Sorry that I have been somewhat remiss in keeping up with the blog the past few days. Kim and I went up to Minneapolis last Saturday to visit her dad, Bob Wilson, who has been institutionalized at the Masonic Home since a very sever stroke over three years ago. The family gathered to celebrate Robert's birthday which is actually on February 28.
Strokes are terrible things! Bob is a mere shell of what he was before the stroke. Even at that, he was most appreciative of our gathering. He tires quickly though, and isn't afraid to let you know when it's time to go.
And go we did -- taking highways north to catch other highways to take us right down town Minneapolis so that we could be there for the opening of our friend Tiit Raid's art exhibit at the Thomas Barry Studio of Fine Arts which is located in the warehouse district, not too far from the Metrodome.
Trying to find 530 Third Street put a terrible tax on our marriage for over a half an hour or so as we couldn't locate it! There are a lot of one way streets and the area is where streets go from being south to north with no apparent reason.
However, we did locate it about a half an hour before the reception was to begin so we sought a coffee house to kill some time. we walked about four blocks against a biting wind and I remember passing a strip joint that advertised "100 beautiful women, and 3 ugly ones".
I fantasized about the strippers getting into it with one another and how that would go!
We did find a coffee house and were grateful to get out of the wind. Thankfully our walk back to the art studio put the wind to our backs.
Kim and I were almost the first to arrive and Tiit and Ann lit up at our appearance. I must say first that Tiit looked very well considering all the crap he has gone through in the preceding months.
After big hugs and small talk, we made our way around the exhibit and thoroughly enjoyed Tiit's latest works. They are paintings that were originally photographs of the pond near his house in Fall Creek which he then painted over, turning them into brilliant conveyors of light and color.
I implore you to go to www.thomasbarry.com and click on Tiit Raid as there are some of the shown works on the web site.
Truthfully, I always feel a bit like a fish out of water when i am in an art gallery as I know so little about art as such. I whispered these self same feelings to Kim as we moved from painting to painting.
I would imagine that art is , as performing art, subjective. I envy the artist, however, as when he finishes a painting, it is there forever for all to see, whereas the performing artist is only as good as his last perfomance.
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While awaiting Kim's return from school this evening, I was reading a new story on the late Max McGee and how the FBI had been investigating his possible illegal gambling activities.
In the story there was a quote from Maz that made me smile:
"When it's third and ten, you can have the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time."
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