Museum Weekend in NYC: Met and MoMA

       Some people go to Florida, but we drive to NYC. I wanted to see the Matisse: In Search of True Painting at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has  Selected Highlights, videos and much more up at its site. Matisse painted the same subject, people and scenes, over and over in search of the best painting, the best expression of his emotion, not precise realism, but simplification. You will enjoy viewing the highlights. I want to try those series myself.

      After also visiting the City Quilter for fabric and the Neue Gallery for their apple strudel and coffee. we hobbled home to recover for a visit from the grandchildren the next day. Beth had suggested we go to MoMA for their interactive opportunities. Immediately on admittance to the Museum of Modern Art, the three children donned free audio guides and blissfully sought out numbers on paintings to learn more. They LOVED the modern art., even the conceptual. After lunch we went to the interactive education area where they made their own art.

       Later, I picked up my English art magazine at the Hudson stand, took the kids to buy a book at Postman's and got two art books What is Art? and The Visual Language of Drawing: Lessons on the Art of Seeing. With this lovely snow blizzard I should be able to get in some reading when not on my Wii :-)  I had no idea how out of shape I was after walking the streets of NYC.

Note: Artist friend Kathy Borkowski-Byrne arrived in NYC just as we were leaving and mailed me the Met photo at the top of the page!

Click on the photos to enlarge.

P.S. How could I forget! (EASY)   We stopped off in New Haven to see the recently fabulously renovated Yale art galleries and the museum of British art. What a gift shop at the latter.

Arts/Crafts: Before and After the Frankenstorm

Chelsea Market carvings

El Quiote supplied the sparklers! 

    Last week, in NYC celebrating Joe's 75th birthday, the grandchildren were a big draw. He and I also went to Neue Gallery, the super Andy Warhol show at the Met, the Morgan Library, Chelsea Market, and I, the City Quilter thrice. We enjoyed El Quixote in Chelsea that is mentioned regularly in Just Kids, the book for Cambridge Art's book club. It is fun when a book you are reading covers the ground you are visiting. Things are different in that Lower Manhattan now, but the marathon was canceled and electricity has, thankfully, returned to son's place!

  

    This week, the evacuees, that same little family, are here in Boston, with other son Bill's working out of the Boston office. The children enjoyed Halloween on our street. What do you do with three children, ages 8, 6 and 3 for days (weeks?) when school like their electricity is OUT in NJ:

Live Pumpkin, Fireman and Goldfish

      So far, Hannah's picked up the ukulele fast. I hope to capture her on my new free Apps: Video Star and VideoFX Live. Check them out! (Fast and Easy) Both girls made headbands using ribbons. David and I played kazoo/piano duet train songs. Erika learned to knit.Today all three worked with  polymer clay that wore me out with the pasta maker's being used by the three to condition the clay. But I made myself some beads for a necklace! Joe took them swimming;  and tonight, while they were visiting old friends, I set out the sewing machines for projects tomorrow. Watching Hannah on the uke, I decided it is time for her to take her Hello Kitty Janome sewing machine home. She is finally ready to figure out what to do to solve problems that arise. You might know I gave it to her when she was four.With a twisted ankle I will skip the quilt show in NH. Next. the election! Click photos to enlarge.