a day in athens

here's some pictures from our day exploring athens on our honeymoon.  our hotel could not have been more conveniently located right in the thick of the plaka district.  we were literally staying right around the corner from the acropolis.  i cannot say enough good things about all the hotels on our trip to greece.  if you are visiting athens, looking for a fantastic value in the best tourist location in town be sure to check out the airotel parthenon.

i really can't rave enough about the weather we were lucky enough to experience during our vacation.  as you can see athens was no exception.  we spent the day trekking up to see the ruins on the acropolis, pondering deep socratic thoughts in the ancient agora, indulging in souvlaki gyros and greek beer, and admiring the ancient statues in the acropolis and agora museums.

it's hard to believe the trip only got better from here, but we started on a high note and just kept going.  honeymoons should last forever amiright?

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

last weekend part one

once i finally got my photos from the weekend uploaded i realized i had taken hundreds of them.  literally.  so i'll show you our excursion in spurts for now.  as i've been telling you, last weekend we went to the frederick meijer gardens and sculpture park in grand rapids and we had the best time.

both of my parents are originally from grand rapids so i have been visiting the park for my entire life.  it's amazing to see the way it has grown and what used to be just botanical gardens and a butterfly conservatory has transformed into an enormous facility with an outdoor art museum, farm garden, hiking trails, chihuly chandeliers, amphitheater, traveling exhibits and so much more.  grizzly bear is coming to play there in a few months... maybe we'll be heading back for that!  if you are ever in the area and have time for a visit i highly recommend it!

what you won't see pictured is the newest addition to the gardens' permanent collection, an enormous buddha head sculpture by artist zhang huan.  the piece is currently on display at the gardens' indoor showcase gallery along with a traveling exhibit of more of huan's work.  

here are a few more of the photos from our excursion!

hopefully this gives you a little preview of our extremely cool visit.  more pictures will be sure to come soon!

hope everybody has a great second half to the week!

carrying on

well we are still busy apartment hunting because it sounds like someone may have snatched up our little small town pad... but we have some more options in the works and hopefully we can find our little home soon!

for now we are still enjoying all the outdoors we can get!  i also invented us a very tasty teriyaki chicken tacos recipe that i will be sharing with everyone soon!  for now here are a few more shots from our walk around the art museum on saturday!