Art for Art's Sake

No, this is not a story about my Dad, Arthur. That is despite the fact that any mention of art brings him to mind. He built houses that were works of Art. Yes, I came by stupid jokes honestly.

My first planned trip to France was a failure. A friend, Shawn, and I were going to go together, but somehow she decided not to go. While I was thinking about what to do about travel, I decided to do something about enjoying the stuff here that I would have enjoyed in France. Food was easy because I'd never eaten real French food before and I did have Mastering The Art of French Cooking. That one was easy. But what to do about the art?

That's when I started to go to the Norton Simon Museum. You see it every year as the starting point of the Rose Parade. It's filled with my favorite art, the Impressionists and beyond. It also has Asian art and a whole wing of earlier European Art that I don't usually visit. Norton Simon had his favorites. There are many Degas and Moore statues. And he has a lot of Degas paintings. But there are many other artists as well.

I know I have been spending too much time at home, working on my needlepoint, so I went to the Simon today. It only costs $4.00 for seniors and there is lots of parking. How nice to see my old friends. This time I walked around with my iPod plugged into my ears so I got to hear Bohemian Rhapsody while looking at Matisse. The first time I ever heard that song was in France. I listened to I Am Not The Boy Next Door while looking at Van Gogh. Speaking of Van Gogh, there was an article in The New Yorker about Van Gogh. There is talk that Gauguin may have cut off that ear. He had a sword for emergencies and Van Gogh was starting to be a little crazy at the time. Stuff happens.

Anyway, had a great time at the Simon and will be going back there soon to look at the other side of the building.

The needlepoint is almost done. I am just correcting some major mistakes like the cat's face and the laying down book. And doing all the black. That is so hard on black material. The light has to be just right and there is a ton of black to do. Also, I may be running out of some colors. We'll see how this ends up.

Hopefully better than my resolve not to buy any more Audible books. They had a sale this week of first books in series for only $4.95. So I bought six of them. Sigh.