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I have a new favorite artist of the moment. Though he's not exactly new on the scene.

I love Ellsworth Kelly's nature drawings. They're only basic pencil, but I think they're wonderful. So simplistic. It's just minimalist beauty, much like his other work. Kelly isn't know for the drawings, but rather for his large colorful pieces. They're certainly interesting, though they don't hold the same appeal for me.



I saw a handful of the drawings this weekend at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my mother and godmother. There's a truly fantastic Cezanne exhibit at the moment. The museum did a wonderful job of picking Cezanne's work and then pieces by other artists based on the same work. You can see the progression through time from Cezanne's revolutionary work to Kelly's minimalism, and all in between. It was one of the best art exhibits I've ever seen. After exploring that we looked into the upstairs galleries and were blown away again. The Museum is like none I've ever visited before. There were several rooms entirely recreated from historical buildings: a medieval cloister, a Japanese teahouse, a Chinese temple, and Indian temple. They were all incredible. I could have spent hours roaming around and discovering new things.

Sometimes I wonder why more people aren't intrigued by these things. I mean, how often do you stumble upon a medieval cloister that's been shipped from France? Can you imagine? Such a holy place - only the monks were allowed in them. The cloisters really were spaces for God, not human. Museums generally seem to have an eerie stillness to begin with, but it only enhanced the cloiser and temples. The detail and design skill was also fantastic. How did people do that kind of magic? Sculpting and painting ceilings, meticulously polishing and carving. I wish I had that kind of talent. Or better, patience. It wouldn't be a virtue if it was easy to have though.

Saturday was an entirely different story. Mom booked us on a trolley tour. A trolley tour. It's absolutely mortifying! Luckily we weaseled out of it because they were only running double decker buses, but still! The mere thought of having to ride in an old fashioned trolley around Philadelphia gives me shivers. I think those things were invented for total humiliation. Really now. We still made it to the Liberty Bell, which in all honesty is boring. It's a bell. A somewhat large bell with a large crack. I know it represents all sorts of freedoms or something like that, but I just don't care. Maybe if I found American history even remotely interesting it would be a diffenrent story. American history is just so bland though. All the minute details, the individuals...there's only so much that can be done in 250 years. Boring. I'd rather read up on European history, or Chinese history. You can actually see the rise and fall of power, ideals, periodic styles, etc. You just don't get that in this country. There just isn't old.