Midwest Art History Society

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Thursday the 14th was a stimulating day of art and art history. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Midwest Art History Society annual conference, at which I presented my paper, "The Tomioka Silk Mill: Factory Women, the Nation, and Meiji Period Visual Culture" in the session "Art and the Body." I received some helpful feedback from the other participants and thoroughly enjoyed listening to other art historians present their research. The conference was held at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, a beautiful facility. We had the opportunity to tour the sculpture park with the curator of sculpture in the afternoon; I particularly enjoyed the Kenneth Snelson "B-Tree II" (above) and the Alexander Liberman "Aria" (below).
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After the evening conference reception we were treated to a public talk with the artist Jim Dine, which accompanied the exhibition of his work currently on view in the gallery (below).
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Transit

Wednesday the 13th was a day on the move- from home to Lawrence to teach, then to the KC airport, then to Chicago, then on to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Midwest Art History Society annual conference.

Daffodils

One of the many daffodils that we planted last fall.

Crab Apple

The beautiful flowering tree in our backyard, I believe it is a Crab Apple. The scent is heavenly!

Park time

A warm Sunday afternoon at the park!

Indian Barbeque

Lovely Saturday weather led to an Indian-inspired cook-out, and us breaking being veggie for the night. On the menu- Spicy Seared Indian Shrimp on the grill with a side of Saffron Rice, Grilled Roti, Tanjore Wilted Spinach, Corn with Mustard Seeds, and Veggie Pakoras with Mint and Tamarind Chutney Dipping Sauce.

Winstead's

Friday evening, we finally used our Groupon to try Winstead's, for diner-style shakes and grilled cheese, fries and onion rings. Healthy? No. Cheap? Yes. It's old-school fast food in a place that looks neat from the outside and has that 1980s-inspired-by-the-1960s look on the inside. It seems to be super popular with KC folks, and admittedly, the shakes were really tasty.

Tulips

April 7, a rainy day made better by the tulips in front of Watson Library.

Poetry Day

In teaching Eastern Civ. I used to dread Japanese poetry day. While some of the students enjoy reading poetry, others have a strong distaste for it, and it was always the most difficult topic for stimulating discussion. After a few semesters of pain, I decided to make it into a fun day where we have green tea and Japanese snacks and the students read traditional poetry aloud and then write their own poetry according to the traditional renga format. They then read their poems aloud to the class and the students vote, with the winning group getting an extra credit point for the day. This year it was nice enough to do this outside, simulating hanami.

Voted

Redbuds

The redbuds are about to bloom, a true sign of spring!

Pansies

We walked to the local hardware store on Sunday to pick up some pansies for the porch.

First outdoor BBQ!

April 2nd was one of those spring days with perfect weather, so we grilled out for the first time in 2011. While waiting for the grill we snacked on Smoked Gouda Pimento Dip, and indulged in Apple Sage Veggie Sausages, Fresh Grilled Asparagus, and Herb Potato Salad for dinner, complete with a side of local Boulevard Pilsner. A fab start to the outdoor cooking season.

First Fridays and a data loss

April's First Friday was fun. We didn't see any extraordinary art, but Blue Gallery was nice and we bought a sweet card at Hammerpress. We also had a fantastic time with friends at our own late night after party. The great part about this month's First Friday was the weather. Sunny and warm, it was the first one of the year with lots of people walking the Crossroads, and more than a few bands and street vendors were out.
I had a few photos of the bands and the crowds of people, but my phone crashed on Sunday and I lost all my data. A crushing blow, but a solid reminder to back up data and that a smart phone is more like a computer than a phone. I have been able to re-create most of my photos, but April's First Friday will live on in memory alone.

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The flowering shrub outside our living room window. Any ideas on what it is?

Bus stop

Waiting for the bus in front of Bailey Hall, the building where Helium was discovered, enjoying the flowering trees on a Wednesday.

Crossroads

Haircut on a Tuesday.

A bit of work happiness

I returned to the office on the Monday after break to find a new computer! Hooray! In our shared Eastern Civ. office we had an antiquated computer, so old that it couldn't open docx files or play certain web videos. It took forever to load anything and the keyboard was sticky and gross. It had a CRT monitor. The four of us who share it were really only using it to print things. The excitement of entering the 21st century more than made up for it being the Monday after break.

March Madness

Exhibiting a bit of Jayhawk spirit, even if we did lose the game to an eleventh seed....

Irish Stew and Soda Bread

Saturday the 26th of March. Irish Stew from the slow cooker and home baked Irish Soda Bread. A little late for St. Pat's, but a delicious March dish nonetheless.

Diz @ Czar Bar

Old school Chicago House on a Friday night with DJ Diz at Czar Bar in KC!

Waldo Library

I spent Thursday of Spring Break at the Waldo Library grading and working on an upcoming presentation.

Forsythia

We returned to spring weather in Kansas City. In the four days that we were gone the temperatures were quite warm, so many of the early spring flowers began to bloom. The forsythia in our yard burst into color in just a few short days, such a vibrant sign of spring!

Driving back

Tuesday the 22nd took us back to Kansas City. While most of the drive was flat and dull, we did see a huge rainbow in central Kansas and the first part of the drive, through the Colorado mountains, was quite scenic.
I'd also like to send out a huge thanks to Fran and Steve for their hospitality!

Copper Skiing

The view from near the summit of Copper Mountain, where we spent Monday the 21st skiing.

Rocky Mountain National Park Snowshoe

We spent Sunday March 20 visiting with family and snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. If you haven't snowshoed, it is quite a workout and a lovely way to view the forest in winter. Luckily we weren't breaking trail, which we've done frequently in Minnesota, and which is really challenging, but an extra 25 pounds of toddler-in-a-backpack (as seen here on Joe) will take a snowshoe workout to the next level. We traded off carrying the kiddo, Joe on the way out, me on the way back. The vistas in the park were beautiful, and the contrast of the pine trees, snow, and blue sky was gorgeous. It was also fun to see the trail signage, usually at eye level, at foot level, indicating that we were floating on about five feet of snow-packed trail.

Driving

Saturday, March 19. Driving from Kansas City to Colorado is not very exciting, just hundreds of miles of prairie, cattle ranches, and Interstate 70 with very few towns to break up the monotony. It's especially boring at this time of year, when the sky is gray and the grasses are drab brown. It's been a few years since we've done the drive though, so we were pleased to see the addition of some wind farms, as seen in this photo. Hopefully America can push for more sustainable energy like this, and maybe someday we can replace, or at least supplement, the road with a train like those that exist in the rest of the industrialized world (and much of the non-industrialized).

A three coffee day

Usually I try to limit myself to one mug of coffee a day. After going out dancing until all hours last night, it's been a two coffee day and it's only 2 p.m. Looking at this stack of midterms that I need to complete grading, I think I'm headed to the half-price coffee happy hour downstairs for mug number three. On a day like today I'm grateful for caffeine and for streaming dance music on the internet to keep me going.

Tiesto

Thursday brought Tiesto to the Uptown in Kansas City. You can barely see him at the center of the photo, but I love the multitude of cell phone cameras in the audience.

Crocus!

Spring!

Ernesto Pujol

On Tuesday, performance artist Ernesto Pujol visited the Spencer Museum to perform Visitation, a pilgrimage around the museum that he performed for 8 hours straight, leaving a trail of drawings and asking visitors to think about the societal gaze on the artist. While I'm not generally a fan of performance art, it was interesting to watch the small crowd of museum goers follow the artist around the galleries, approaching his drawings only after he moved on to another work. No one dared to approach him (although nothing said not to), and he had a small flock with him in the various galleries. A fascinating comment on how we are trained as museum-goers and how the public generally keeps a distance from the art/artist.

A few hours of snow

Monday morning was met with about three inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground, all of which melted by late afternoon. It was a beautiful way to start the week!

Takashi Murakami

Spent Sunday reading about Takashi Murakami. His combination of consumerism and cute is fascinating, as evidenced in this video he did for Louis Vuitton.

St. Pat's Parade

Waving to the marchers at the Brookside St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Destruction and Rejuvination

Friday began with a flurry of messages about the earthquake in Japan. As the day unfolded we received messages of "I'm ok" from friends in Japan and messages of "Thinking of you and your friends" from people in the U.S. As of Saturday morning we've heard from almost everyone, and feel relatively confident about our friends in Yokohama that we are still waiting to hear from, as the major destruction seems to be in Tohoku. On such a sad day I was cheered to see the first crocus blooming in our yard, a sign of hope amidst so much devastation.

Basketball

It's March, so it's basketball crazy time at KU. On Thursday I had lunch with some friends at the Union, where the Big XII tournament games were broadcast on a big screen t.v. I'm not so into sports, and don't really become interested until the National Championship games, but it was still fun to view the game with a group of KU fans. Rock chalk!

Brookside lights

Driving through Brookside on my way home on Wednesday night I was pleasantly surprised to see green lights lining all of the shops and restaurants in preparation for St. Patrick's Day. Below is the Roasterie, a fantastic local coffee shop.

Mardi Gras

On Tuesday I stopped by the bakery on the way home and bought a King Cake for Mardi Gras. This was our first time trying the cake, which was like a cinnamon roll with extra frosting. As the cake was quite large, Joe took the majority into work the following day, which I guess isn't proper as you are supposed to eat the cake before Lent begins.

Cabbage

Making cabbage stir fry, I love the floral pattern of the cabbage base.

Pasta with Olives and Capers

Lately we've been working through our Italian Cooking Encyclopedia on the weekends, cooking a new pasta recipe each week. This past week it was Pasta with Olives and Capers, accompanied by a small salad, fresh local bread, and Sparkling Lemon Italian Soda. Num. The best part of this was tossing a tiny portion in the mini prep and serving it to the baby, who loved it. Indeed, my toddler eats capers and imported olives.

KU Symposium: Articulating Identity

Paper presentation done!

Morimura Yasumasa's Unexpected Visitors

I spent most of Friday the 4th of March making final adjustments to my talk "Morimura Yasumasa: Simulacra, Identity, and Memory" that I presented on Saturday at the KU Art History Symposium. Below is the photo Unexpected Visitors, from Morimura's 2010 series "Requiem" which was the focus of my paper and presentation. Morimura is an appropriation artist who uses digital techniques to insert his self portrait into various works of art. In the "Requiem" series he explores 20th century history in four chapters, including works that re-present Hitler, Kennedy, Gandhi and other well known documentary photographs of the century. In this image he envisions himself as General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito from the widely published September 29, 1945 news photo that commemorated the first meeting of the two leaders. Morimura acts as both men and places the image in his parent's Osaka tea shop, making the personal connection even deeper.

Dream of the Red Chamber

My Eastern Civilizations classes at KU are required to read the 18th century Chinese novel, Dream of the Red Chamber. The novel is over 300 pages long (in the abridged version) and includes hundreds of characters. Inevitably, there are a few students who connect with the tragic story of fate and (mis) fortune, but there are also some who struggle to understand the book and to find the main themes. On Thursday I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon outside, reviewing the novel and preparing for our Friday class discussion.

Midtown

Waiting at the light at 47th and Main after teaching night class at the Art Institute, a pleasant view of the Plaza.

The first of March

A warm day with a lovely sunset, as seen from the Trolley Trail.

Monday lecture

Ooh, a lecture on Japanese art! Art history geeks unite!

A brief slip of judgement

Ok, usually I am completely anti-fast food, especially that which comes from McDonald's, but I fell from grace last Sunday and had Shamrock Shake (don't worry, I didn't indulge in the food). It was my first in many years, and likely my last for many more years. After a long weekend of work I felt the need for a treat of some sort, and the minty nostalgia and St. Pat's marketing pulled me in. Truth be told, it wasn't really that good. I know that McDonalds uses methyl-cellulose in their shakes, which we also used as a bookbinding adhesive back when I worked at the conservation lab. Eesh. The shake wasn't bad, but it just wasn't particularly good either, and considering how awful McDonald's food is and how I feel about their marketing, it's a slip that I'm not likely to make for a few years. Just a little confessional. Now, back to the real food.....

Gajin Fujita

I spent the last Saturday in February preparing my forty minute Monday seminar presentation on Gajin Fujita, one of my favorite contemporary artists. Based in L.A., his works combine visual elements from contemporary graffiti and Edo period prints. So, in a work like K2S Crew (below) we see his graffiti crew portrayed as ronin (masterless samurai), complete with a hybrid Oakland Raiders logo at the center.

More snow

Thursday night's ice storm and Friday morning's snow storm were a solid reminder that February is still winter.

Brrr.....

Such a contrast from summer photos of the kiddo in swim trunks!

Caffinated

A 12+ hour Wednesday workday requires a late afternoon coffee stop. The Midtown KC Starbucks is great for this because it is on the way and has a drive-thru. Plus, the drive-thru has a neat wall of graffiti-inspired art.

Wasabi Kitkat

Life has ups and downs. Last Tuesday was on the lower end of the scale, but my friend YeGee made it a little bit brighter by sharing one of the Wasabi flavored Kitkats that her family sent her after a recent trip they made to Japan. The flavor was subtle and mostly in the aftertaste, but so yummy and a nostalgic reminder of Japan.