first stop....Chicago!

Hey Beautiful People!

Okay....I fibbed. I'm not REALLY in Philadelphia. I am in Chicago for a few days visiting mi madre and her ubernovio William. And let me tell you, I am whipped! This year has been such a big push for me, I'm hoping to recuperate for a bit before starting on the next big thing. I gotta say - the worst thing about being single is that there's nobody around to say "slow down!" Well, nobody I'll listen to, at least!

Anyhow, here I am in the not-so-windy city. I was expecting hot and muggy, but it seems like it's been pretty comparable to Portland - in the 70's and not so moist. Hallelujah!

So, after that diatribe about "resting" my mom and I got up early so we could be on the road by 7 to get to the Chicago Botanic Garden which is north of the city proper. I've been wanting to see the Botanical Garden here for some time - it's really amazing - 400 acres of various themed gardens. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately the more I think about it) the educational complex was being remodeled, but we still walked about 80% of the garden. It was really fun to walk around with my mom and guess which family certain plants belonged to, coo over the silver-leaved rose bushes, or snicker at the blotchy monkey flowers or one called the "bladder flower" which I took a few pictures of but will not post here.

The first thing we headed for was the Japanese garden, which was my favorite anyhow. I loved these pine trees that they used pitched strings to pull branches into the desired position. I am totally turned on by the geometry among the natural forms. I have posted an image of this above, and I hope you will be equally squirmish when viewing the photo, If not, well hey, your loss!

The other news of my first day on the road is that I am getting to see some public art in Chicago that I've been heavily anticipating for years. My mom's groovy pad overlooks Chicago's Millennium Park, which is an ambitious sparrow's eye view of two works I've been dying to see. Well, okay, three if you count the Geary amphitheater, which is really really gorgeous. But the pieces d'resistance are Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" which Chicagoans affectionately refer to as "the bean." It's a stainless steel huge form that reflects the cityscape from ground level, but from our vantage point, we see the clouds.

The second and most highly anticipated piece d-resistance (for me) is Jaume Plensa's "Crown Fountain" which I am utterly and completely enamored with. Not to mention totally and hunka hunka enamored with. If you haven't figured it out already, this is the first image on this blog page. It's a fountain that consists of two 232' high LED panels, each with a giant face on them. The faces are of many of the workers from the Millennium Park project, and then balanced with other Chicagoans to create a demographic representative of the age, race, and gender balance of the city's population. The subjects were filmed, and asked to have their faces represent a "conversation with the camera" so you see a subtle range of emotions on the giant face. Then, after around four minutes, they make an "o" shape with their mouth and water spouts out of the mouth. I have spent a fair amount of time watching these visual conversations, loving the piece every bit and more than I anticipated. It's so fascinating to see what each person interprets as a "visual conversation." I also am always looking for some assymetry, which is rare.

A friend of mine who is not as well versed in art as I am, but very intelligent, thoughtful and articulate, has been engaging me in a conversation recently about what makes visual art interesting. He doesn't feel it at a gut level. We have discussed the way that music and sound is easy to "get" but visual art is not as readily accessible to him. I have been having a hard time articulating why certain pieces speak to me, but I really wish I could spend some quality time in front of a piece like this with him. I love the idea behind the project, but the way it looks is so exciting - Plensa had to digitally alter the faces so each would fit within the same rectangular format. And then there are colored lights flanking each structure that add to the ambiance. The water also flows into a reflecting pool below. I have always been really intriugued with art that people can experience by moving their bodies in new ways, as well as being accessible to a non-art-educated crowd, and this piece certainly fits the bill. I spent some time looking at other Plensa pieces on the web, and feel some sort of connection between his concepts and mine. But most of all, I just get this huge warm and fuzzy and excited-n-inspired hunka hunka gut-level feeling when I look at the composition of this piece. That and the other physical and conceptual aspects make me really love humanity. I'd love to hear any thoughts y'all might have about this topic, whether you've seen the Plensa piece or not, on the comment section of this blog.

Tomorrow we'll go down and see these pieces from ground level. I won't post more pictures because you can find them on the web.

Glad to be in new environs for a bit and simultaneously getting a bit of R&R and great company before the residency-a-palooza.

I will bid you all adieu for now, but first I'd like to give a nod to my comrade Alison Stanfield who told her many bloggers about my wee little blog. Thanks Alison. If you want to read Alison's blog about the business of being an artist, or sign up for her weekly free newsletter with tips and friendly reminders about promoting yourself as an artist, check out:
http://www.artbizcoach.com/

love you like a pig loves corn!

-Hilary