03/09/12

1.  RAIN today!  I loved it.  We were out and about and the bright green leaves contrasting with the dark trunks of the rain-soaked trees was so beautiful.  March is my favorite month in Austin.

2.  Because of the rain, I decided that we'd go on an indoor field trip today.  Through a torrential downpour, we drove to the Blanton Museum of Art, down at UT (and got soaked going from the car into the museum-- the boys were a great help though, and pushed me in my wheelchair, RUNNING much faster than I could have pushed myself) .  What a great museum!  They have an exhibit of Hudson River school artwork, which I really love.  Mosey wasn't a big fan ("This is boooring mom, when can we go home?"  I tell all my kids, "If you're bored, it's because you are boring and are not paying enough attention!"), but Brigham and Joseph liked it I think.  Mosey liked the rest of the museum better.  They have a "Go West" exhibit with artwork from and about the frontier days in America.  All the boys stopped in one of the rooms to make drawings of some of the paintings they liked.  Joseph liked the modern art wing the best.  I really love some modern art, and some of it I cannot stand.  One room displayed two huge canvases, both identically white, with a thin black border painted along their edges.  I'm sorry, but that is not art.  Some of my kids' drawings, full of color and imagination, are far more artistic than some of the "art" on display.  Maybe that betrays my lack of artistic sophistication, but I don't think so.  I completely agree that "art" does not require huge technical skill (although that's a big plus in my opinion), and that the ideas, emotion, or graphic impact of a piece is what gives it value.  Just because "anyone could paint that" doesn't mean that it isn't art-- after all, no one *did* paint that, until that particular artist came along.  Anyway, I did really enjoy most of the modern art at the museum, but a few of the pieces left me rolling my eyes.

3.  Brigham is a totally wild animal when it comes to Sandy.  This evening, he grabbed a red hat out of the costume box, put it on his head, and then started fighting Sandy.  Sandy is funny-- she does not like my boys to wear hats and will try to pull them off if she can.  So Brigham and Sandy had about an hour-long fight over that red hat.  It was seriously scary to listen to them-- I often wasn't sure who was growling-- Brigham or Sandy!  But every time I looked over, Sandy was happy as could be, wagging her tail and loving life.  I need to video that!