Friday, June 1, 2012

Adventures in a Nutshell

What, you may ask, has Spark been up to lately, when she is not working and/or eating bagels? (Oh, sweet bagels, how I missed you...)

A few things.  Such as:

I took my mom to a concert for her birthday.  We didn't rock out.  This was an event in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  The choir of an Anglican church sang hymns and ritual favourites such as God Save the Queen. An organist struggled through Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance.  We sat as still as possible in the old wooden pews, trying not to make them squeak, and sweated like professional wrestlers because there was no air conditioning.

I went to the Picasso exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.  I didn't know much about Picasso.  To me he was that guy who painted an ugly cubist woman with a big nose and both eyes on one side of her face.  As it turns out, he painted in a range of styles throughout his career, and when that got boring he took up sculpture.  There was so much to see that I only got through 5 of the 7 rooms in an hour, and after that I got art fatigue.  I'll have to go back a second time to see the rest.

I have one message for anyone who might be attending that exhibit:
It is crowded.  You want to get up close to the artwork to get a good look at it.  However, if you stand right behind me with the toes of your shoes touching the heels of my shoes, when I turn to move to the next painting I will step on you.  Nothing personal, but please, if you can read this, you're standing too close.

I've been shopping online at LL Bean, and I'm officially hooked.  They offer the best selection of colours.  Most stores in malls only have two or three trendy colours on the rack each season.  I find this depressingly boring.  I need variety!  My latest acquisition is this in "bright capri" (their fancy name for "blue"), and it is my new favourite shirt.

What else is going on?  Well, I have this upcoming week off for my first staycation in a while, so something is bound to happen.

10 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

Picasso's work is much more varied than I imagined too. I do love his cubist period though.

Maybe with my name I should be shopping in LL Bean too?

DarcKnyt said...

Pablo could do some cool stuff. I liked some of his sketches best of all, but maybe I'm a philistine.

Sweating like a pro wrestler is a way of life for me. :(

I like Bean. They have a lot of things I like. That's hard to say most times. I'm picky that way.

Jameil said...

A struggle organist??? YIKES! That takes me back to my days of listening to my grandma practice her organ as a child. She was not very good. My sister and I would be forced out side in the heat of Mississippi summer to escape it. I get art fatigue, too. No matter how good it is, I gotta get away after a while! LL Bean was THE place for backpacks with our initials on them when we were growing up! My sister and I just HAD to have them! They were pretty expensive so our mom said those were our last backpacks. LOL We actually loved them so we were cool with that! Still have them! Staycation? NEW ADVENTURES! YAY!!!

Lynn said...

I'm so glad you can have bagels again. And that exhibit sounds wonderful - I saw a similar one in Atlanta several years ago and then another of his pencil sketches in Edinburgh about 10 years ago. He was a busy man, it seems.

Warped Mind of Ron said...

Sorry bout that, it's how I operate. First you get way to close to someone in an effort to "see the art" and then you get to brush all up against them when they move and it's their fault ;-). Ive found it helps to have a crowded exhibit, otherwise it really really doesn't work well.

Sparkling Red said...

LL Cool Joe: I think pigs will fly the day we see you wearing anything from LL Bean!

DarcKnyt: My favourite piece in the exhibit was a metal sculpture of a goat. I also liked one particular painting of a naked figure apparently made of Silly Putty being attacked by cubist chickens.

Jameil: My first LL Bean phase started when I was in high school. I never had a monogrammed backpack, but I did have a couple of really nice wool sweaters that I now wish I'd kept.

Lynn: It's amazing how much work he produced. Apparently he never stopped until he was literally about to die. I love it when artists are that committed to their work.

Ron: Frottage!

Warped Mind of Ron said...

Frottage??? A method of making a design by placing a piece of paper on top of an object and then rubbing over it, as with a pencil or charcoal.

I don't understand??? ;-)

DarcsFalcon said...

Oooh, vacation time! I bet you'll have lots of interesting things to do and people to see. :)

That shirt is adorable and I want one too! LOL

The art exhibit sounds interesting. I never liked the cubist stuff Picasso did but some of his earlier sketches were interesting. Are you sure there were no mirrors taped to that person's shoes who stood so close behind you? Could have been a naughty person.

I sure hope you weren't at the mall in downtown Toronto this weekend. Heard about some awful shooting there and I worried about you and WIGSF.

Tracy Moore said...

Picasso definitely had a wide range. Some great...some not so much, in my opinion lol. Sounds like you've been having some fun. Yay! Hope you enjoy your week off Spark. We'll be waiting to read about the adventures. :)

Jenski said...

Yay, LL Bean! Their sheep moccosins are very popular.

I once leaned too close to a painting at an art museum. The docent was firm, but polite, that even though there was no marked line, I couldn't stand that close.