WAM!
Today my wife and I went off to the Worcester Art Museum.
It’s been decades since I’ve been inside, even though I drive past fairly often and my wife is a member.
Today, to celebrate the aniversary of fifty centuries of art, we expanded it to a dual membership.
(How do they know art was invented in May? And, fifty centuries seems like an very round number. Is it really 50000 years, not 49997 or 50004 or something? But, I digress.)
Although we’ve been planning on going to the WAM for a while now, we saw something that almost turned us back when we got to the entrance.
4 School busses.
And, the entrance was full of kids.
But, they were being taken on guided tours, so we said, “we’ll just go where they aren’t”. And, it is a reasonably sized museum, so avoiding them wasn’t that hard.
They started at the bottom, so we started at the top.
I like this museum for a lot of reasons. But, one of them is that they have a lot of off beat sort of things.
Like ancient South American carvings of animals that never existed.
If this were found in Europe I’d say it was the Holy Grail. But, it’s from Mexico.
(Of course I see no reason that takes it out of the running, but that’s me.)
For some reason not clear to even me, I love roller seals. I’ve been fond of seals of all kinds for as long as I can remember, but roller seals are my favorite. And, the WAM has the biggest one I’ve ever seen.
It is bracelet sized!
We also saw a clock made by the folks from yesterday’s museum.
And, a desk I would love to have.
A bunch of silver made by Paul Revere when he wasn’t in the British jail.
But, they also have some really funky stuff. Sadly in the galleries with the stuff that was the most funky they don’t let you take pictures.
The one I thought was the most funky was the one featuring the art of Rona Pondick.
I’d love to know how she made some of those pieces. The giant green hand was the only one that actually said. (Computer scan and stero lithography. I’ve used those things myself, but never for a big green hand.)
The animal/human hybrids I thought were really something.
Sadly, words fail me for describing my feelings about them. They’re very strange, but do make (at least me) think about things.
I can’t say I really enjoy looking at them. But, they do change the way I look at things, and I count that as pretty good art even if it makes me say “eww” a bit.
I’m reminded of a quote from MC Escher: “What one person considers to be 'art' is often not 'art' to another. 'Beautiful' and 'ugly' are old-fashioned concepts that are seldom applied these days; perhaps justifiably, who knows? Something repulsive, which gives you a moral hangover, and hurts your ears or eyes, may well be art.”
If you’re in the area, they’re something to see.
The other one that really caught both of our attention was the mural by Think Again.
It’s big. It covers a whole wall that was on the other side of the gallery from where my wife was in the picture above. (And, that’s not counting the one on the outside of the building that they projected at night.)
We probably spent 10 to 15 minutes just looking at that one.
It is certainly a “moral hangover” piece. But, in a “makes you think about things” way, which is good.
It’s certainly a piece that gets you talking. At least if you try and figure out what they’re trying to say.
They do, of course, have lots of paintings and such too.
Including ones by Dutch masters I know some people on my friends list like.
This one is my wife’s favorite.
Some of their things are quite large like the Roman tiled floor.
And their chapter house from an old church in France.
My wife was very fond of the Japanese items they had out as well.
(It’s not really a Phoenix. It is a Japanese bird they made to look like a Phoenix to be more honorable.)
It was this painting that set in motion the rest of our adventure.
This is a painting of Worcester in 1796 from one of the tall hills overlooking what is now down town.
So, when we left the museum, I said “I wonder if we can find which hill that was?”
So, we drove to the closest big hill in the proper direction and parked by the tower on top of it.
Back when I was in college, you could climb up this tower and get a good view of the city. So, I thought it would be good to check the view from here.
Sadly, now they lock it.
So, I tried from the smaller towers out front.
Not much luck with views of the city.
Maybe it’s the right view, I couldn’t be sure.
So, we set off to go up the biggest hill I know in Worcester.
The view from the airport is very nice.
But, still not quite the one in the painting.
I think we would have had the right view if we went and stood by the end of the runway at the airport. But, I feared we would be arrested if we tried that, so I’m still not 100% sure about the proper view. But, we did have a nice drive up and down a few of the hills of Worcester trying to find it.
On the way back down from the airport we passed the Robert Goddard memorial.
I’ve always been fond of Robert Goddard.
He went to the college I went to and taught where my wife went. He built the worlds first liquid fueled rocket and shot it into a farm in Auburn one town south, for which he was sent out west to build bigger rockets by the government so he’s stop bombing cabbages. (My interpretation of these events is not the prevailing one.)
We returned home to find the glass in our front foyer missing.
I have no idea where it went or why. But, it does make getting in a lot easier.
Later in the day it was back. I didn’t see it at the art museum, so it must have gone somewhere else. I wonder where?