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My mom’s in town!

My mom is visiting me right now. So far it’s been a good visit. Yesterday we went to see the new expansion of the Nielson-Atkins Museum of Art. It’s been open for quite a while, but I’ve never had anyone that wanted to go. My mom was an art major for her undergraduate work and knows a lot about art history, so she’s fun to go to museums with because she can often tell you a lot about the artists etc.

I really liked the new section. The first part was a lot of modern art and pop art. That isn’t so much my taste. But the second part had a wonderful photography exhibit. It talked about the history of photography and how the different methods worked and developed over the years. Then they had a section of artwork that people had done with digital photography. It was so cool!

There was one in particular that I found fascinating. I wish I had written down the name of the artist. He took his digital camera and took pictures of trees staring straight up at them into the branches. The photos were taken at all different times of the year. Then he edited out anything in the background except branches or leaves so that the backgrounds were white. Then he put about 40 of them together in one piece of art.

From a distance the way they were lined up it looked to me (keep in mind I don’t see very well) like those pictures of chromosomes all lined up. But as I got closer, it looked like a collection of images of something crystallized. And then when we read the description and discovered these were images of trees I was blown away.

There was another image of a little girl in a swimming pool. It looked up from under the water at her (but in a respectful way – nothing not decent or anything). You couldn’t see her face because of the ripples of the water and her swimsuit had the most beautiful colors all sort of distorted the way something looks when you look at it through water. I thought it was a photograph, but when I read the label, it was actually a printmaking project. Having done some printmaking and found it difficult when working with highly detailed images, I was blown away.

After the museum we went to the mall. I’m not much of a shopper but I did find a new pair of pants and some blouses. Yeah! Score! Grin.

So, so far it’s been a nice visit.

One thing that is kind of fun and entertaining about having my mom around is to see how she reacts to things having lived in Germany so long.

I’m sure that people in Germany use the internet for phone service as well. But my mom was delighted to hear that she could make long distance calls to her heart’s content on my phone and it wasn’t running up my bill. She keeps asking me if I’m sure she’s not affecting my bill as if she can’t quite believe it. She’s been calling friends she hasn’t spoken with in years.

I called home at lunch to see how she was, and she was having fun watching television. Think of all the nonsense we have on TV, and think about how funny/odd/grotesque it might seem if it was all new to you. She’s quite entertained.

Comments

Kathryn said…
It sounds like the Lord is blessing you with a good visit. Perhaps this will be the start of a relationship that blossoms from now on. I admire you for having your Mom over and for blessing her this way.

The art museum sounds like extra fun. "Modern" art is not so much my taste either, but the photography exhibit sounds extra cool.
Anonymous said…
It is such good news to hear your visit is going well. How did you do on the housecleaning? I hope the rest of the visit is just as enjoyable.

Julie

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