Me And Art 1

  Having been fortunate to have married an artist, I have had the opportunity to experience an ongoing "class" in art of all forms. Johnny has exposed me to countless hours in various museums, galleries, expositions of art in many forms. I love it.
  As a kid, I fancied myself as an artist. I was the one that sent in the "Draw Sparky" forms from ladies magazines, drew dogs and horses, etc. Then in high school, I actually got into large scale, contemporary painting. Our teacher was very forward thinking, super cool, and showed our work in a small San Francisco gallery. Then we moved, and the art teacher in the new school didn't go in for anything original, let alone "modern". His favorite students were those that could copy old paintings from books. He actually made fun of one of my paintings in front of the class. It was devastating at the time. I found other creative outlets.
  These days I get a whole bunch of pleasure from seeing art. In particular, I like contemporary art. If there is something textural or minimal about it, all the better. I am open to just about anything when it comes to installation art. I have not quite warmed up to all performance art, but I try to understand, even if there isn't anything to understand...
  When we went to the Venice Biennale in '07, it blew my little pea brain. Wide open. Art everywhere-so much, a week was not enough, so in '09 we spent over 2 weeks... still not enough time, but what a treat. I hold hope for going this fall, but we want to get back to Panicale in the spring... we'll see.
  The fantastic thing about the Venice Biennale is that you have the chance to go inside all these old Venetian palazzi (palaces) to see the different exhibitions. The juxtaposition of the very old and the ultra modern is my favorite thing to experience. It may be some bizarre video piece, or a broken Murano glass chandelier, or both. Love it all. And if you have had enough of the new, there is always the Accademia, Frari, etc. to see the good old gems.
  For now, here are some of my faves.. (forgive me.. I don't have my notes to tell you who the artists are. Shame on me!)

Two shots of the candy installation... licorice candy that you were encouraged to take.
Each night it was all redone.

           

This is made from black and white chalk, set on end.

Close up of above. I loved this..

People had to work their way through this piece..it took up an entire room.

One of several large pieces, 5'x6' or so. Not paint, BEADS...

Detail of the amazing beadwork from above.

Fantastic sculpture/light installation.

Another view of piece above. I liked how it went down the stairs.

This was so cool. It's a big pile of plastic bags filled with air.
 It was accompanied by a video of the artist blowing up the bags, closing them off and tossing them in the corner.

Giant wall of guitar amps turned up to 10. Just the vibration alone. The "sound" went into your bones.
 They had an earplug dispenser at the entrance. You needed them.