First Thursday, again!

SlideShow at the BMA was a real treat, at least to me. The boys liked some of it, mostly Projection 4, by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, the huge one of nature scenes that morphed slowly into different overlapped images of mushrooms, snails, ferns, rotten apples, etc. Actually I think my favorite was one I didn't check to see the artist or the title, as the boys were yanking my arms to keep moving through, "Come on mom, let's go," they kept saying as they tugged. Anyway, this one was the first one (I think) you see when you come into the exhibit. It is just slides with words that say things like "Muriel and Uncle Fred's cabin" or "This is us by the seashore" or that kind of thing, which is fun because the slides magically appear at suggestion in my imagination. I was giggling to myself as I read some of them. They were exactly the kinds of things people say when they are showing their own slides, which I found amusing. My other favorite was titled Real Estate, but I missed the artist for this one too, it was simply a room with slide projections of three windows with vertical blinds. The lighting and size of the room made it feel like the bedroom to a flat. I immediately began to "envision" the space as one does when looking at real estate. Ah, the power of suggestion. Another that the boys liked was Land/Sea by Jan Dibbets, portraying an image of the sea on one wall and a grassy field on the adjacent wall. As the slides progress, the horizon line moves downward until there is nothing but sky on both walls, and then the horizon line moves upward again. It shows a beautiful contrast between the texture of waves of ocean and waves of meadow.

After viewing this exhibit, we proceeded to look at some other parts of the museum that I often overlook. The furniture, Tiffany windows, silver and then over to the Modern Wing and (my favorite) the Cone Collection. The Cone Collection, as I have mentioned before feels very much like home to me. Matisse and I are old friends. I find his work comforting, inspiring and challenging all at once. At five-thirty we went to do the Family Fun craft, which was inspired by the SlideShow exhibit and there were many slides from the museum collection free for the taking. Oh, how I would have given a limb for some of these when I was teaching art, free exemplars were hard to come by. I snagged a few of the Matisse slides I liked and a Van Gogh I happened upon. I am hoping to copy some Matisse images on my bathroom walls, eventually.

It was fun to spend some "alone time" with the boys, they rarely get me all to themselves, but since we left L with Oma, they each got to hold one of my hands.