March 15
Since
I can't actually title the photos I took, I forgot I would need to add a little
explanation here and there. You'll notice a photo with some cattle in it; that
was actually taken in Miami, and it was a field across the street of my hotel.
I would have expected to see that more in Indiana! I've also taken photos in
each spot from my hotel room windows, and I can only hope that viewers can
figure out which ones those are. It's really annoying not being able to label
the photos.
Some
of the photos from the museum didn't work out so well. I couldn't get clear
shots in the dim lighting all the time. Most of the ones that didn't turn out,
I haven't posted to my blog, but the ones I did add, I added because it still
gives an idea. The first of those is a Picasso painting. The others are of
rugs, one of which is a beautiful Kashmiri design, which appears to be
characterised by elongated paisley shapes. I haven't seen anything like it
before, and I'm hoping my mom can get me something like that from where she
lives in Pakistan! The others are from the Asian art collection, one Chinese
and one Japanese painting from centuries ago. That section was really
poorly lit, so almost none of the photos I took turned out. I imagine they need
dimmer lights there because the artifacts are much older, some of them from
even the 1300s.
The
World Bank building is all the reflective, glass stuff you see, and the ceiling
with multi-coloured lights is from the Indianapolis airport. They've built a
brand new airport, and I guess these are some of the design features that are
popular these days. I've seen similar displays in the Denver and Chicago
airports as well. Hopefully that helps you figure out what some of this stuff
is!
March 14
OK,
I'm kind of annoyed because there's a new format on Windows Live Spaces, and
now it doesn't let you give your photos names anymore. That's really stupid,
especially as I'm sure you would like to know the names of the paintings and
artists from the museum in Indianapolis! I can't even number them so that you
can compare a note from a blog entry to the photo album. If I figure out some
way to fix that, I'll do it! If any of you can give me suggestions or know how
to fix it, please let me know!
March 12
I was
back in the nation's capital again this past week but still didn't really have
much time to see anything. I was actually quite tired on the Wednesday and
didn't feel like doing a whole lot, plus I had a lot of work emails to do, I
figured, since I hadn't read them all day Tuesday and most of the day on Weds.
My colleague and I were actually staying near to where one of our events was
being held in Bethesda. I would just like to say for the record that these
locations are like black holes for restaurants. My colleague and I hadn't had
time to eat supper before our fair on Tuesday night, so we looked for somewhere
after 9pm, and nothing was to be found. We drove around for 45 minutes looking
for somewhere, including stopping at our hotel and asking for directions to the
nearest restaurant. We were told there were 50 in the area. We saw about 4
places, all of which were closed or about to close. So we ended up just
ordering pizza to the hotel.
Weds afternoon,
however, we got to go to a fair at the World Bank. Beautiful building, and I
can't wait to put the pics up of the architecture.
The
next leg of my trip was to Indianapolis. I didn't have a whole lot in terms of
work today because I was basically just flying here, but the fair is tomorrow,
so I was wondering what there would be to do here. The only thing I know about
this city is the Indy 500, but I wasn't really interested in seeing the
speedway. I thought I'd end up hanging out in my hotel room watching TV or
something, but life had other plans, and good ones! While I was waiting for my
luggage at the baggage claim carousel, there was a large flat screen TV on the
carousel advertising things about the city, one of which was the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and there was a photo of a van Gogh
painting. That sold me right then and there. Whoever would have thought that
this beautiful artist's painting would be hanging out in Indianapolis? Better
yet, admission was free!
Turns
out they had a lot of impressionist, post and neo-impressionist painters there,
well known ones. I was so excited. Of course, I had tears come to my eyes
again, as usual, when I came face to face with the van Gogh. To again be so
close to the canvas he touched. It's just too much for words to express. This
museum allows photos without flashes, so I got some good photos. They also had
a lot of other stuff like African and Asian art, and contemporary as well. The
contemporary is a section I didn't hang out too much in. I don't really have a
good appreciation for it; I admit I'm stuck in the 19th Century there. But you
don't have time to see everything anyway.
There
was this one painting you'll see when I post the photo--someone stole my idea
of painting a canvas white and then just giving it a name and selling it. Well,
the only difference is that this painting was untitled. I mean, there was only
minor shading at the top of the painting, and it was untitled. Really. Because
the painting is of nothing. It's so hard to believe. This other set I couldn't
get a photo of because in that section you weren't allowed because the artists
are still living. But the series was done on looseleaf paper--lined, no
less--and just some strokes of different kinds in watercolour, like the kind
you'd get out of those little paintboxes we used to use in school as kids. The
description of this artist's works, Richard Tuttle, I believe was the name,
used the term "confounding." The only thing that confounds me about
them is how he can get them hung in a gallery when I have tons of those kinds
of doodles in books all over the place, and I would never consider letting
anyone see them lest they mock me for calling it art. I was not amused. Many of
them look like Rorschach inkblots too! Maybe there's more of a psychological
aspect to it than meets the eye or something. This is why I don't appreciate
contemporary art. It just seems like stuff anyone could do.
Isabela's
and my journey home from Mexico consisted of us taking advantage of a long
layover in SF by seeing some of the sights. A friend that I made who lives in
SF was so generous as to pick us up from the airport that morning and drive us
around town, during which we had a whirlwind tour of the city, stopping in
Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, and driving by places like Fisherman's Wharf. We
almost got to the Golden Gate bridge when my friend's car broke down. It had
sustained an oil leak, unbeknownst to him, a couple of weeks prior when he was
in a minor car attack. Well, the oil decided to run out while we were touring,
and the engine almost seized up. Needless to say, he felt horribly about it,
but what can you do, especially when you didn't realise the leak was there? It
was kind of fun because we were almost on our way back to the airport anyway,
and we took a cab to get to a bus station so that we could bus to the metro
station where the subway would take us all the way to the airport. So it was
truly a planes, trains, and automobiles kind of day! Besides, I love taking
public transportation in new cities and countries. It's always an experience!
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