I always enjoyed going to the art museum when I was a child:  it was mysterious, beautiful and scary, always an adventure and free.   The local museum is tiny and expensive, except on free days, so you can guess when I am likely to visit (I have forked over money on occasion).  So I was there for the most recent free day, just having time enough for a quick look see.

I took scads of pictures of this display the  last time I was there.   What’s not to like about floating invisible people spiraling down an empty corridor?  This is also I technique that I would like to explore someday (but not today).

The upper gallery displays change from time to time, and today featured a video installation with four screens of waving trees that changed color in a darkened gallery.   Interesting, but what does it mean?   The other gallery featured everyday objects, like a shovel or typewriter, made of glass.   Another gallery had bare speakers hanging from the ceiling playing random noise sounds.   It’s all very artistic I’m sure.

A different sort of glass art is by this guy.   I have seen his stuff in many different places, in the V & A, Missouri Botanical Gardens, Tacoma, WA and here, so his work gets around.   I like the color and form in this piece, it reminds me of the worm in tequila (I’m not saying how I recognize them).

This would be the interactive part of the exhibit, one could write a postcard to one’s mentors and the museum would mail them out.   It’s rather interesting that they chose this old-fashioned format (snail mail, really!).

Then it was on to the next thing I had to do, although I lost all my lovely photos due to user error (so no other pics).  🙁

You know that I have tried to limit the number of books that come into my house, and if you know this, then you also know how very bad I am at this.  So here are a few of my newest books.

These lovely books were a gift from my friend GA (not George Ashley), whom I met through the internet.  East End Vernacular is the most recent publication by GA, a collection of paintings of London’s East End.  All of the paintings are previously unpublished works, which just goes to show that talent is not enough to make it in the art world.   The next book,  Traveller’s Children in London Fields, was the very first book that GA published and it is a collection of photographs taken by the late Colin O’Brien.   And then there is A Hoxton Childhood,  a  reprint of a memoir of a working man reflecting back on a long life (and a really wonderful book).   Thanks for the good reads GA.

These books are also from people that I know through the internet.   The Daily Coyote started out as a blog, and Shreve published this wonderful record of Charlie’s life.   Too bad if you see this and want a copy, it was available by subscription only.  Dogs of Avalon is a much more challenging book, and it covers the evils of greyhound racing, and the sanctuary that helps these dogs recover their spirit.   I “met” Laura some years ago after she published her second book “The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken, New Jersey”,  which was a memoir with recipes.

I’m including these calendars in this post just because they come from the internet as well.   I have previously bought a book from The Mincing Mockingbird, but he didn’t have anything new this year, so I just bought his calendars.  And I do love Charlie from The Daily Coyote, he’s actually the only coyote that I like (and he is super adorable).   But, I swear that these are the last books I’m buying (at least for this year, maybe).