Deep Sea diving in OKC at the MMA

I went to OKC with Andria this weekend. The whole point was to experience the permanent Chihuly exhibit together. I went several years ago and was so aesthetically overwhelmed by the whole exhibit, I did not fully assimilate what I was seeing. I did remember the large paintings (he calls them drawings) were stunning and I knew wanted to see them again.

Like his work with glass, Chihuly's paintings are fluid and radiant with varying loads of pigment. Upon impact, each painting has an immediate energy that makes my whole body want to burst with it. Once I am able to take the whole painting in, I experience myself and the artwork melting back together, noticing every bleeding seam as the process reverses and the painting finds form again. ...and then I can start the process all over again.

 

Andria got to see her boat, too. The Chihuly museum she went to in FL did not allow photographs, so this time she was ready to go with her SLR.

She photographed and I sketched. It was a blissful suspension of time for me...and I hope her.

(I know I'm at the museum with the right person when they do this upon walking in the door.)

I took the chance to draw two other times:

***Also caught the fantastic temp Herb Ritts show. He created safety with his models and they would figuratively (and yes, sometimes literally) drop the veil. Ritts knew truth others are still busy trying to prove: even when shooting people on an enclosed, built set, put it next to the ocean and you can be guaranteed subjects will look transcendentally radiant. Granted, he was shooting beautiful models/actors. If he had lived more than just 50 short years, I wonder if he'd have had the chance to photograph homeless people on the beach? I'm sure his photographs of ordinary people would be equally beautiful and hard to resist. (He shot this radiant video of Madonna.)