Nan Thurn Kitchens on thu 24 mar 05
This isn't an NCECA post. Everyone else has already said, much more
eloquently than I, what good feelings we have getting together again.
It IS about the people, and the art, and the common bond of creativity
we share. But not without a little horn beeping about the problems of
bringing
6800 people together successfully. Big weddings have a way of not being what
we expect them to be either. Onward..
After NCECA I usually try to stay on a day or two to breathe, decompress and
catch a
few shows still on exhibit I might have missed. My flight home was
Sunday evening so I took my time toddling down to breakfast Sunday. I had
the
good fortune of finding Don Goodrich and James (Jim) Bowen lolling over a
late
breakfast too.
We discovered we were leaving Baltimore almost the same time so
I coerced them to join me to visit the American Visionary Art Museum.When we
got there
we marveled for a while at the outside of the building, despite the rain
that was pelting us.
At the entrance, one wall was covered with nearly 300 (maybe more) 2'x4'
vertical panels of random
mosaic designs made of mirror, glass and tiles, three stories high on the
building! A 55 ft tall whirligig graced the courtyard. (we knew we were in
for a ride)
The exhibits were on two floors, with countless pieces of incredible art
made from the oddest
objects or mediums, by people with little or no formal training in art, as
well as many who have been institutionalized, some for most of their life.
I admit to being easily amused but......I was entranced, mesmerized,
charmed, amazed, and delighted. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. I had
fallen into the rabbit hole. Every turn was an ooooo or an ahhhhh.
We saw mosaic paintings using pieces of postage stamps not much larger than
this H, A 20 ft Titanic made of matchsticks, hand jewelled Vodou banners of
mermaids, life sized figures made of broken glass, a life story embroidered
in dozens of huge panels about one woman's escape and survival of the
holocaust, an 8 ft egg covered in galaxies of mirror and tile mosaic, a huge
bronze nest surrounding an upper window of the building, with bird sounds
coming from the speaker inside it, an 11 foot golden hand attached to the
outside wall, giant angel wing bronze door handles, fish sculptures of
bottle caps and wire, complicated mechanical toys where every piece moved
when a button was pushed, a huge hobbit house made of driftwood pieces,
intricate paintings made with brushes with only two or three hairs,with
millions of tiny dots of color. At one point I had lost contact with Don and
Jim and had to go find them to show them a huge additional gallery space I
had discovered. A gigantic pink poodle pedal car, an old Pontiac covered
completely with blue glass bottles and jars and tiles, and a giant figure of
Devine dominated that room.
We spent hours there then topped off the whole experience by eating at the
Joy America restaurant on the top floor. We had guacamole prepared
tableside, served in a huge stone bowl
and fabulous portabello burritos that were a mixture of delicious flavors.
Don drove Jim and me to the airport that afternoon and we bid farewell to
each other...... until next year.
Thanks Don and Jim.
What an adventure!
Nan Thurn Kitchens
Architectural Clayworks
Key Largo FL
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment........Rumi
Kathy Forer on fri 25 mar 05
On Mar 25, 2005, at 12:47 AM, Nan Thurn Kitchens wrote:
> We spent hours there then topped off the whole experience by eating at
> the
> Joy America restaurant on the top floor. We had guacamole prepared
> tableside, served in a huge stone bowl
> and fabulous portabello burritos that were a mixture of delicious
> flavors.
Weren't they good!
Now I know where to go to back to avoid the easy junk food I have yet
to learn to deal with while traveling. I shoulda gone there the first
day like I wanted to....
Thanks Nan for a great description of an entrancing small museum. My
favorite piece was the decaying painting by the Rev. Albert Wagner of
"Parting the Red Sea." Divided by a chasm, the high water drops
straight down to the bottom of either side and multitudes of people
pour forth in a slightly curved or horned triangle between the vertical
sheets of water. There's something almost primal in that image. Or is
it archetypal or symbolic? It reverberates. Unfortunately the canvas
was probably rolled and the paint is peeling in a bad way.
In contrast to the lively work next door, the NCECA Invitational on the
top floor of the educational center seemed almost forlorn, bunched
together in groups in a vast space. Perhaps it looked better when the
people who bought tickets for the dinner filled the room, but it was a
mismatch.
It wasn't until I stopped at the Visionary Art Museum store that I
realized what an occasion NCECA can be to purchase gifts. It was my
mother's birthday and I'd like to get her some cereal bowls. I can't
believe I missed the opportunity to buy incredible or simply ordinary
pottery. Though I visited the Artstream, without price labels the
buying impulse somehow didn't connect. It seemed more like a museum or
gallery.
Kathy Forer
Locust, NJ
kathyforer.com
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