Art Tourist

I set off to be an Art Tourist today. First, I went to the Memorial Art Gallery (from the website, I had no interest in going at all, but after my tour of the artists' graves at Mount Hope Cemetery, learning it was erected by a grieving mother after the lose of her 20-something painter-son, it became a little more interesting to me), where they were having an "Art and Treasures" sale. I don't know what 'treasures' means-- it looked like all the random stuff from my grandma's china hutch that no one wanted. I bought a rabbit print by Esther G. Rolick for two dollars. It isn't signed or dated, but I also bough a sketch of rabbits that she signed and it's dated 1964. The odd thing about Esther, is when I google her, I can find obituaries of her family (she might still be alive, I can't tell), references to her in art magazines from the 60s, pictures of her teaching or swimming or touring Europe, but no images of her art. It seems strange to me-- like she was a good enough artist to be noteworthy for her influence, but not to have any of her images online (either in museums or for sale).

This dismayed me. It may sound silly, but I worry about my work disappearing. Some of it will and should, but all of it? Right before I have shows, I suddenly think, "This would be a terrible time to die. No one will know what it is supposed to look like. No one can finish the series." It's incentive. I am happy to say in my rally against disappearing, I completed and signed a special set of six images to donate to the archive collection at Visual Studies Workshop. I don't know what will happen to them there, but for a little while, my work exists outside myself, in a collection to be cataloged and archived. I love being archived.

Ah, I completely lost my train of thought. Art Tourist. Right.

I also visited the George Eastman House today. This post has gone too long to share images, as I did enjoy taking pictures in the house. The exhibits were alright. The technology exhibit was awesome for a cameraphile like myself. The photography exhibits seemed surprisingly under-whelming, with the exception of the video in the Curse of the Black Gold exhibit, and some of the photographs relating to Africa from the permanent collection. The images of Eastman himself were sort of surprising. He appeared to be a grumpy, lumpy, unimpressive character--if it weren't for all the money he was throwing around and the presidents and tycoons he was bumping elbows with. I was disappointed to see he seemed more interested in his house and business prospects than in photography. I always imagined the invention of the Kodak camera to be a labor of love, bringing photography to the people. Obviously, it was also an excellent business opportunity and he became filthy rich for it, but I still wanted it to be because he loved photography.

This concludes my experiences as an art tourist. I will be adding flickr images of the Eastman House soon, but I am tired of being in the creepy basement alone, even if it is where the scanners and WiFi are.

I love you.