brian. We decided to go to the MOMA to see the Willem de Kooning exhibit, a painter. We got to the exhibit and Tess was like a kid in a candy store. Me and Brian made a quick lap, our attention spans waning, but Tess examined each piece with a critical painter's eye. Her face when she was looking at those paintings was one of pure joy and awe. She spoke about each piece with the eye of only someone who could truly relate to the emotions and thoughts the artist had when creating his pieces. I've never seen someone so passionate about art and painting. After that, we walked around and talked and talked and talked, and eventually convinced her to come back to the city for my birthday in a few weeks. It was a great day and great memories. Love you Tessela <3 :-) Chels