Art

This Sunday, Grace, Danyel, and I will be going to see "Gee's Bend: Architecture of the Quilt" at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. I am excited about going to a museum I have never been to; I don't go to Baltimore much, despite it being only about an hour north.

I have already seen the exhibit in Houston, but I liked it so much I want to see it again.

Pictures really don't do them any justice at all.

If you're registered at the Washington Post, you can read a review here. The first time I had heard of them was on PBS's "The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend" and if you're lucky enough to catch it, I definitely recommend it. Art is always way more interesting if you know the stories behind it (even if it is modern art that you're supposed to appreciate without any background knowledge of the subject matter).

Some people look at stuff like that and say, "I don't get it." The nice thing about these quilts, I think, is there is nothing to "get". These quilts were not made by some moody modern artist living in some dingy loft in NYC trying to make a point about god knows what. They were made by poor black women in the deeeeeep south who made the quilts because they had to, out of stuff they had, basing the patterns on what was passed down from women before them and adding their own personal touches. I think you can appreciate them as craft, or art, or pieces of history.

I've started watching Ovation TV. I hope you all have it. It's a really cool cable channel devoted to art and it satisfies my nerdy need for documentaries. It forces you to ask yourself over and over, is this art? I saw a doc on Ray Johnson and he was beating a cardboard box with a belt and called it a reading. Is that art? Is it supposed to be deep? Absurd? I wonder if you're allowed to laugh? What is art??? Makes my head want to explode. But I love asking it! Head explosions be damned!