in reflection

For the second time this month, I've made a mistake about the date of an event.

The first time was last week, when I showed up for an AARP event, absolutely sure that it was scheduled for Friday, the 18th.

That party won't be held until Friday, August 8th.

Sheesh.

Then, today, I went to the Jepson at noon for a Lunch & Learn that included a performance by the artist featured in the (Un)Grounded exhibit.

Nope, that won't happen until August 29th.

Seriously.

I didn't let it stop me from having a day at the museum!

After all, I already had 90 minutes on the parking meter.

(smile!) 

I'd not visited the "In Reflection: Contemporary Art And Ourselves" exhibit.

How appropriate that I take a few moments there, n'est-ce pas?

Maybe pull together my mental faculties?

Yes.

And as I perused the various and varied works there, I was stopped in my tracks by her.

Isn't she magnificent?!

Pulled together from odd bits and pieces reclaimed from the environment, 'she' is "Black Girl on Skateboard Going Where She's Got to Go to Do What She's Got to Do and It Might Not Have Anything to Do With You, Ever."

Yes, ma'am, you go on your merry way with your bad self!!!

(smile!) 

The artist, born in 1976, is vanessa german - and, yes, that's all lower-case.

 I wouldn't mind seeing more of her sassy works!

 

Feeling better about my mind, I immediately went to another work in the same space, as it reminded me of my brother Smitty.

It was untitled, but done tongue-in-cheek as a joke for other artists.

See, it was the custom for some to put their art on the floor, not the wall.

Get it?

Instead, she'd done this pseudo-parquet piece, for display on the wall.

I found it hilarious!

While making a note of her name, though, I was stuck.

Was her first name really "Slyvia"???

I checked with the room monitor, just in case.

She came over and checked the label, too, and found it was incorrect.

The artist is actually Sylvia Mangold and she is known for these "representational depictions of interiors".

Here's the thing: this exhibit has been up since April 25th...

and I was the only one to catch the typo in her name.

Kudos to me!

The room monitor reported it while I was there.

(smile!)

Another piece I really liked was on four huge sheets of paper.

It seems that Rocio Rodriguez got started drawing and just kept adding another blank as she went along.

I liked it because it reminds me of my scribble flowers!

I like the idea of my art having made it onto the walls of the museum!

In fact, this particular piece belongs to the Telfair, so it will likely be on one wall or another for years to come. 

(smile!) 

The odd thing was the title: "February 3, 2005". 

Was she marking the date that Alberto Gonzalez was approved by the Senate and sworn in as the first Hispanic named as Attorney General in US history?

Perhaps so.

As a 53 year old Hispanic woman, seeing a Hispanic person rise to that position in the federal government would have been a unique event.

This piece may have been crafted as the pomp and circumstance that she would have deemed the situation warranted.

Once in a lifetime events deserve special recognition.

(Yes, I did include one such that should never be repeated.)

 

After I left the Jepson, I considered going to the Telfair's basement to visit a few of my favorite statues, as I do for my birthday visits, but there really wasn't enough time to do it justice.

(Just us tripping out a little pun!)

Instead, I sat on a bench (another judge joke!) for more than ten minutes.

It truly was a 'blue true dream of sky' day that e.e. cummings celebrated in his poetry and would have loved.

And here was this ancient oak, with its 'leaping greenly spirit' draped with Spanish moss gently swaying in the slight breeze - so awesome!

Happy bday67 to me, still, almost two months later.

Right time, right place, after all. 

(smile!)