met museum visit

m and i visited the metropolitan museum of art today. m is on a search for a painting to bring to life in a dance. it's her teacher's yearly project for her 13 and 14 year olds. they perform the group piece vermeer (choreographed by their teacher, and presenting vermeer's works on stage) and then work on their own personal project based on a painter and his or her painting. we first visited a few turner's, and then wended our way to the american wing to see several of winslow homer's paintings (specifically nor'easter). we were surprised to find that the american wing was under construction for remodeling and therefore -- closed! i didn't think we would be able to see anything when, after studying the information and instructions presented by video on the wall of the wing next to a glass elevator, m interpreted that we could see a few paintings in visible storage. !!! interesting. just what is visible storage you may ask? eh, voila:

meet me at the corner at the metropolitan museum

it was very rainy when morgana and i drove uptown to the east side for a meet me at the corner filming at the metropolitan museum of art. i guess i decided to drive the car because i didn't feel like walking through the rain and cold! but then i had to find a parking spot . . luckily, i found one at a meter, but i knew when putting in my coins that i wouldn't be able to renew it! i was taking a chance on getting a ticket. still, i had two hours. (!)

donna said it wasn't easy getting permission to film in the museum. however, she persevered and permission was granted. she also asked for a curator who would enjoy working with a child . . the curator who morgana interviewed was wonderful. in addition to answering morgana's questions for the interview, she described the ideas behind pointillism and the use of color.

two museum workers oversaw the filming. it went very smoothly and they were helpful.



the crew roamed the impressionist floor, filming morgana looking at the paintings.

waiting for the curator . .

here she is. she chose the painting she wanted to talk about, and they set up the angle. donna and i were amused at the clothes morgana and the curator chose to wear, in addition to the painting. you thought they had planned it! it was, visually, very pretty.

getting ready to start . . 

donna feeds the questions to morgana.

this is the ending credit angle, and morgana's favorite part. the curator described monet's use of light and placement of objects.

it was one of our favorite meet me at the corner film days . . and it was still raining when we left (no parking ticket, yay!)

more at the met

our first stop at the museum today was a tour with a guide named iris who took us to the american wing to view john vanderlyn's "panoramic view of the palace and gardens of versailles." m and c enjoyed talking with her and she pointed out where the artist had painted himself into the picture standing near csar alexander I and the king of prussia.

we then joined a tour of 15th century portraiture. c really like the young intern who was lecturing and said she made the subject interesting even for her. i think everyone else liked the young woman's presentation as well. she had quite a crowd around her. as the girls' dance teacher always says, "it's all in the details," and this lecturer had many details up her sleeve.

we also walked through the greek and roman wing and had to stop for the obligatory fountain shot. m and c also tried to figure out how much money could be sitting in there . .



finally, on the way home we stopped at lionbrand to look at yarn for m. she would like me to make her a shrug out of bamboo. they were so tired that we didn't last long there, though as you can see, m has the brown bamboo tucked under her right arm, just waiting to be checked out on her gift certificate.

walking home from lionbrand, we passed a restaurant on greenwich and west 12th street that i've always wanted to try, jarnac. however, it has closed, along with so many other restaurants in my neighborhood (mama buddha, alfama, mi cocina, valdino west, osteria del sole, hudson corner cafe, and some others whose names i forget as i didn't frequent them). my friend janet and i were reminiscing the other day about the owners of two of these restaurants we liked to eat at. they were very nice, hard working men who took pride in their establishments, and as they struggled to stay open, they became ill and tired looking, and began drinking more. owning a restaurant is such hard work, and if you go under you are left with nothing.

at the met with maelstrom

we made another summer visit to the met today, and visited roxy paine on the roof. maelstrom is such a beautiful piece. the girls had fun examining it and wondering about soddering all the parts together . . and how it would have been assembled . . how much was put together on the roof . . how much brought up whole . . how light was each piece . . how heavy . . ?


i visited youtube to get the scoop:

i took a million pictures and then c also took a million pictures . . we have lots of roxy!

hidden treasures from the national museum, kabul

this was such a special exhibit to see. it's laid out in wonderful detail with elaborate maps of afghanistan and the silk road, a film telling about the excitement of opening the underground bank vaults in which the treasures were hidden for twenty five years, photographs of the mountains and steppes and deserts of afghanistan, catalog books which i used to locate a specific object, and well lit display cases. there is also an interesting computerized representation of the graeco-bactrian palace that is found at ai khanum in northern afghanistan. of course it's the objects themselves that are the true beauty. i was entranced with the waterspout below. it was found in working order on "the fountain of the oxus" at ai khanum. it is a reproduction of a comedic mask worn by the character of the slave cook and represents the greek cultural theatre life found in the city. i sketched it and managed to take a photo. i also became enchanted with a statue of aphrodite .. at least i thought it was a statue. it was actually a small applique and it took me a few trips around the exhibit to find because it's really only about two inches tall. i thought it was about a foot tall! it was found in the region of bactria at the archeological site of tillye tepe where a tomb was discovered of a nomadic chieftan. following the burial practices of the time, he was accompanied by members of his household (five women surrounded the chieftan's figure . . what are the chances of five women dying at the same time as the head male figure . . weren't they probably sacrificed? i get shivers down my spine just imagining the emotional atmosphere leading up to the burial) and various treasured objects. the aphrodite figure is special as she embraces elements of greek, indian and iranian culture. she has the facial features of india and iran, wears abundant bracelets and has a bindi (the third eye or sixth chakra in hindu tradition) on her forehead. she also has a grecian drape to her robes and the wings of nike. there is still so much more to see in the exhibit. i wouldn't mind going again.


we visited the greek and roman wing after the afghanistan exhibit. i really loved the terracotta statuettes found in many burial sites in attica (made in the fifth to fourth century BC). the one below is of a character actor found in plays and reminded me of the waterspout.