Art: It Tires You Out.

I was up and showered early for a Saturday as there was the chance I would have to go and give the first cemetery tour of the season. Turns out I didn't but it's alright as Donny and I were ready for the day so we caught the 9:45 bus to go the the Art Museum.

It's been months since Donovan and I have taken the stroller with us. He's been so good about walking and I'm just as happy having one less thing to lug around with us. So, in going to the museum, I was thinking we'd walk around for maybe an hour and then catch the bus home for somebody's naptime. We got as far as the first gallery and Donovan started to have a meltdown. Luckily, the museum has free strollers so we went back, packed him up and were on our way.

Back in the days when I was a museum docent, we were very strict about people not taking photos. But that was back when phones had dials and ladies wore bustles and cameras were big boxes on tripods. I sheepishly took a couple of phone photos of the boy and, when no one accosted me, I took a few more:
It's hard to see but I hung the little tag they give you from his pacifier. I thought that was hysterical but no one--including Donovan--seemed to notice. Oh well.

I took Donovan into one of the video installations (Migration, by Doug Aitken) not knowing if he'd like or if it would scar him for life. As usual with art, he was more interested in the bench I was sitting on. At first. Then he started to notice the images, which were a variety of wild animals in hotel rooms. Donovan gradually started to watch and, while I would'nt say he was enthralled or even interacting, at least he noticed it. Thank God: sometimes I worry...
This was the photo I took to see if I could get away with taking photos. Not a big fan of this particular piece but the sentiment is nice.
Donovan posed in front of a portrait of Joseph Woodwell. Woodwell is one of my Homewood cemetery people, plus he was buddies with Frick so I got to talk about him alot when I was a Frick docent. What I didn't realize until today is that this portrait is by Thomas Eakins. That buys old Woodwell some street cred, doesn't it?
I had to get a photo of my favorite boy in front of my favorite artist, Fernand Khnopff (the painting is Portrait of Madeleine Mabille)
And finally, what visit to the Carnegie could be complete with out posing your 2 year old son in front of Christ and the Disciples at Emmaus by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret?

We did end up spending just about an hour there and then we hightailed it home. Between being lazy and having bare cupboards I ordered out for lunch and the poor kid had to wait for his nap. He was gearing up for crankiness but, the good news is that once his head hit the pillow it was Lights Out. In fact, I almost felt jipped: naptime is usually the time I get to play with the kid and curl up with him to get him to go to sleep--this time he went without me!