An Art Themed Weekend

Friday February 19, 2016
I recently received this invitation:

I'm excited to announce and invite you to my upcoming exhibition Brownie In Motion: Traveling Picture Show at the Columbus Cultural Art Center (CAC). The show will feature B&W photographs of crafts people made with Brownie in Motion, as well as color photographs that document our travels during the last three years (which was made possible thanks to your support!)

Please consider joining me, The Brownie, and your fellow supporters of the project at the opening reception this Friday 2/19 from 6-8pm. We will be serving complimentary drinks and snacks until they are gone!

Hence, Andrew and I (who donated to the Kickstarter campaign on this) decided to attend. 

We haven't been to many gallery opening evenings, but I can honestly say there was more food on offer at this one than at any other (except for perhaps one at the UA municipal center) I've attended. Sadly, I wasn't able to eat most of it due to my slow recovery after my recent gum grafts. Andrew said he felt funny taking a plate full of food. I agreed it does always feel awkward, but we made a considerable donation, so it's only right that at least one of us should be able to partake.

Anyway, the evening wasn't about the food (but I spend way too much time fixated on it these days). The spotlight was on Stephen Takacs, the artist and the inspiration behind the whole Brownie in Motion traveling picture show. The oversized Brownie is a camera obscura which Takacs used to take photos while on the road, in addition to pictures of the Brownie in front of various places (including famous landmarks - see below).

Takacs was pretty busy so we had to wait our turn to have a brief chat before heading home to grab some dinner (me, leftovers). Here he is getting interviewed (though by whom I do not know).

Anyway, I'm really glad we attended and I'm glad it was a fairly warm evening (at least by February standards). If it had been as cold as it was the previous weekend, we probably would have stayed home.

Saturday February 20, 2016
Today Andrew and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather (a high of around 70 degrees, but quite windy!) to park at the Gateway Film Center and walk the few blocks to the Wexner Center to see the current Noah Purifoy Junk Dada exhibit. This is the first show since the "After Picasso" exhibit last fall where a tragedy took place inside the gallery space (and some of the art was badly damaged). Hence, there are new restrictions on what you can and cannot bring into the gallery, so I left most of the contents of my purse at home traveling light with just my wallet, phone, and a bag in which to put any extraneous reading material I might pick up. Honestly, it felt liberating, though I can't imagine traveling that way all the time.

We definitely feel like we got our money's worth (first time in a long time we've not gone on the free first Sunday) and pretty much had the place to ourselves since the warm weather obviously kept people away.

I'm not sure what my favorite piece was, but here are some of my favorites:

"The Last Supper"

"The Crucifixion"

Although we were running a bit late getting to the Wexner Center (we wanted to make sure we had enough time to have lunch before our 2pm film at the Gateway FC), we ended up having plenty of time without having to rush. We had lunch at Panera Bread (one of the few places where I could get soup), and still had almost an hour to kill, so we got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, then spent the rest of our spare time at Barnes & Noble.

I told Andrew I decided to just celebrate my birthday today since it's exactly one month away, because I know that no matter what we end up doing then (on Palm Sunday), it won't be nearly as fun as it was today.

We both very much enjoyed the Studio Ghibli film, "Pom Poko" which is about a herd of raccoons living in Japan struggling to coexist with humans. The urban sprawl finally becomes too much for the raccoons (who are also shape shifters and can turn into humans), and they wage war with the humans by sabotaging construction sites. Lives are lost on both sides, but in the end, the raccoons are able to at least partially restore their habitat and reach an amicable living arrangement with the humans. Although it's quite a good film, it's a bit long at best part of two hours and I feel some of it could have easily been cut out without losing the essence of the story.

After the movie I went to church, then had dinner with Andrew before sitting down to watch an oldie, but a goodie, "Amelie," probably my favorite French film of all time (followed by "Chocolat" which I hope to watch some time between now and Easter).

Sunday February 21, 2016
Though it wasn't as warm as Saturday, it was still pretty sunny and nice. Our little outing of the day was a trip to Barry's Bagels to claim our freebies (only to discover you can only use one coupon at a time). Andrew claimed the free bagel with cream cheese while I got a cup of chicken noodle matzo ball soup (surprise surprise!).

Otherwise, the rest of the day was nothing special with just the usual list of chores, though we are planning on going to see "The Lady in the Van" tonight.