Friday, May 8, 2009

Got Maps, Will Travel


No need to call the National Guard. I made it to Boston and back with very little trouble and nary a colorful word passing my lips. Yahoo! A red letter day if I may say so myself. I think I have figured out the key to not getting lost. It's imperative to have multiple sets of directions. I'm not kidding! When one set seemed a little ambiguous I quickly consulted one of the others and by compiling the information it all seemed to make sense. Of course there were a few minor snafus. For instance Map Quest said take Exit 20 toward I-90 and Google Maps very helpfully added the information that Exit 20 is on the LEFT. That is good to know. You're not usually expecting exits to be on the LEFT. The only problem here was that the exit was ... on the RIGHT! Oops! Minor details like that happened a few times, but otherwise it wasn't so bad. I didn't even get lost. Not even a little bit. So what's an incorrect LEFT vs RIGHT in the grand scheme of things, right? I mean, "correct".


As for the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. I love art museums but I must admit that I am not a big fan of contemporary art. Most of it is completely lost on me. I just don't "get" it. But, since the ICA is a brand spanking new museum it seemed like something fun to try - once. Well, did we ever luck out. The ICA is currently exhibiting the work of Shepard Fairey, the artist who painted the Hope portrait of Obama that was featured on the cover of Time magazine! Because Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) our local paper (The Providence Journal) did an article on him when his portrait was chosen for Time magazine. So, I was familiar with him and his connection to RI. But, other than that I didn't know anything about him. Apparently he is quite famous in the art world and he is being touted as this generation's Andy Warhol. We listened to the audio tour provided by the museum and I learned so much about Fairey as an artist and how his art sends a political message. But the best part? The original Obama portrait was there! Larger than life. I was able to walk right up to it and study it closely. What you might not know from looking at the image on the cover of Time is that this portrait (like all of Fairey's work) is actually a collage of sorts with lots of different layers - paint, stencils and most intriguing of all pieces of newsprint. Very cool. AND we got to see the letter from Obama to Fairey thanking him for his support and for painting the portrait! Amazing! I was not expecting to see this and I am so happy that I did.


In addition, the museum is located right on a pier and the views are lovely. I've added some pictures here for you to see. Enjoy!




This is the actual museum. It's hard to tell but the entire thing is made of glass. The second story juts out over the harbor and the wall is made of glass. The view is gorgeous.




This is a view of the harbor from the second story of the museum. It's really very pretty and we had a great day. We also lucked out in that today was the first day of a three week Boston stop of the Volvo Ocean Race (an around the world sailing race). We got to see some of the sail boats and check out some booths. Kristen won a Beatles CD at a local radio station booth and we saw a Volvo SUV made entirely out of Legos.




More modern art! And this I get!

8 comments:

Miss Lady Grey said...

I don't "get" modern art either. But, I did go to an Andy Warhol exhibit once, and really enjoyed it. Go figure!
Sounds like you had a great day!

mommakin said...

Wow! What a fun day!

I am definitely in the "I don't know art, but I know what I like" camp.

Did you do the Obamicon.Me thing?

http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/

Terra said...

We have a VW made out of legos up in Beaver Creek - looks exactly the same - the girls LOVE IT

So glad you made and had a wonderful day!

Pam said...

Lady Grey - I can see why you would Warhol, even though he's modern is work is understandable. I "get" it. I promise you I did not "get" quite a bit of the art at the ICA today. But, Fairey's work is like Warhol's in that you can identify what it is and why he would do it.

Tammy - I had never heard of that Obamiconme website. Fascinating. I did it and I chose GRATITUDE as my slogan in honor of Thankful Thursday! So cool! Thanks for passing that on.

Terra - That lego Volvo was awesome! I've never seen anything like it before. And I did have a great day. Thank you!

Gamma Sharon said...

So glad you made it. Sounds like you had a good time.

Pam said...

Sharon - Thanks Sharon. We did have a good time. I always enjoy getting together with Kristen. And there's always something fun to do in Boston. Though, next time I think she's going to come to Providence. Phew!

Bethany said...

Wow, that's cool! I love Boston, lived about a half hour from downtown for a year and loved the area. If only my family would move back up there, I'd tag along! ;) I'll have to print out the picture of the car made of legos- my kids at school will LOVE that!

Pam said...

Bethany - How lucky that you lived so close to Boston. I would absolutely love to be closer. I bet then it wouldn't be so intimidating every time I wanted to go there. How exciting that you will be sharing my photo with your kids. I'm speechless. Oh the wonders of the internet, huh?

 

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