My Art is Open

“Donde esta le musée?” I ask in my best Frenish (unintentional French-Spanish spicy blend) to the perplexed passer-by. No matter where the destination, I scout out museums. All cities, most towns have them. Even here in Morro Bay is an impressive Natural History Museum, a Skateboard Museum, a Maritime Museum, and a Sewing Museum?! Alas for the last several pandemic months, a sign on all their doors reads, “Closed”.

While Mother Nature’s immense beauty is always open for exploration and just a step outside, I miss being witness to the artistic expression living in museums. I miss the ‘vibrations of creation’ imperceptibly pulsing through their halls — the grandeur and collective oeuvre assimilating into my soul, as if through osmosis. When a work of art beckons it holds magnetic power, urging me to stand in awe and ruminate. I imagine the artists — holding brush to canvas, or fingers to clay, graphite to paper. What’s in their head? What’s happening in their world? Who do they love? Where do they find inspiration? Are they killing their houseplants, too?

Sometimes I take pictures or purchase museum postcards for further contemplation. And as with rereading a book, or hearing a forgotten melody — the revisitation enhances, reinvents the original interpretation. Looking through these images, I am reminded that while art is timeless, life is not. Yet, Life is Art.  Each one unique — to be inhaled passionately, and exhaled with enduring gratitude.

The world’s museums may all be closed, but this collection is “Open”. Some of the names of the artists are remembered, some of the titles, some of the locations. The order is random. Please take your time.

There’s nothing like the real thing, baby, but may you be moved, whilst removed. And in this surplus time at home, maybe even inspired to create your own?!

Our R Bar welcome
Crafted from a lamp shade

Belém Cultural Center, Lisbon            (You know it’s the 60’s)

Loren
“Pase de pecho con la izquierda”
Seville, Spain

René Magritte
“The Survivor”

Anthony van Dyck
“Paris”
The Wallace Collection, London

Govaert Flinck
“A Young Archer”
The Wallace Collection, London

di G. Sammartino
“Il Cristo Velato”
Museo Cappella Sanseverro,
Naples, Italy (IN REALITY, THE MARBLE APPEARS TRANSPARENT. SURREAL)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
“St. Jerome writing”
Museo e Galleria Borghese, Rome

Ary Scheffer
“Francesca de Rimini”
The Wallace Collection, London

Anton Mauve
“Horse riding in the Snow”
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Dominique-Louis-Féréal Papety
“The Temptation of St. Hilarion” 
The Wallace Collection, London

John Preble
“Abitian Saint”
Abita Springs, LA

Gerald Laing
“Surfer Girl”            Lisbon

Musée Granet
Aix-en-Provence (Giocometti?)

 

Victor Brauner
“Ice Knight”

Eyvind Earle

Vincent Van Gogh
“The Pink Orchard” Edinburgh

Sir James Guthrie
“A Hind’s Daughter”  Edinburgh

René Magritte
Musée Magritte Museum
Brussels

Georges Rouault

Jimmie Durham
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Jimmie Durham

Jimmie Durham

Félix-Edouard Vallotton
Au Theatre Français, troisième balcon

Louis Anquetin
Portrait de Paul-Napoleon Roinard

Musée Granet
Aix-en-Provence

 

Tivoli Too                                                 St. Paul, MN
(Marcie, Woodstock, and me reading together. Lucy teasing w/football backdrop)

 

François-Pierre Peyron “Sainte Madeleine Méditant”

Théodore Géricault

Théodore Géricault
L’apave ou La tempête

Eugéne Delacroix
“Ruines de la chapelle de l’abbaye de Valmont”

 

Photography exhibit of Sistine Chapel,
Montreal

Raymond Mason
“Illuminated Crowd”   Montreal

Claude Monet
“Route, effet de neige soleil couchant”

Sculpture Garden
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

Frits Thanlow
“La vieille fabrique”

Jesus up close

Henry Raeburn
Mary Magdalene and Jesus
Santa Barbara Mission

Mary close up

And closer…
Sculpture Garden
Musée des Beauxs-Arts, Rouen

Albert Fourié
Mort de Madame Bovary

Sir John Lavery
“Japanese Switzerland” Dublin City Gallery

Leonard Baskin                New Orleans

Leonard Baskin

 

 

Poet’s Corner
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale

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