Okay, Not a Thread
Not a thread have I woven – or knitted – or sewn- or drafted since I finished the commissioned mohair burburry-ish throw. What I have done is pretty interesting. After the Loomis show, and my big son’s graduation, I scrambled to do laundry, pay bills, send out wee son’s birthday invitations and get to NY to the airport to leave for Switzerland on the red-eye. I met my sister in NY, and we left to meet our kids (niece and son) in Zurich. They had been at Art Basel seeing some of the most amazing gallery shows including Egon Schiele, Yayoi Kusama, Warhol, Picasso, Lucien Freud, Louise Bourgeois, Richard Sera, Rothko, Damien Hurst, Basquiat, David Shrigley (new fave!!) Jeff Koons, Alice Neel, etc. (my niece works part-time for an art-buyer in NY who arranged for their entrance to Art Basel) We then took a 5-hour train ride into Munich and settled into a three-day museum extravaganza. We rambled through the Glypothek, the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek, Pinakothek der Moderne, Museum Brandhorst, Haus der Kunst and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum. Whew! In which we saw the most amazing sights from the Hellenistic miracle “The Barberini Fawn”, to crazy trash-filled tanks by Damien Hurst to the gigantic collection of Bavarian Creches – a whirlwind that will inspire me for years to come . . . We then flew to Berlin where we have wallowed in “Museum Island” where we have seen the Ihstar Gate from 60 BC and the Pergamon Alter that was carved in the 1st half of the 2nd century BC to depict Greece in crisis. Today we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the truly awesome Berlin Zoo, Checkpoint Charlie, the Bode Museum and The Eastside Gallery which is a long, long segment of the former Berlin wall that has been given over to artists in celebration of freedom. WOW!
My niece, who is going to study in Art History at Yale, and my big son who is going to study Art at RISD in the fall have been giving my sister and me quite an education as we tour through all these wonders. They are both 18, and are full of knowledge, ideas, energy and compassion. They really fill me with hope for the future. They are the antithesis of the caricature of modern youth as shallow and materialistic. They have acquired nothing – other than a book or two. They have asked for nothing other than my sister and me to move faster so that we can cover more ground and see more marvels while we have this opportunity. They are thoughtful, polite, culturally sensitive and very frugal. Again, Wow! I know it is fairly yawn-y to hear a mother brag, but I can’t help it. I am really, very proud. I have brought a true asset into this world – okay, with a little help from DH . . . I am also stunned by and proud of my beautiful niece – another asset. Great trip – hopefully, I will be filled with ideas for the loom when I get home.
