Poll | 01/06/2009 12:00 am

When's the last time you visited an art museum?

Read more about: Art, Culture, Lifestyle, Museums

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Happy healthy new year to you, too, Lena B!

By rocky rocky on 01/07/2009 7:51 am

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Same to you too Sister rocky! It’s good to hear from you.

By Lena B on 01/07/2009 8:38 am

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When my husband was well we just had to find museums, big or small, in every town we visited. We did not just walk past a painting, there had to be a pause, then a critique on how he liked it or disliked it. I miss those days. He taught me so very much. Last Sunday I went (again) in the Biltmore Castle in Asheville. Daughter works there and we have complimentary tickets. So besides the antiques and the architecture I could again admire the Sergeants , Renoir, gorgeous Flemish tapestries, Durer print collection and so on. Tried to educate my 9 year grandson who walked about arms swinging like he was a windmill. My heart sank as I thought for sure he would swing at a Dresden figure within inches of him. In two rooms we knew we would find the “Kensinger Father Christmas” dolls we had been commissioned to do for the castle decades ago. When I saw a sled and reindeer montage we had done I lost it and cried knowing that old Bob did not remember any of this. The small Renoir on the wall, the little girl , was smiling as she looked down on our artwork. Great memories. PR: do visit the castle when you are in the W N C mountains, it is well worth the money. The only castle left in the USA which is privately owned and open to the public.

By Jeannot Kensinger on 01/06/2009 8:00 am

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I go to art museums when I can but my latest museum trip was to the Houston Museum of Natural Science while they are having the Body Works - The Brain show going on. Thought that was fascinating, actual bodies, shown from the inside, in all sorts of poses and with emphasis on different parts. Art of a totally natural type.

By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 01/06/2009 8:09 am

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Visited the Albrecht Duerer Museum in Nuremberg last month with my daughter, and we also went to see the Christmas Markets in Nuremberg, Munich, Augsburg, Freiburg and Colmar in Alsace……….Lots of holiday spirits…..

By Frau Quink on 01/06/2009 9:31 am

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Frau Quink - btw, love the name - did you see the “Isenheimer Altar” when you were in Colmar?

By Jane Cougar Melonhat on 01/06/2009 9:48 am

It’s been way too long. My last museum trip was to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, but that was six years ago. My best “art museum” memory is visiting The Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City with my father. I was just a child at the time, but it did take my breath away. The exhibits at the University of Utah were fairly disappointing in comparison. This is something I should put on my “list”. My younger daughter toured a bunch of NYC art museums last year and couldn’t stop talking about them, but vicarious thrills hardly cut the mustard.

By Ms. Dee on 01/06/2009 9:34 am

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Been to lots of art galleries but never an art “museum”.

By Chrome Toe on 01/06/2009 10:30 am

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It’s on my to do list for my NYC trip. and the NYC trip is probably… once AGAIN… put off until late spring of this year. i hope not later than that though. NYC is my dream trip. I’ve been on all the tropical trips. traveled the western states on my motorcycle… that type of thing. but NYC is my dream. it’s been an ongoing battle between me and my husband for YEARS. he just had no desire to go at all. then this year we met a bunch of people from new york who got him to change his mind. i’d have gone without him of course. but i just KNEW he’d love it if he’d go. Our favorite thing in the world is just putting on our tennis shoes and walking around looking at people and dinking around. NYC has got to be great for that i’d think.

By Chrome Toe on 01/06/2009 12:03 pm

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Chrome Toe, My first trip to New York was 21 years ago for my daughter’s wedding reception. We had a bi-coastal wedding. Wedding here in Portland w reception and reception for his friends and family in NYC. I spent 10 days with the newlyweds. They had to work but my daughter had a list of places for me to go and experience in addition to what we did together in the evening. I walked into the Met and got a map of the museum and sat in the coffee shop with an espresso reading it. A man at the next table asked where I was from, and when I answered and told him why I was in town, he asked if I would allow him to show me his museum. We spent a delightful day as he just waxed poetic about his museum. We never exchanged more than first names. What a delightful gentleman. My daughter taught me to be safe in the city. I visited many Jazz venues, I visited all museums, walked all over the city. Of course I stayed with the kids but a couple of years ago when they were living on 53rd just down the street from MOMA , there was a lovely affordable hotel that my ex-husband stayed in just around the corner. If you’d like to get the name I’ll be happy to do it for you. New York needs to be seen from the streets. I fell in love. If I believed in past lives I would have sworn I lived there in a past life. It smell right, it looked right, it sounded right. I’ve had several love affairs in my life. San Francisco when I was 13, New Orleans when I moved there at 26, my hometown, Portland, Oregon, when I moved back at 34, NYC at 51 when my daughter got married, Chicago when my daughter moved there when I was 63. Some people fall in love with men, me I fall in love with cities. She was in school at the Art Institute. That museum was developed to support the school. After she graduated from there it was back to NYC to get her Master at NYU. She is now a working artist in NYC so I have regular excuses to intrude on her life. It is a lovely wonderful place and you will love it. I forgot, don’t miss the stage shows, see a musical as well as at least one serious one. You can ask a travel agent how to get tickets at the last minute. My son in law is a native so we leave that to him but they’ll know to get you connected. You haven’t lived until you walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

By beverly linens on 01/06/2009 4:05 pm

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Oh Beverly that sounds WONDERFUL. I need to make it a priority. this year we scheduled a trip to Belize with clients or i’d be firming up the NYC trip. as it stands i’m going to wait until we’re back from Belize. My best friend is from New Jersey and her son lives in NYC as do some of her other relatives and friends. she goes often. so when the time comes i’ll tap her for a resource. Met people in Belize last year who live in NYC that i stay in touch with and will see them while i’m there. they are dying to show me around. so i think i’ll be in good hands. by the way you and I are neighbors! i live over the river in Washington…

By Chrome Toe on 01/06/2009 4:20 pm

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Hello neighbor! We have a constantly improving museum right here in Portland. Bev.

By beverly linens on 01/06/2009 7:19 pm

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New York is simply magical. I urge you to go and drink it all in.

By Vivvy Stewart on 01/07/2009 8:35 am

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Merrell, Not yet. She is young at this. She was 45 when she just stopped what she was doing and went quiet for 6 months. She’d spent her life in business, marketing and was successful but hated it. She went looking for an instructor in painting. Not the kind most middle aged women want but fine art painting. She found a professor named Dick Goody at Oakland University part of the Michigan system, where her husband was working at the time. This is where fate stepped in, he was classically trained in London. Only living there because he’d married a native of Mi. He taught her what he knew and got out of her way. They didn’t have a fine arts degree available there so she applied at NYU and was accepted but through an accident of life they ended up in Chicago and SAIC pursued her and made room for her in their fall program in-spite of the fact it was early in Sept. Then she went to NYU for her masters. She says she’s working to build a portfolio. When she sent me photos of her first work, I was amazed. My friend artist/collector/professor said I was just a mother. I said I don’t think so, I’d been collecting art since 1960. I could tell good from okay. When he saw the photos he said wow! Now, he says the reason she hit the road running was because she grew up with art all around her. It would be nice to take some credit but I’m not going to. It has been amazing as her mother just watching her develop. When she does get a website I’ll let you know. You said somewhere on this thread that you were a sculptor. What do you do? I’d love to see your work, do you have a website? I purchased my first sculpture about 1973, I went home walking about a foot off the floor, I was so thrilled. The thrill has never passed. I can’t keep my hands off my sculpture. One of the things I’ve noticed through the years is that men are more drawn to sculpture than they are to paintings. The last piece I bought is almost impossible for men to stay away from, it doesn’t matter who they are electricians or plumbers who come here to work as well as friends have to get close to it.

By beverly linens on 01/08/2009 11:30 pm

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Merrell, I think you are right. This is one of the few pieces I knew exactly where it would go before I bought it. I can’t count the times I found some male with their head wrapped around it like they are trying to figure how it is constructed. The other morning I was looking at it when I woke up, as I can see it in the corner of the dining room through the door. It is not an angle that I usually observe. I was just laying in bed thinking I need to move it to the middle of the room so I can see it from all angles all the time. Thank you for answering my question. If you ever get a website let me know. Hasn’t this thread been fun? I checked out that website with the cat,dog, mouse armor. What delicate wonderful imaginative work. It made me smile.

By beverly linens on 01/10/2009 2:19 am