Writer

Sharon Watts

Sharon watts website
Sharon Watts
y.ohta
Wed, 07/18/2018 - 13:19
Related stories
Sharon Watts' SoHo
When did you live in SoHo?

1972-3, 1977-84

Where did you live in SoHo?

First I lived on Bleecker St. but would explore SoHo in 1972-3. I was an art student at Parsons School of Design and my art teacher Kes Zapkus showed at Paula Cooper Gallery. I mostly wandered around the streets. I have a lot of fliers and postcards from gallery shows and art happenings in that era. Later I was married and living on Charlton and 6th Ave. It had changed--it was the 80s.

What was your occupation when you lived in SoHo?

Student, fashion illustrator

What do you miss most about SoHo in the 1970s?

The feeling that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

What do you miss least about SoHo in the 1970s?

Encroaching chain stores.

If you no longer live in SoHo, why did you leave?

I moved all around NYC until 2000, when I moved to Beacon, NY. My ex-husband lives in the same apartment that I did back in 1977. I really don't enjoy anything about the neighborhood now, except the memories.

What is your most vivid SoHo memory?

Eating at Food. Visiting galleries and seeing Duane Hanson sculptures, Vito Acconci's Seedbed exhibit. Empty, desolate streets with dumpsters filled with fabric scraps. The WTC being built in the distance.