Edith's Art

Ask Edith her favorite part of school and she will consistently say art class. And even if it's not art class day, she must be doing a lot of art in her classroom. Her backpack is filled with pictures and projects every day.

Her school in April held an art show, in which every child in the school had a piece or two displayed. She was proud to show us hers!

April 12, 2019

She also took a weekly after-school art class this spring at a local recreation center, and she loved it. (In fact, Atticus was enrolled in a separate art class for younger children at the same location during the past two sessions and enjoyed it just as much.) Clay, painting, chalk -- she has been introduced to a little bit of everything.

Recently I asked her if she would rather take an art class or ballet class in the fall. The answer: Art. High praise, indeed!

Photo Friday: Edith the Artist

Edith and a friend learned a tough lesson earlier this month -- when you color on the walls, you have to help clean it up!

March 9, 2016

Photo Friday: Madison Square Park Mirror Installation

New York City, Sept. 27, 2015

Columbus Museum of Art: FREE Sundays

 
My best guess is that it had been at least a decade since Paul and I visited the Columbus Museum of Art. Paul can't remember going at all, although I'm sure we went once. Like I said, it's been a while.

The art museum is a small but pleasant building in downtown Columbus, on Broad Street. Best of all, admission is free on Sundays, and parking is always free. We visited on the last Sunday of January for a very specific reason: it was the final day of the special Lego exhibit.

On display were large replicas of some of the most well-known buildings in Columbus, including the Statehouse and several skyscrapers. On display as well were intricate Lego-depictions straight from the past (and future) -- think Medieval Times, plus a UFO.

Find Batman!

While we were at the Columbus Museum of Art, we also made a special effort to visit the Wonder Room, a special interactive area that seems to be especially for kids. Edith had fun exploring, surrounded by art.

Paul and Edith

The museum has a small number of exhibits throughout the rest of the building. All in all, we spent only about 90 minutes there. But I would certainly return if the museum has another exhibit I'm especially interested in -- especially on a Sunday.

The View from the Top of the Met

One of the things on our must-do list on our recent trip to New York was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's rooftop. I had been there once before, but Paul had missed out. And this time strollers were allowed, so even Edith got a peek -- or she would have if she hadn't been asleep.

The views, and the exhibit:

Sugar Sculptures at Brooklyn's Old Domino Sugar Factory

Most of our time in New York was spent visiting old favorites, but we managed to squeeze in a few new things, too. One of these was an art exhibit, Kara Walker's "A Subtlety."

Located in the former Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the exhibit is "anHomage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes ...," as the title explains here.

The building was dark and dank, and the exhibit included several slightly larger-than-life sculptures along with the main attraction: a giant, sugar-covered Sphinx. Curbed had a nice article about the installation, stating that Domino donated the 80 tons of sugar the artist used.

The entire installation was enveloped in a sickly sweet smell that really was nearly too much to handle. But overall it was an interesting exhibit, and well worth the long line if only to see the factory building before it is demolished.

"A Subtlety" has limited hours through July 6.

A Short North Gallery Hop Saturday Night

The Short North Gallery Hop is one of my favorite events in all of Columbus.

It's not because I love the galleries so much. In fact, they are almost an afterthought. What I do love, however, are the people, the shops and the excitement.

Gallery Hop takes place the first Saturday of every month in the Short North arts district near downtown. The shops and galleries are open late. The restaurants and bars are as crowded as the sidewalks outside of them. All corners of Columbus come out, from the quirky and weird to the sleek and sophisticated.

I fall in neither category. That was especially true in August, when Paul and I attended our first Gallery Hop since returning to Ohio, this time pushing a stroller. We weren't the only ones there with a baby, but the addition did make browsing more difficult. One of us would stay with Edith on the sidewalk while the other went into the shop.

Nevertheless, it was fun. I was especially impressed by the number of new bars and restaurants that have opened in the Short North. I had only a passing thought about how long it will take to try everything now that we have a kid. No regrets, but the sight did accentuate our changing circumstances.

But maybe I'll get to start on the to-do list this weekend. On Saturday, Paul's staying home with Edith while I attend Gallery Hop with a friend. It's as close to old times as I'm going to get for a while, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

"Red, Yellow and Blue" Rope at Madison Square Park

File this under "You Never Know What You'll Come Across in New York":

Giant rope sculptures in a major New York City park.

Madison Square Park sits in the shadow of the Flatiron Building and is the home of Shake Shack, an extremely popular outdoor restaurant. And through September 8, it's also home to tall, waving walls of colorful nautical rope.

The installation, entitled "Red, Yellow and Blue," was to open yesterday. We saw it on Sunday, so I suspect it wasn't quite complete. Pictures and descriptions on the park's website of what it was to look like when it was completed suggest that visitors will be able to walk within these rope walls. They were closed off when we were there.

That didn't stop the crowded park's visitors from snapping photos, and a squirrel or two climbed on and over the ropes, even if we mere mortals could not.

According to the website, the work used 1.4 million feet of rope and 3,000 gallons of paint, and it weighs more than 100,000 pounds.

Last weekend the installation prevented us from spreading out our blanket on a soft piece of the Madison Square Park's lawn, but I can only imagine what the games of hide and go seek are going to be like this weekend.

"All" of Maurizio Cattelan at the Guggenheim

The Guggenheim typically has at least as many people peering over the edge of the dramatic giant ramp encircling the main exhibit space as looking at the art on the walls.

When we were at the Guggenheim last weekend, however, all eyes were looking over the edge -- because that's where the art was. The walls were empty. Instead, the art was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the building.

"Maurizio Cattelan: All" is a retrospective of more than 130 of the Italian artists' works, all suspended with strong ropes and ingenuity. The Guggenheim has a tantalizing time-lapse video showing a little about how it was created.

I knew very little of Cattelan's creations before visiting; I had heard only of the most notorious -- a sculpture of Pope John Paul II hit by a meteorite (seen below in the top photo, on the bottom left) and another of a kneeling Adolf Hitler. So I knew we weren't in for watercolors and rainbows. But I didn't enter the exhibit intending to dissect it with an art historian's eye. Paul and I simply made our way up the ramp slowly, stopping every 60 degrees or so to see the sculptures at every angle -- above, below, behind, to the right and to the left.

"Maurizio Cattelan: All" runs through this Sunday, January 22.