Tuesday, 27 September 2011

LA - Day 2

What a day - no sign of the heinous LA traffic or Obama's motorcade so that was a good start.
Enjoyed a drive through downtown seemingly empty of people, past the Walt Disney theatre to MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art. A smallish museum compared to LA County, with a fantastic selection of key works of the last 50 years, stunning Rothko, Pollocks and a series of Rauschenbergs. One of the highlights was the Lynda Benglis show, incredible use of media, some rarely seen luminous works and some wax works. Auckland Art Gallery has two of these in its collection.

Definitley a highlight.

From there we spent the afternoon at LACMA, taking in the Broad Museum, and pretty much most of everything else that is good and great.
A highlight was the Jeff Koons room and the Richard Serra work.

To finish the day off we wandered two blocks down the road passed the 99cent store  to 1301PE to catch up with Brian Butler and co to view some soft and beautiful works by Uta Bath to bring the personal touch and domestic focus back to the end of our day.

We were lucky enough to spend some time at LACMA with Holly Myers, LA Times art critic, who introduced us to a quite intense work by Edward Kienholz called Five Car Stud.

Last day in LA tomorrow - should be good!!!

Monday, 26 September 2011

DAy 1 - LA and New York with Sue Gardiner

The Museum of Jurassic technolgy has a serious collection of weirdness, depisctions of cures for afflictions, including putting a duckbill in ones mouth to let the ducks cool breath purify and heal any allergies, and that to pass sickness away you should drink by licking from the same bowl as a dog. Nice!
We did dit down for russian tea with david the founder, who was a quiet unassuming man who matched his museum. A live where you work scenario it seems as the kitchen als has a dog bowl, and in walked the whippet halfway through our chat.

For a taste of the oppostie extreme we went on to the Norton Simon Museum in pretty old Pasadena. An idyllic setting with pond, sculptures aplent by Henry Moore, Rodin and Degas, quiet leafy cafe and an awesome collection of art spanning the 1400s to 20th  century. Nothing to pretentious here - well lit spaces with great art and not too big a place either.

To top the day off we visited Griffith Park observatory where though the sun had come out the haze meant not a great deal was visible. Though we did see the Hollywood sign and the views from this amazingly located bservatory atop the hill.
Not bad for our first day, a great bunch of people travelling with us and Sue has been free flowing with information.

Santa Monica 3rd St Promenade is amazingly busy, very touristy but some good shopping to be had.

Saturday, 17 September 2011

LA and New York - Countdown begins

With 7 days to go it is time to take a final check on supplies and logistics.
- extra bandaids for blisters - yep
- toothpaste - yes I forgot this last time.
- small technology store for charges etc - check
- list of requests from family - on its way
- importantly I am grateful for tips on coffee in NYC from sarah over at goodcoffeenow.com
- list of craft beer bars in Santa Monica and Chelsea - definitley
- art galleries booked
- restaurants booked for dinner out
- waiting for my new travel sim for phone for cheap calls in USA to arrive!
- really hoping the dollar stays up too for my budgets sake

Its all coming together!

Sunday, 6 June 2010

Old School




Here is an old work started in Montreal in 1995 before I left, finished in 2006, lurking in the back of the wardrobe ever since. I believe the bridge is based on the Jacques Cartier.

Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Melbourne Graffiti

Melbourne always impresses with its Alleys and laneways and street art projects.
I look forward to being in Melbourne a couple of times this year and catching up with whats new.

In the meantime you can follow this group on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/groups/melbournegraffiti/