Yes, it's taken me a little while to get to this last leg of my recent trip to Chicago.
I've been a busy bee.
I've been reorganizing my life, and gutting my room, and building shelves, and sorting, and doing.
All in preparation for take-off.
The studio is coming along really well.
Last night we built the first set of shelves between glasses of red wine and Zelda for SNES.
*I am totally the biggest Zelda Master (Zelda geek) you will ever meet*
As an aside, while searching for Zelda pics to display here, I found this cool blog with awesome theme songs from NES and SNES.
I have to agree with the blogger from Game Addiction Blog, the music in Donkey Kong Country was great. AND his Top Ten Videogames list is pretty much the same as mine. NICE!
(minus Final Fantasy just because I don't like taking turns when fighting opponents in battles)
COOL LINK FOR NERDY NINTENDO SONGS!
Back to the topic. What is this "take-off"? - you ask.
Well, I'm tackling all of my projects from an uncluttered mindstate. And I'm devoting myself to them 100% without becoming distracted by details. (it's very exciting)
Enough about that.
Here are my pics from the Art Institute in Chicago, where we only had 1 hour to see all we could.
We didn't make it to the European Art section which really broke my heart.
I wanted to see "The Bathers" by Bouguereau. I *heart* Bouguereau.
But I did see a stunning painting by Sargent, maybe my new favorite by him. I love the dimly lit room. I love how the subject's face is in shadow. It's reminds me of an "everyday seduction". A very subtle common-place seduction, like she's going to pull the velvet drapes, and then slowly walk over and kiss you.
"Madame Paul Escudier", 1882.
Seeing a Van Gogh in person was so unexpectedly stunning. Of course, we see his work reproduced everywhere, just as we see a Botticelli or a Picasso everywhere. We see images of these famous works on coffee mugs and umbrellas, and scarves and on postcards.
But NONE of these reproductions can do the original any justice at all.
Self-Portrait, 1887
Joey Lawrence says WHOAH.
And here we are standing in front of Van Gogh's Room at Arles, 1889.
After the art gallery CLOSED (yes, closed... I would not have left that place if I could have helped it) we went for coffee across town at Kickstand Espresso Bar.
And who was there to greet me when I came in? ORO-MEDONTE! The little wizard that me and my sister invented!!
Ok, he doesn't look EXACTLY like this, but it was a close match!
Avec les lunettes!
Sans lunettes!
And after that it was Farewell to Chicago! And onto a bus for 12 hours, back to Toronto. Yeah.
And no sleep. And crying baby. And AC blasting. And I couldn't wait to get off that bus.
