Tag: Exhibits

The Walters

I had a few hours in Baltimore on Thursday June 16, so I went up to the Mt. Vernon District and looked around. While I was there I visited the Walters. I like their tag line: experience 55 centuries of art. I can’t even conceive of 55 centuries. How wonderful it is that people have been making art for 55 centuries!

The Walters is in an interesting space. It is a blend of old and new. The old really appeals to me, but I also liked the new staircase that they have built recently (I understand). The sculpture courtyard, on the first floor, was modeled after an Italian palazzo. It was very light and airy and I enjoyed being in there. I would have liked to have sat there for awhile with some cappucino and written in my journal. Alas, it was not to be. An activity for another day. There were two elderly people sitting and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I will take their enjoyment as my own.

Isis Nursing Horus
Isis Nursing Horus

Hands down, my favorite piece was in the Egypt gallery. It was a statute of Isis sitting with Horus on her lap. It was called Isis Nursing Horus. First, I liked the subject matter. It was very feminine, but also showed what a strong woman Isis was. She was a goddess in her own right as well as being the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus, two other strong gods. Despite the fact that she was a goddess, she was also a mother, which, on some level, I find very profound. In terms of the actual piece, I like the simple lines, sort of Bufano-esque. There are other pieces that I saw while surfing which are much more detailed and painted. This version is my preference. It looks like I could buy a copy of this statue at The Virtual Khan el Khalili. I’ll have to consider it once the construction is finished.

I also liked a painting near the Impressionist Gallery called The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Leon Gerome. While I wasn’t thrilled with the subject matter, (Christians praying right before they were going to be killed for sport at the Circus) the thing I liked about it was the detail. The way the lion was painted, the beard of the man saying the prayer, the stone on the structure. The lion looked like it could have turned it’s head and roared. I was also quite taken with the pad on the lion’s paws. You can’t really see the paw and the pad very well in the ‘Net image, but it is amazing. I guess this is a good reason not to rely completely on the web for everything. We still need to go to art museums.

Another piece I loved was a sculpture of a little girl. It was so realistic that it was nearly impossible for me not to touch it. It was called First Disappointment by Erastus Dow Palmer. This piece is not available in image format on the web, nor was there a postcard of the piece. What a shame.

I really think that museums should make more of their works available either in postcard or image format. I think it would allow more access to their collections. I understand the concept of inventory, but inventory vs marketing…. Frankly, I just want access…

I only had a few minutes to look at the Treasury, which had all of the china, crystal and silver. It was one spot that I wish I had spent more time in, but I didn’t see that it was available until I wandered past it. I love china, crystal and silver. I spent a few minutes looking at a chocolate pot. I know it is a silly piece of dishware, but I love the way the handle is perpendicular to the spout.

Magical Secrets of Creativity

Kathan Brown is a printmaker and author of a book called Magical Secrets about Thinking Creatively. She is also the founder of Crown Point Press. At the de Young, they had an exhibit of Crown Point Press prints. On the legends I noticed some of the magical secrets, which made some sense or were interesting to think about so I started to write them down. I stopped when I found a brochure. The Magical Secrets are listed at www.magical-secrets.com.

Seeing these ‘secrets’ made me think that creativity is a lifetime experience and that you have to work at your creative work.

I like the idea of Magical Secrets of Creativity. It makes me wonder if people have their own ideas about creativity and where people’s ideas intersect. I want to think about Brown’s ideas and see if they work for me.

Art View Day

I spent several hours at the New de Young on Friday. St.JCN spurred me to finally make the trek down there as she is visiting and that is one of the activities that she wanted to do. We are notoriously bad at doing anything remotely touristy when we visit each other, so this was a nice change.

In all, I enjoyed myself. For once, I brought my journal with me and wrote down the pieces of art that I liked. It was a good exercise in looking at things. I, long ago, gave myself permission not to look at all the art. But I looked at a lot of art at the de Young — more than I had really planned to.

The new building took some gettng acquainted with. The entrance was hard to find. Once in, it was a little unclear where to go for tickets. I loved the hominess of the old building, but the new building is definitely built for art and the art is shown at its best.

There is a textile room. They were showing gowns (Fortuny, Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga, etc.). Seeing some of htem was like seeing old friends as I had seen a few them before in a fashion exhibit. I remember making a sketch of a red dress with a big bow and gorgeous back treatment the last time I saw designer dresses.

Here are the pieces that I liked:

Wayne Thiebaud:
Three Machines
I like this one because of hte thickness of the paint and the simple imagery.
Diagonal Freeway
This one is quiltlike.
Park Place
the colors are very attractive.

Richard Diebenkorn:
Ocean Park 116
Quiltlike and pleasing colors.
Green
Red-Yellow-Blue

Bernd & Hilla Becher:
Passau, Germany (Grain Elevator) -photography
This is amazing, because of the shape of the building and the stillness of the pond in front of the building.

Franz Senkinc (Austrian):
Iron, 1931 -photography
I really liked the simplicity of the image and the direction from which it was photographed.

Susanne & the Elders (artist unknown and not available on the web)
Provoking. I am sure certain sectors of society would deem this image pornographic.

I was definitely drawn to geometric shapes. I was not taken with many of the modern art pieces as they looked like a mess to me. I suppose I am not an art sophisticate. As I said, I enjoyed myself and am thinking of getting a membership so I can stop in and bring W.

Signed, Sealed and Delivered!

Feelin’ Blue, Too and The Eye of God are both at the quilt show. I delivered them on Monday. This means that I finished them both! YAY. The quilt show starts tonight with the preview party, so I will get to see all the winning quilts. Aja did not finish hers. She was very upset when I talked to her, but I told her it was no big deal and that we will show all the bullseyes together at some point. I hope the show goes well.

San Mateo County Fair Yesterday

I love county fairs and wish that more people would enter their work. It is not a “highbrow” art organization, but everyone’s art and every entry is welcome. I also wish people would attend more county fairs.

It is great to see the wonderful and unusual items that people make and enter. It is great to see what people are doing in their homes: what they are collecting, the types of Lego and K’Nex constructions they build, the photos they take, the cakes they bake, the jams they cook and table settings they concoct, etc. I think county fairs are such a community event. You can really see stuff by your neighbors…. if more people would enter and attend.

That said, I have to admit that I didn’t enter something this year. I have done every year for the past several years and I just didn’t have (make??) the time this year. I will for sure next year. It is expensive to attend the fair ($32 for admission and parking), so getting the free tickets and parking passes from entering an exhibit is really worth it.

The boys were really interested in the Junior exhibits. They all reviewed all the Lego and K’Nex constructs very carefully and swore to build something for next year’s fair. We’ll see.

I, of course, went to the see the quilts. There were quite a number of them. I was, however, shocked at the California Living Building and the displays. There were no banners hanging outside. The building has been redone. It is not as light inside as it used to be. In previous years, quilts had been hung high up on the walls -near the ceiling, which made them hard to photograph, but made the building seem very cheerful. This year most of the quilts, even the prize winning quilts, were hung low and draped over something else or hung on racks very close together. At first I thought there weren’t very many quilts, but in the back of the hall I found quite a few, once I looked at the racks. There were some very nice quilts, especially a couple of star quilts that were amazingly intricate.