Friday Night @ the DMA

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...as in, Dallas Museum of Art.

So, I got all excited about the DMA's Fun-Filled Family Friday night. The kids can go in PJs for story telling, and crafts, and family fun. Kids are free.

I couldn't wait!
So, when I got home from work, I informed my family that we had a family-date-night surprise, and Gage was to wear his pajamas.

We head out to downtown, and pay our $10 for parking...
We headed on down toward the museum....






So, if you judged from the above pictures, you might be inclined to believe that we all had a really good time....

Well---let's back up. We enter. Holy A$$-Whooping---there are more people in the DMA than I have ever seen at one time. Gage is free; Hubby is $10, and I'm $5 (way to go, Student ID!) So, we're out $25 so far.

The crowd: completely overwhelming for all of us really. Craft tables---way crowded. Story time---over. There's a line longer than the lines to ride something at 6 Flags! What are all of these people waiting for??? To get into the gift shop to have their copy of the story-time book autographed by the author. Yup, we'll be skipping that...we didn't even hear the story.

So, Gage enjoyed exactly 3 things: (1) a "tunnel" piece of art [if you can call it that, but I'll get into that in a minute] where no photography was allowed, (2) the texture wall (pictured above), and (3) the boxes. Now, in the box area, he would stack up some of the boxes & then knock them down. These two girls (whose moms were wrapped up in their own conversation) would grab Gage's boxes when he knocked them down, so that they could build a biiiiiig tower. In fact, after the little rip-off artists snatched Gage's boxes, they could no longer reach the top of their tower, so one mom got off her fat-ass to stand on a chair & put boxes on top of their tower. Of course she was oblivious to their stealing-ways b/c she only helped the girls so they would be quiet & she could continue conversing with her friend.
But whatever---did I just get off on a tangent there???

So....we were there for an hour---maybe an hour & a half tops. That includes drive time & parking time.

My comments on SOME modern art.....
A completely dark room with a light that goes around the wall. To me---not art.
I've seen better light shows at the club.
Puh-lease!

This tunnel thing that someone calls art---granted, it probably took a while to construct....but art? Not to me.

Which takes my memory back to a NY trip I took in college. A childhood buddy, Jason, went to NYU. (Jason, if you're reading, 'What up, dog??') So anyway---he & I went to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Some things there: totally awesome.
Some things: wtf? [Lainey-Paney's inner thoughts at the time: well, I'd like to sit---but is it art? is it JUST a bench, or is it art?.....oh look---someone wadded up a sheet of notebook paper & threw it on the floor. I'll pick it up to help keep MOMA tidy. WTF? does that little piece of wadded up trash have a title? and artist? THEY CALL THIS ART??? Damn....if I'd known that, I could have been rich. I had at least 20 of these on the dorm room floor last week when I was working on that paper!....]

So anyway...I'm not a super huge fan of all Modern Art. If it looks like trash & you're slapping a label on it calling it art, well, that's just stupid. Or, maybe I'm bitter because you thought of it before me. Whatever. If it looks like trash & I threw 20 things out just like it---well, then it is trash. To me anyway....

:)
Okay...that's all for now.

What the hell???

From.... www.smh.com...:


A New York gallery is featuring a bizarre sculpture of Hollywood celebutante and socialite Paris Hilton in a distinctly unglamorous pose - pregnant on an autopsy slab with one leg up in stirrups.

The sculpture, which goes on public display on Friday, was dreamed up by artist Daniel Edwards, whose previous works have included a nude, life-sized sculpture of pop princess Britney Spears on all fours giving birth.

The Hilton sculpture, which is designed to warn of the dangers of drink driving, comes complete with interactive opened abdominal cavity. The gallery is encouraging art lovers to get their hands on the removable organs.

Hilton was arrested in September last year for drink driving and was sentenced to a jail term last week for driving on a suspended licence.

"An interactive Public Service Announcement featuring the graphic display of a tiara-wearing, autopsied Paris Hilton with removable innards is designed to warn teenagers of the hazards of underage drinking," the gallery said.

"Paris's internals, which include her small intestines, uterus and foetuses, are removable to assist teens with an empathetic view of drunk driving tragedy from the coroner's perspective," gallery director David Kesting said.

The sculpture also features Hilton's Chihuahua Tinkerbell, also wearing a tiara, rampant and begging for attention.

"The tableau ... reminds potential prom queens no one is impervious to the pitfalls of drinking," the gallery, Capla Kesting Fine Art, said.

The sculpture is for sale, although the asking price was not disclosed.

The gallery has also invited students to compose an obituary for the socialite, based on the artwork.

Salt Lake Art Center

On Wednesday, our last day in SLC, we went to the Salt Lake Art Center.
It was free, which was a total surpise. A pleasant surprise!



We saw a collection of a few different artists...but, I must say...that my favorites were by Andy Warhol!

We saw Andy Warhol's:
- Albert Einstein (who I find visually interesting for some reason...)
- Gertrude Stein
- George Gershwin
- Martin Buber
- Franz Kafka
- Louis Brandeis
- Sigmund Freud (what a treat for me!)
- Sarah Bernhardt
- The Marx Brothers
The media: silkscreens on paper.

And then...then, we saw a video installation with sound, by artist: Bill Viola.
Work: "Ascension", 2000.

It was the scariest fucking thing ever.
1) I'm afraid of the dark.
2) I am afraid of drowning.
3) I am REEEEEALLY afraid of drowning in the dark.

I hate to spoil the surprise for anyone who is about to hop a plane to SLC to check this out...but basically, you enter a room...a very, very, pitch-ass-black room. There is a bench in the room....not that you can see it well at all. You CANNOT see the corners of the room. You have no idea where the room starts or stops. But in front of you is a video monitor...so large...that the person on the screen appears life-size. And...is he drowning? Is he floating? He's basically just in this water...his body is vertical, but you see no stop to the water, so it's not like his head is above water. And there is sound...and darkness...and to me, images of drowning. Oh it was just awful.

And yet...powerful. I mean, it stirred emotion (FEAR) so quickly...

So, that was part of our trip.
Glad we stopped in there....