An Artist Walks Into A Museum and Other Studies

Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza So, where were we?! Oh, yes, I was going to tell you more stories! Before I do, let me write about the two studies I did today. After the first study of The Notch, I decided that I wanted to explore the image a bit more. I liked the painting, didn't want to scrape it, but felt that I needed another approach. Here is The Notch #2, on a small 8" x 8" artists' board: Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza But, I hated this! Went back and wrestled the darn thing for another long while, and painted differently: The Notch #3, on the same artists' board: Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza Ah, that's better. I'm still going to deconstruct this image (it's so much fun), and I'll post more as I push it further. It's still not where I want it to be. Our trip last month was one of those incredible journeys that has left me with a bazillion ideas, memories and photographs for further inspiration. A cloud had something to say and a young man was bursting with ideas-- Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza Spending time with such brilliance kept me on my toes and wanting to go everywhere and see everything I could. Of course, an artist, wherever she travels, will be drawn to the local museums. The day we visited Mass MoCa was very cold and rainy. Inside, the place was teeming with irony, surrealism, postmodern and post-post modern intrigue, retrospectives and introspectives everywhere! If you haven't gone to Mr. Artyfice's blog lately and read his (Untitled) Art Blog Post, well, please do. He tells our story better than I could have. Really. Last night, I had to watch (Untitled) Movie again....I just don't have the words for all that I'm thinking. Mass MoCa was more than I expected, let's say. There was the Petah Coyne exhibit, which left my brain frazzled. I thought it beautiful, important, unimportant, tragic, funny, disturbing, and so labor intensive that I marveled at the artist's work ethic. The Sol LeWitt Retrospective and Wall Drawings came next. Oh, I mean after the Leonard Nimoy gallery of digital portraits (stunning, high resolution of nearly life sized portraits of people who posed as their inner selves). Back to LeWitt...Oh, how about just some photos: They came with instructions. College students recreated his work from those instructions. Their process was mesmerizing. Then there was the installation work of Tobias Putrih: Are you getting the idea that Mass MoCa was stimulating, while it painfully excluded painting? Yes, me, too. I didn't want to go, at first, because I knew if they had any painting, it would be somewhere obscure. I was right. On the other hand...this was so much better than viewing the same old, same old, work by the same old guys of the last century and beyond. Eeks. I'm in trouble now. Even looking out of the window at Mass MoCa was aesthetically pleasing. Hey! They have the Airstream I've always wanted! This is a wonderful installation by Michael Oatman: "All Utopias Fell."

Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza And, while I felt really silly doing this, I had to take a photo (or two) of the women's restroom.Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza As I exited the room, there was an exhibit by a woman artist who had photographed the same thing, along with the rest of the basement area of Mass MoCa. There was only one glitch in our day trip to the museum...I could not play the guitar. The place was closed.Image © 2010 Melinda S. Esparza It's probably just as well. We were players in a play, actors/artists with an 'eye' for things, and not a bucket in sight.