for the love of art

100 years ago - peter doig

if i could only visit one museum whenever i return to paris, i think i would pick the pompidou centre.  this is mainly because the last time i was there i spent so much time staring at the above painting that i pretty much missed the rest of the museum's incredible collection. (the original is huge if that helps your perspective).

i am a total art museum geek, and i've been extremely fortunate to have a family that has shared this love with me.   more recently, i've had the pleasure of beginning to collect fine art which has been a really amazing experience so far.

anyone with a basic understanding of this goofy town of ours, ann arbor, should be able to mention the following:

the university

whichever football player is currently flavor of the month

zingerman's

and finally...

the ann arbor art fair

unfortunately, my office is situated about 500 feet from the state street art fair, which means the commute to work was eight shades of no.  the middle aged ladies hunting for knick knacks have officially taken over until next week.  though this means nothing good for my strong desire to run over pedestrians small road rage issue, it has gotten me in the artistic spirit!  with this in mind i thought i'd share with you art buffs my all time favorite artists, whose work i highly recommend you explore!

peter doig

ben shahn

marc chagall

cy twombly

jim dine

honorable mentions: amy sillman, alexandra wiesenfeld, christopher pekoc, and mary frank.

one of my favorite things about collecting art, and doing blog posts like this, is the pattern you see emerge based on the things that, as a viewer, you find attractive.  

who are some of your favorite artists?

PSST don't forget to enter my giveaway before next wednesday!!

word count: 2,725

more of last weekend to kick off this weekend

pssst this horse is 24 feet tall.

happy friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tons of exclamation points for this friday.  (just because.  don't exclamation points make you feel happier?  they make me feel very enthusiastic, personally). today feels like an extra good friday to me, for no reason in particular.  maybe this regular exercise thing actually IS what it's cracked up to be.  or maybe it is for one of the reasons at the bottom of this post.

hops!  i suppose grand rapids IS beer city USA after all.

you can't tell because i managed to snap this picture fast enough but i almost didn't get a shot of the real life goats because the little one in the green collar kept mounting his sister for a hump session.  shame on you goats... think of the children.

if i keep dawdling posting the rest of our meijer gardens photos you'll be looking at them every day next week so here's a huge camera dump with the rest of our excursion.  these were taken at the farm garden, but my real favorite part of meijer gardens is their sculpture park.  check out how amazing some of this art is.  they obviously have one hell of a curator.  like i said, i got pretty camera happy.

steve is rocking out with keith haring.

 

the two above were done by one of my favorite artists, jim dine.  i had to get a picture with one.

donnie darko?

love this shot of steve!!

my favorite sculpture in the park!  it's called "the neuron" by artist roxy paine.

isn't it cool???

another one of my favorites.

ok so now that i've finally gotten all the pictures of meijer gardens out i can start showing you guys all exciting stuff we have coming up!!  highlights of what we are looking forward to include:

1.  my mom's birthday is monday!  can't wait for yummy dinners and celebrating!

2.  our buddy erick is coming to town all they way from seattle next weekend!  hope you're ready, ann arbor!

3.  we are spending the following weekend on a private beach on lake michigan at the cottage my parents rent each year.  one of my favorite places in the world!!

4.  secret stuff i can't tell you, but i promise you'll hear soon(ish)!  shhh!

5.  we are moving in together in august!  did you forget?  we sure haven't!  we're so excited!

hope your weekend is full of as many exclamation points as this post!!!!

dear summer 2013, we like you a lot!!!