artist you should know / rené magritte at the moma

because jarman has been dragged to tons of art museums and has listened to me rant about different artists, he has become quite the connoisseur. there is a certain style of work that i always know he would like. when i saw that there was a magritte exhibit in new york, i convinced jarman that he would love it. luckily he did, and lived to tell you about his experience!

from jarman:

Before Brit and I started dating, my appreciation for art was minimal. I had never dedicated any time to explore it and I never went to museums unless I had to for school. Though I do not claim to be an art enthusiast or expert by any measure, I feel like I have come a long way in terms of developing a fundamental understanding and appreciation for art.

A couple of weeks ago, Brit and I spent a weekend in New York City. We honeymooned there and have been back a couple of times since. The city itself has an irrevocable and intimate charm to it. It is filled with art, delicious food, and people from all around the world.

I was pissed when we walked into the Museum of Modern Art. It was extremely crowded, it was too hot, and I was hungry. It was also full of old people and middle school students, which is the perfect formula for an unpleasant afternoon at an art museum. BUT THE GOOD NEWS IS IT WAS ALL WORTH IT IN THE END.

The René Magritte exhibit blew me away. As a surrealist painter, he had an uncanny ability to undermine the basic principles of human rationality and logic. It was as though he was able to twist the very fabric of my personal sensibility and reasoning through his paintings. I was perplexed as I contemplated the relationship and interaction between the subjects and random objects in his pictures.  

When he was thirteen years old, his mother committed suicide. Supposedly, Magritte was there when they pulled his mother’s corpse from a river. Her face was covered by her dress. You will notice that a lot of Magritte’s works feature subjects whose faces are covered by random objects.

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My favorite Magritte painting is Philosopher’s Lamp. I don’t know exactly what it is about this one, but I stood and stared at it forever. I was fixated on his facial expression; it’s almost as though you caught the subject doing something forbidden. His eyes seem to imply a feeling of guilt and remorse.

Long story short, what I thought would be a three-hour hell in the MOMA turned out to be an invaluable personal experience. I was able to tune out the impatient foreigners bumping into me and stepping on my shoes as I soaked in Magritte. I would highly recommend making the effort to go see him if you have the chance.

Buy artwork by Rene Magritte at Art.com

fashion / getting cozy

i'm not going to lie. i'm a pretty pathetic homebody. i love that i have a job where i can work from my bed, and that my internship is only part time. most of the time i like to stay cozy and warm, and have no problem being lazy for a day out of the week. this weekend jarman and i ran around town trying to cross things off of our tourist list before we leave dc (one month from today! and that is not a happy exclamation). i was so happy to put together an outfit that was cozy enough to make me not feel the need to stay in bed all day. that fur vest is like living in the best blanket ever. and i know i ragged on jeans last week, but these pilcro jeans have been worn in enough to be (somewhat) comfy. oh and i am loving this hat with a leather bill (similar here). jarman almost laughed it back to the store when i first bought it, he had literally never seen me wear a baseball cap and was shocked. i stood my ground and have loved wearing it.

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from my camera / 100 acre wood

saturday may have been our best day in dc. we planned to go visit the kreeger museum that afternoon, but had no idea that the walk there would be so delightful. we took a bus up through georgetown and had to walk about half an hour from there. the map said there was a path through a park that would lead us. little did we know that the park was a forest, and the path was covered in leaves.

i was literally so excited i couldn't control myself. it was the prettiest place i have ever been, and we went at the perfect time of year to see all of the fall leaves. we spent almost an hour walking through and taking pictures of all the foliage. i was having major flashbacks to my childhood in virginia (i lived in burke till i was 7) and the massive forests in my grandma's backyard and down the hill from my backyard. i remember always being so scared that the trees would fall over on to my house. and loving the hammock hung between two trees behind my grandmas house. i remember taking a pictures from the hammock of the trees above and thinking it was the best picture ever taken. i remember chasing chipmunks and eating honeysuckles and swinging on the magnolia tree when i wasn't allowed. i remember being so excited when my mom and i caught a turtle on our walk. i remember the train tracks that went through the forest and the stepping stones we had to walk across rivers.

i love that massive parks in big cities can do that for you. they take you away from the hustle and bustle of city life and force you to enjoy the little things (even if those little things tower overhead). i wish that i could transport all of you there, because these pictures really don't show the grandeur of our short walk. oh, and i'm sorry that this is like my thousandth post with pictures of fall leaves, i will try my hardest to not do any more!

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a perfect day in... / siena

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today i want to share one of the best cities in italy. i was lucky enough to live there for a few months in 2011, with the nicest grandma and best cook ever. i absolutely loved my time there. i know most people who visit will only be spending a day in the city, and i totally understand: there is so much to see in italy. siena is well worth the visit, even if it is only for a day.

most of you will arrive by bus at the piazza gramsci. i want you to first walk over to my favorite spot in the city. it was my secret when i lived there, but now that i am gone i am happy to share it with you. walk to the basilica san domenico. if you'd like, you can go in, but really it's nothing compared to the cathedral. if you're facing the basilica, walk down the step to your left. there is a little alley and the backs of some shops. there are two benches along the wall where you can sit an soak in the view. this is the best place to view siena. you get a great view of the cathedral, and can see some of the hills that the city was built on. take your time here. 

after this, walk back up the stairs and down the street you see right in front of you. i want you to walk down some of the small and windy streets of siena. you will probably get lost and it will be awesome. look out for the flags hanging from the windows, they are symbolic of the 17 contrade (neighborhood/district things). the sienese love their contradas, and have rivals within the city. they hold the palio every year, which is a horserace in the campo. anyways, walk through the streets and head towards the siena cathedral, you should be able to see if from most places.

now go the the cathedral. this is probably the coolest cathedral in all of italy, i love the black and white interior and massive ceilings and beautiful brickwork. make sure you check out the floors too, they are all original and completely marble. at one time there were plans to expand the building to make it more competitive with the florence cathedral, but they got halfway through and ran out of money. however, you can climb up the part that they built and get some really cool views of the city. you can also check out the baptistry underneath the building, it is totally worth it.

now that you have died and gone to catholic heaven, you probably want to eat. (or you can visit the hospital-turned-museum across the street, it is one of the cooler museums you will ever see). you are going to walk to the best panini shop in the world. i am so jealous. from the cathedral walk down the via san pietro. the panini shop is tiny, but i have placed it on the map and the address is 82 via san pietro. i don't even know if it has a name. but trust me, it will be the best italian sandwich of your life. 

here is the thing about italian panini's: they are on hard bread that cuts the top of your mouth, they do not toast them, and they generally only have meat and cheese. i'm not saying that they are bad sandwiches, i just want you to know what you are in for. my favorite was a salami with the buffala mozarella. there are so many choices though, and everything will be good. you can ask to have pesto put on your sandwich- they won't like doing it , but they will oblige. 

take your panini and eat it on the church steps nearby, or in the park that is just around the corner. 

walk back down the via san pietro to the via citta. this is the street with all of the cute little shops- the shopping is great but quite expensive. if you can buy some shoes, i will be infinitely jealous because that is all i ever wanted to do there. once you find the campo, take a look, maybe a picture, and head straight to get some gelato. there are a few gelato places in the city, but super panna is the best. it is on one of the streets right next to the campo (see the map below). don't be an idiot: get a real waffle cone and the panna cotta gelato. you can pair it with any of the other flavors, they are all delicious.

now that you have your gelato you can go back and enjoy the campo. sit down in the sun, eat the best gelato in the world, and delight in one of the best places you will ever visit. it may take a while for you to understand how great this place is, but sit there long enough and you will get it (but don't fall asleep, a police lady might wake you up and yell at you). 

once you have spent a good amount of time in the campo, head over to the palazzo publico. make sure you see the allegory of good and bad government by ambrogio lorenzetti, you probably learned about this painting in your art history class. also, check out the maesta by simone martini. look for the jewels that were pasted on the wall, they make the fresco so much more interesting. 

these are the main things that you should do. after the palazzo anything else is fair game. you can go behind that building to the piazza mercato and walk back through some pretty fields and wild life. you can visit the oldest bank in the world, or the home of saint catherine. you could head over to the pinacoteca, or walk along the city walls. just as long as you do the things listed above. and you probably need to get gelato as many time as possible. 3 servings a day is not unheard of.

contemporary artist / nikki lee on nmwa's blog

for the first time ever my writing was featured on a different blog! i am so delighted! i mean, it is the blog at the museum where i do my internship, so it may not be as exciting, but still. at the national museum for women in the arts we focus on women (obviously) and how to increase their visibility in the art world. i was working on writing some self-tour guides, and one of the artists i researched was nikki lee. i had never heard of her before, but her work is fascinating. here is the post that was featured on nmwa's blog. 

Part (14), Nikki S. Lee, 2002

Fluid Identities: The "Parts" and "Projects" of Nikki Lee

The old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” may actually be true of  photographs by Nikki S. Lee in NMWA’s collection. In her series “Parts,” Lee curates scenes of herself with a significant other showing intimate dynamics and details of a relationship, then physically cuts her partner out of each printed photograph.

This mysterious process imbues meaning and surprise: Lee often created varied, in-depth narratives around her scenes, from routine day-to-day activities to cheerful tourist-style snapshots, to a woman on her wedding day. Her cuts force viewers to focus on the emotions—anger, heartbreak, a wish to forget—with which someone might cut a formerly beloved person out of a photo.

In an interview, Lee said, “The purpose of the cut is to make people curious about the missing person and to think how his identity has affected the woman who is left behind. It forces people to examine the relationship itself, even if it is only part of the story.”

the seniors project (26), nikki s. lee, 1999

The “Projects” series is less about artistic beauty, and more about exploring the many facets of oneself. Lee has said that each of the roles she played during this project made up a piece of her. She examines the ways that a person can be made up of many disparate identities and personality traits, and she also examines the way that being surrounded by different groups of people who share those traits can completely change how you are perceived by others.This series is not Lee’s first major photographic undertaking. For her “Projects” series, Lee insinuated herself into subcultural groups, working for two to three months to be accepted in each social group. These groups included seniors, Hispanics, swingers, yuppies, lesbians, and others. For each project, Lee changed what she wore, where she shopped, and how she presented herself. After she had spent time with them, she would ask a friend or passerby snap a picture of the group. These photographs—simultaneously staged and casual—are less than professional, even including the date and timestamp from the small digital cameras used to take them.

Each of Lee’s series analyzes the deeper meanings of outward identities. She focuses on how identities can be changed by who we surround ourselves with, what we wear, and how we act. While “Parts” spotlights the ways the relationships affect our lives, “Projects” demonstrates the fluidity of identity that people use to define others as well as themselves.