Elephants at the Grand Rapids Art Museum

The weekend before Christmas the boy and I took a quick overnight trip to Grand Rapids with his dad and stepmom. I was itching to see the Real/Surreal exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum before its closing on January 13, 2013. That show was dark, brooding with just a couple of stand out pieces (to my mind), but the entire trip was worth it if only to see Elephants by Adonna Khare. 

This enormous pencil drawing was the grand prize winner of the 2012 ArtPrize and it just took my breath away. The scale and detail of it is incredible. I could have stayed and examined it for days. It is three paper panels which Khare embellished in the installation with little details bridging and surrounding them: a giraffe scales the air vent next to the installation; a billy goat walks a wire between two of the panels; the water scene extends to the floor. 

If you ever have the opportunity to see this, take it. You will be astounded. It makes me want to draw. REALLY draw: big and sumptuous and detailed and thriving.

Quick update: Grand Rapids and new prints

I've just come from doing battle with scale on my rosemary plant — boooo! We brought a bunch of the herbs inside for the winter and very quickly both aphids and scale emerged. Of course, I didn't notice until it reached infestation proportions. So I spent way too much time this morning swabbing every surface of the rosemary with rubbing alcohol. Argh. Not an easy task. And now I feel like I'm crawling with scales.

Anyway… back from Grand Rapids. Lots of fun! I loved exploring Wealthy Street — it has so many great little places to explore and feels very urban. I also had a chance to run out to Grand Haven (above photo) and see a piece of Lake Michigan — gorgeous! It really is like looking out at the ocean, though without the saltiness in the air and on your lips. The show there was lots of fun, too, and I had some request for more colors for my Wellington boot, so here they are… my favorite is the polka dots. All to be added to the shop soon, soon!