A Moment for Me

On the Thursday before Christmas, we got out of work at lunchtime for our annual holiday party.  That usually starts breaking up by 2:30 or 3pm, and after putting it off for weeks, I knew this was my best chance to go to the Memorial Art Gallery here to see an exhibit that was closing at the end of the month.  Of course, a week later they announced it was extended for another week, but no doubt this was still my best option, even if it was the middle of Christmas and I had a million things to do.  I felt like I had been going non-stop for a couple weeks, between shopping and decorating and wrapping and a ton going on at work.  Even though I still had more to do, I wanted to take this one moment for myself.  I didn't plan to stay long and I was already downtown so I headed over.

As you know from past posts, I love it there, and it's so fun now that I can get in free as a University employee and just wander around for as long or as short as I want.  The cool thing is that even when not much changes, I still usually see something that catches my eye in a new way.  This time, this was one of the pieces...

Not sure why, I just really liked the color palette.  There were a couple others, too.  It just makes for a fun walk now and then.  But the real focus of my trip was the Wendell Castle exhibit.  He's a famous but locally-based sculptor whose work I have admired since I started visiting the gallery.  You may recall my two favorite pieces:

He works mostly in wood and his pieces are so smooth and gorgeous.  The pillow above barely looks like wood no matter how close you get.  The detail is amazing.  The exhibit had been open since October but I just hadn't had a chance to make it there.  I definitely didn't want to miss it.  And much to my delight, this special exhibit didn't have the "No Photography" signs that most of them do!  In addition to many wonderful pieces, there was also a nice video showing his technique, which involves slices of wood glued together and cut and sanded down.  It's amazing that he could visualize what the slices needed to look like to create the desired final shape, although now he has technology to help.

While most of his work is in wood, he did have some plastic, fiberglass-type pieces, including one with neon.

On the left are "cloud shelves"

As you can see, most of his stuff is meant to be artistic furniture...

Gorgeous table with many seats in the background

Some uplighting lamps in the back, a table in the front, and a couple other pieces with seating

That one on the left is self-supporting.  He realized while playing with a paper clip that that shape would support itself.

This seat has a cabinet attached to it.

These were early pieces and they're so intricate.  The second from left is a high seat with a table.

This one looks like a branch!

It was a really lovely exhibit and I'm so glad I got to see it.  I decided to do a quick once-over of the rest of the gallery to see if there was anything new.  I couldn't help but take this video because I found out from a tour guide the last time I was there that this painting has a weird characteristic: the boot on the right (his left) follows you.  I swear it does, which is probably just an odd result of the way the light shines off the boot, but it's amazing.  I think you can see it in the video.

As you may have heard in the background of the last video, I happened upon a choral group practicing nearby.  With it being just a few days before Christmas and being in such a lovely space having a quiet moment for myself, it felt perfectly perfect.

After I had seen all I needed to see, I decided to take a stroll outside.  Even though it was really cold, I decided it was worth going to check out one of the newest permanent installations outside the gallery.  There are two of these cylinders, and as you can see, there are words cut out of the metal.  They are lit from inside and cast crazy shadows and light on the building and the grass at night.  Someday I'll get there to see them in that state, but this was pretty cool, too.

On my way back to the car, I couldn't help but snap a similar picture to one I took last year when Carter and I checked out the sculpture garden outside.  Here's the winter shot:

And the summer one...

Just a little different mood, eh?  Sigh.

As you can see in the top picture, there was grass.  At the time there was only about a 50/50 chance for a white Christmas.  Not too long after that, it snowed...and then snowed again.  And pretty much even though we had a couple slightly warmer days right before Christmas, the snow stuck around...and now it's been in the teens for days and we're in the midst of another lake effect storm that should take us up over a foot on the ground.  My parents had at least as much at their house and Craig's family had a couple feet, so there was no shortage of snow for the holiday this year.  It can stop now.

Anyway, despite this wonderful artsy detour, I still managed to fit in the rest of my shopping that afternoon, scoring some great deals for a couple last gifts for my parents...and even had a phone conversation with my mom in the process, to wish her a happy birthday!  I was so happy that I was able to fit that one hour into my schedule in the middle of everything else, because I feel like there were so few of those peaceful, happy "me" moments this season. 

Christmas itself was exhausting but had its fun moments, but there has been no rest for the weary.  I had a couple days of crazy work this week, along with one other long day I'll talk about soon, and then we had the added bonus of a few hours with my brother and his kids last night and this morning.  Craig is now on his first roadtrip of the season and thankfully the kids have been tolerable today because I'm finally hitting the holiday wall of exhaustion.  Today was really my first chance to just relax...well, if a drive, a bunch of shoveling, and two active boys counts as relaxation, anyway.  My body seems to know it and I spent most of the afternoon trying to nap before we had to shovel last week's snow before the new stuff arrived.  Maybe some belated Christmas cookies tomorrow.  

Hard to believe we're at the end of another year.  I told Jacob yesterday how it was 10 years ago on Christmas Eve and Christmas that we shared with our families that I was pregnant with him.  So hard to believe a full decade has passed!  And in a short six weeks or so, Carter will turn five, which is equally as mind-blowing.  Wasn't I just pregnant with him, like, a couple years ago?  So much has happened in those five years--much of it incredibly challenging--and yet here we are.  Time marches forward and we just hang on for dear life some days.  I'd like to hope there are some easy, breezy joyrides ahead, but life is tricky like that.  I'm tired but thankful, and hoping 2018 brings us much joy and happiness.  And if you're still reading, I definitely wish the same to you!