My first semester back in school is starting to come to a head, and I've got a weird pattern going on. When I'm not studying, I'm full of guilt over the fact that I'm not studying. This guilt keeps me from doing things like reading for fun, going to the movies, going for bike rides, cooking (don't do these things! You don't have time! You should be working on your term project!), but it's not powerful enough to keep me from mindlessly surfing the internet, watching episodes of the Daily Show online, and staring into space blankly for long periods of time.
Enough!
Today was different.
We went to Brooklyn to go check out the Gilbert and George exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklyn has a great art museum, complete with The Dinner Party! For those of you who aren't big feminist art fans, The Dinner Party is probably the most well-known work of the movement. It's not a painting either; it's an enormous table set for 39 great women from across history. When I was in college and learning about this stuff the Dinner Party didn't have a permanent home, so no one could go see it. Imagine my surprise then, when I stumbled across it today. I dragged Oliver around the table, filling him in on Margaret Sanger, Georgia O'Keefe, and the value of textile art. Toward the end of our little tour, he looked at me seriously.
O: "These plates. The paintings on them. Do they all look like...?"
A: "You just noticed that?"
O: "So it was on purpose?"
A: snickers
I haven't been to an art museum for quite awhile, and it gave me a nice little charge. There's something about looking at things that are bursting with meaning! life! intensity! questions! that makes the little details of a given day seem more colorful, more important. We walked through Prospect Park and saw a tree that was completely barren but for one brach that was full of bright yellow leaves. We passed two guys on the sidewalk who were shadow boxing each other. An elderly couple sat on a bench and peeled a granny smith apple with a paring knife, letting the skins fall into a clear plastic bag. A guy in our subway car sat holding a full-sized surfboard.
Beats staring blankly into space. Oh wait...
