WW: Basquiat {linky}

I've always liked Jean-Michel Basquiat's work. It's raw, but interesting and unlike some of modern work it has a focal point. There was a movie called Basquiat. David Bowie played one of Basquiat's best friend's Andy Warhol.

Bowie looks like Andy Warhol here, right?

We got a chance to see a Basquiat at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska.

#30Americans @joslynartmuseum Nick Cave's #soundsuits #art

Are you familiar to Nick Cave's work? It's pretty cool. I watched a documentary on him, on Amazon.

At Joslyn Art Museum they showed some of his work at a special show:

At the end of the show they had a craft for families:

I thought it was going to be really crafty, but then what I saw what they were doing with our crafts I was interested.

We were given a felt square, lots of foam pieces, and glitter glue.

Mine didn't turn out as good as Isaak's. I went with fall type colors.

Isaak went very 3D! The people up front really liked his!

What were we doing? We were part of a Soundsuit.

I wish I could have seen the mannequin fully covered!

It would be fun to make a Soundsuit for Halloween, but people may not know what it is. 

Have you seen Nick Cave's Soundsuits anywhere?

#30Americans @joslynartmuseum #art

My family went to a show this weekend at Joslyn Art Museum called 30 Americans. The museum is free to enter, but their special exhibits do cost money. They happened to have a special free weekend for the show. The show is up until May.

It's interesting...I gravitate to what looks good with color, pattern, texture, a focal point... My husband gravitates to what means more. If I think the piece isn't very aesthetically pleasing I don't even read the description.

Sorry about the glare, but I love the patterns and colors of these two!

A different artist, but still full of pattern and color!

The next piece is aesthetically pleasing, and gigantic!

Detail:

Out of the box thinking Soundsuits by Nick Cave!

These next ones have a lot of cool visual texture. It looks like a map, or cracks in the ground.

Detail:

Another Detail:

The next two are super organic - made of wood and fibers:

These are the images I couldn't get into. Do you ever feel this way about art? I think art is like music. Some pieces you like, some you don't. Same goes with food. Think of all the egg eaters out there...some people like them scrambled, some hard boiled, some soft boiled, some over easy, some poached and well you get the point. Certain pieces you can't get into. I try so hard to be open minded, but there are some pieces that either A) Don't make me feel anything, or B) Break the rules of art, and it their breaking the rules doesn't work.

The first one has a horrible composition. I hate how that bottom guy is chopped off.

The second one has a great message, but just lacks a focal point.

The last one was cool that it was a visual story, but looks like vinyl stickers on a wall, and not high end museum art to me.

Artist's in the Show:

Nina Chanel Abney (b. 1982, Chicago, IL); John Bankston (b. 1963, Benton Harbor, Ml); Jean-Michel Basquiat (b. 1960, Brooklyn, NY; d. 1988, New York, NY); Mark Bradford (b. 1961, Los Angeles, CA); Nick Cave (b. 1959, Jefferson City, MO); Robert Colescott (b. 1925, Oakland, CA; d. 2009, Tucson, AZ); Noah Davis (b. 1983, Seattle, WA; d. 2015, Los Angeles, CA); Leonardo Drew (b. 1961, Tallahassee, FL); Renée Green (b. 1959, Cleveland, OH); David Hammons (b. 1943, Springfield, IL); Barkley L. Hendricks (b. 1945, Philadelphia, PA; d. 2017, New London, CT); Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago, IL); Glenn Ligon (b. 1960, Bronx, NY); Kalup Linzy (b. 1977, Stuckey, FL); Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955, Birmingham, AL); Rodney McMillian (b. 1969, Columbia, SC); Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972, Nairobi, Kenya); Pope.L (b. 1955, Newark, NJ); Rozeal (b. 1966, Washington, D.C.); Gary Simmons (b. 1964, New York, NY); Xaviera Simmons (b. 1974, New York, NY); Lorna Simpson (b. 1960, Brooklyn, NY); Shinique Smith (b. 1971, Baltimore, MD); Henry Taylor (b. 1958, Oxnard, CA); Hank Willis Thomas (b. 1976, Plainfield, NJ); Mickalene Thomas (b. 1971, Camden, NJ); Kara Walker (b. 1969, Stockton, CA); Carrie Mae Weems (b. 1953, Portland, OR); Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Los Angeles, CA); Purvis Young (b. 1943, Miami, FL; d. 2010, Miami, FL).

WW: Joslyn Art Museum {Linky}

We went to a wedding and reception on Sunday night. I wasn't going to go because it was so late for the boys on a school night. BUT it was at the Joslyn Art Museum. I haven't been there at night, since I was a kid.

The wedding was really pretty. There was group of people playing sting instruments before, and throughout the wedding. They played Beatle songs. The boys loved it!

Between the wedding and reception they opened up the part of the gallery viewers have to pay to see. We couldn't take any pictures. The work was by Andrew Moore.

One of my favorite pieces was Simon's Schoolhouse Museum.

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The wedding its self took place in front of a Dale Chihuly installation. I've always loved the pieces with his name on them, but questioned them at the same time. He has glass blowers all over blow glass for him, and he puts his name on the pieces. To me the other glass blowers should get credit too. It is what it is.

The reception was by a Dale Chihuly installation as well.

Can you guess what this is?

If you guessed tables you were right. Thats a reflection of our tables from the glass ceiling. Here we are:

We must not go to a lot of weddings. Isaak had a lot of questions, "What's a ring bearer? What's a bride's maid? When will the bride walk down?" 

Joslyn Art Museum

On Saturday we went to Joslyn Art Museum. 

If you live close to here you may want to check out their special exhibit, Sheila Hicks: Material Voices. 

There was no photography in the special exhibit, but it was so cool! The museum is free, but special exhibits cost $10 for adults and children are free. That day an event was going on, so we got in for 1/2 off. 

All the work below was not photographed by me. Please click on "Source" to see where the image came from.

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Sheila's work is nothing like what I'd do, but I found it inspiring. Much of it is large scale, and all fiber. 

Isaak seemed to like Sheila's work I think. Mica kind of rushed through saying, "I think we're the only kids in our elementary school that goes to galleries and museums on a regular basis."

Mica and Isaak did enjoy making a pot on their i pads set up in the kid room. 

As you can see Mica's neck was peeling pretty bad.

Travis liked the Sculpture Garden outside. He wished some of his pieces were in it.

We decided to do something brave...we went to do a meditation workshop inside the museum. It was part of their special events going on that day. 

I say brave because we had Mica and Isaak with us. 

We went around the room and said why we were there. I was there so I could have a break from listening to the boys talk. Ha! The boys were there because they were told they had to be. 

We only had a 10 minute meditation session. 

At first I had trouble not concentrating on anything. Isaak was trying to lay on me. When I pushed him off he was sitting sideways in his chair. Mica was tapping, but stopped when I nudged him.

That 10 minutes could have been any minutes, and I wouldn't have known. I didn't fall asleep, but I did loose a sense of time. I kept envisioning a jeep driving on a river. An odd vision, but it worked for me. 

Travis jolted asleep a few times. 

Isaak decided to start meditating when we were all finished. We were all talking about our experience, and Isaak had his palms up on his lap, his head bowed, and his eyes closed. Isaak said he wants to meditate more. He got mad that I didn't sign up on their email list.

Mica didn't get what meditation was about at all. He was staring at the spooky fireplace in the room, and coming up with a story in his mind about it.

I'm not all New Agey, but meditation is relaxing. It's a way to just break away from the business of the world. 

Side Note: If you ever need something to laugh at type in, f that meditation on YouTube. If language doesn't bother you it's hilarious!

Do you ever meditate? 

Joslyn Art Museum

This weekend we went to Joslyn Art Museum. Omaha really does have a nice art museum. On a warm day you can walk around their sculpture garden outside.

Dale Chihuly's glass blown art. Except I know for a fact that he instructs people on what he wants, and only touches the glass when the instillation goes up. Sometimes I question if art really belongs to the artist's name that's on the piece.

 

We didn't go to see Chihuly's work. Although I do love all the color in glass blown art.

We went because they have junior graphic novels on display right now. I wrote down a ton of graphic novel names for future gift ideas. Mica likes Big Nate. For a long time he wouldn't give Nate a chance. Then he finally read it, and loved it.

That's snow in Mica's hair, not dandruff.

I really liked the Babymouse books By Jennifer Holm and Mathew Holm. I've never seen them before.

Mica thought they were more for girls because of the pink. Whatever!

On the balcony - Isaak was with me on the other side.

Below the balcony is a fountain with a wishing well. They have party's and receptions down there.

They have all types of artwork. Then there is a children's spot.
There are children's art books, computers, and laptops with art games on them. The one I like is a Vincent VanGogh Starry night. You touch your hands to the screen, and the impressionistic strokes move.

Does the town you live have a good art museum?

Joslyn Art Museum

Yesterday was Daddy's Birthday. We were going to go out to dinner, then bowling. We did go out to get a bite to eat, but Daddy didn't eat a thing. He ate all day at work. His work often splurges on  food for Fridays. Especially before football games.

Insert eye roll here. Sorry I'm just not too into football. People get way into it here! All I hear this time of year is Huskers, Huskers, Nebraska Corn Huskers.

Out to dinner we went for Hubby's Birthday for no celebration really because he didn't eat a thing.

Then we went to go bowling. What was I thinking? No lanes were open. I had excited children, that quickly were disappointed. Clearly sports are not my thing. I didn't think of bowling having a season. They do.

Instead we rented a movie at Redbox. The boys got to bed super late!

Of course they still wake up at the same time as usual the next day.

Off and on Isaak was crying over things like being thirsty, or being tired of walking. Mica turned on the sass because he was tired. 

The best medicine for kids is sleep.

Daddy wanted to go to Joslyn Art Museum. In my mind I thought with two cranky boys that love to wrestle this is just asking for a disaster of a time. Daddy insisted that we go because he hasn't gone in forever. We went.

While I did get a few pictures, I also heard a lot of, "Stop it!" Mica in particular walked fast from room to room. I'm afraid he's a fast walker even with a full nights sleep. Daddy said to me, "Why are you walking so fast?" I answered with, "Well one parent has to keep up with the boys." He was annoyed. 

See how tired Isaak looks?

 The boys liked Dale Chihuly's work.

Isaak liked Grant Wood's piece.

The best part was when we walked out of the museum and the boys played in this water area. The floor of it is shaped like a maze. That kept them entertained for a long while.

It is a great museum. It's free on Saturdays. They have classes for kids on Saturdays. There is a newish sculpture garden outside. I'm not trying to down play the museum. I just know my boys were tired!