Art and books
God, I love this city. Where else can you visit eight art galleries on a moving elevated train? It's called Art on Track, the brainchild of a group called Salvo NFP, which places art in unlikely public spaces. You pay an entrance fee (unless you, like me, have a free pass), go up on the "L" platform, and wait for the "Art on Track" train. It goes around the elevated tracks in the Loop, and you can ride it as long as you want, changing cars at the different stations. Each of the eight cars has art from a different gallery or studio, and artists or gallerists are there to talk about the art/installations.
Installations and interactive art were very popular, as the venue lends itself to that sort of thing. Kids were particular fond of this bubble-wrapped car:
Other cars were simply used as display space for art, such as this one for the Flat Iron Artists Association:
After I'd enjoyed that, I had some time before my AAUW meeting, so I wandered over to the Art Institute to see the James Castle retrospective. I find his work oddly compelling. Profoundly deaf since birth, he never learned to sign or lip-read, though he spent several years at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. He was a self-taught artist who worked in isolation in the family home, and his primary materials were paper detritus (unfolded matchboxes, discarded texts) and a soot-and-saliva medium. He worked in the book format and created sculptural works, although his works are mainly drawings, often with human figures heads of objects, such as chairs. It's a great show, covering all aspects of his work, and thoughtfully curated.
I got home and went over to the shopping center, purportedly to run errands, but, in reality, to check out the used book sale. I just picked up a couple of books, because I planned to (and did) go back this morning when prices were slashed 50%. Tomorrow is $5 box day, so I am going to return. Then off to 57th Street Books to pick up my copy of I like it like that.
Winter is definitely upon us. It was quite cold this morning, though I expect the Marathon runners preferred that to the horrendously hot weather they had to cope with last year at this time. No need to stop the race early on account of the heat this year!
I have some vacation time that I have to use or lose. I will take a week off around Christmas when my sisters come to town, but I decided to take next week off as well. On Tuesday I will drive to Galena, come back Thursday to go to a benefit for Teatro Vista, and head to Springfield for a seminar on Friday. (Galena is a small town on the western border of Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Iowa, very scenic. It was the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, and has a lot of Victorian architecture. In fact, I'll be staying at a bed-and-breakfast housed in a Victorian mansion.)
Installations and interactive art were very popular, as the venue lends itself to that sort of thing. Kids were particular fond of this bubble-wrapped car:
Other cars were simply used as display space for art, such as this one for the Flat Iron Artists Association:
After I'd enjoyed that, I had some time before my AAUW meeting, so I wandered over to the Art Institute to see the James Castle retrospective. I find his work oddly compelling. Profoundly deaf since birth, he never learned to sign or lip-read, though he spent several years at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. He was a self-taught artist who worked in isolation in the family home, and his primary materials were paper detritus (unfolded matchboxes, discarded texts) and a soot-and-saliva medium. He worked in the book format and created sculptural works, although his works are mainly drawings, often with human figures heads of objects, such as chairs. It's a great show, covering all aspects of his work, and thoughtfully curated.
I got home and went over to the shopping center, purportedly to run errands, but, in reality, to check out the used book sale. I just picked up a couple of books, because I planned to (and did) go back this morning when prices were slashed 50%. Tomorrow is $5 box day, so I am going to return. Then off to 57th Street Books to pick up my copy of I like it like that.
Winter is definitely upon us. It was quite cold this morning, though I expect the Marathon runners preferred that to the horrendously hot weather they had to cope with last year at this time. No need to stop the race early on account of the heat this year!
I have some vacation time that I have to use or lose. I will take a week off around Christmas when my sisters come to town, but I decided to take next week off as well. On Tuesday I will drive to Galena, come back Thursday to go to a benefit for Teatro Vista, and head to Springfield for a seminar on Friday. (Galena is a small town on the western border of Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Iowa, very scenic. It was the home of President Ulysses S. Grant, and has a lot of Victorian architecture. In fact, I'll be staying at a bed-and-breakfast housed in a Victorian mansion.)