AN AFTERNOON OF ART

After we had visited the Tar Pits and Page Museum, it was time for Sonya to go to work. Bernie came to pick up the boys and Carol and I were given the afternoon off from babysitting duties. We walked to the next block where LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) is located. We had a nice lunch at the restaurant there and then we bought tickets and set off with a map. The place is huge and there was no way we would see all the buildings in one afternoon. So we only did one.

 Before we entered the building we saw this outside installation called, 'Levitated Mass', Michael Heizer. It is a 460ft concrete slot sloping down to a 15ft depth under a suspended 340ton granite megalith. (A bloody big rock as we would say in Oz). A special transporter had to be made to carry the rock through the busy streets of LA.

 In the fore court next to the main road is another installation called, 'Urban Light',  Chris Burden. There are 202 vintage street lamps arranged into a square formation. They are solar powered and light up at night. I rather liked this one. I only had my P&S camera and the lens wasn't wide enough. If I stepped back I would have been in the path of hundreds of cars.

There were some great masterpieces but there were also the weird ones. Here is a red , highly polished plank called, 'Don't Tell me When to Stop',  John McCracken, 1967. Apparently it is hand lacquered and polished hundreds of times.  The one on the right is a frame wrapped in a tarp and rope. It is called, 'Portrait of Ray',  Christo Javacheff, 1969. ????

 I liked this one. 'Giant Pool Balls',  Claes Oldenburg.

My favourite of the day was, 'Toward Disappearance' Sam Francis, 1957.

It was time to get a taxi home and relieve Bernie of baby sitting so that he could learn his lines for his audition the next morning. 

I took the kids into the back yard. While the boys were on the swing, I thought time for a nice shot of them together, when Fox spotted my camera and asked,
"Grandma can I have a look at your camera? Can I hold it, please"
('Gulp,' I say)

 "Yes that is the button."

 I left the camera with Fox , hoping for the best, while I ran off to help Banjo with the finger paint. His painting challenged some of those that we had seen earlier in the afternoon at LACMA. It was time to distract Fox from the camera and remove Banjo from painting everything in sight including me.

I even conned Fox into pushing his brother to save me the job.

(I take my hat off to all the grandparents in the world who care for their grandchildren full time. I was worn out after 10 days part time.)