Several days have passed without posting.  That is a first I believe.  I aspire to write something everyday as a necessary discipline to improving ability to express with words thoughts that swirl, partly formed in my mind.  Temporarily locked out of my blog due to insufficient care with a password, at last I found efficient help from several with more expertise than I.  A heartfelt thank you to the support staff at Hostgator.  Where would we be without the kindness of strangers?  Indeed kindness is the entré to discovery, that we need each other.  What would I be without you?

Yesterday we resumed a family tradition.  In the past we’ve enjoyed a day trip to a local brewery, or similar destination that promises enjoyment, the opportunity to be together. 

This year we chose the Art Institute of Chicago as destination for our day trip.

The greatness of a people can be measured by the reverence which it demonstrates for beauty and for meaning.  It is the job of the artist to tell/show the truth about us, concerning our way of life so that we can assess the way we have taken, and what we are becoming.  Art is sometimes beautiful, but not always.  We may admire a work of art, or feel revulsion because we encounter an expression of the truth about ourselves.  Without the work of artists we’d surely be lost in a dark wood.

Here are a few of the photos that I captured at our visit to the Art Institute of Chicago.  Our family group consisted of seven individuals, including perhaps one of the youngest to view the work on display at the Art Institute.  She has just turned two, and can be seen in the first photo.  You will count six people in the two photos.  I am the one missing.  Someone has to take the photo.

The photographs that I have arranged in a row show the work of several artists separated by hundreds of years in time, yet working to express the fault line between good and evil that runs through each of us, that balancing upon which our humanity depends.  Can we live peaceably, with generosity, with decency together?  What happens when we fail to sustain that performance, that balance upon the high wire? 

The photographs were captured in the section displaying art from Japan, and the retrospective of the life work of Barbara Kruger which is featured at this time. 

Would you not agree with me that the Buddhist tradition does a superlative job of showing how bad things can get when we release our base instincts for revenge, for hatred?  Yes, those are body parts under the feet of the sculpture of the demon.  By contrast, the ceramic rendition of a tea ceremony vessel was exquisite, with embedded shards, lending abstract dissonance to the spherical shape we are accustomed to seeing. 

The glazed stoneware by Mineo Mizuno was fascinating.  The elliptical vessel is called “Water Drop,” evocative of how necessary is water to life.  The central cavity was formed by the artists hands to gouge out the depression.  The tiny characters are for the word “mu,” the emptiness, or the “nothingness” which is important in the tradition of Buddhism.  It is also the name of a Japanese fighter used in WWII.  Mizuno’s father died in the war.

The work by Barbara Kruger speaks for itself.  I was transfixed, moved by the presentation of her work in room after room.  Nausea would be an accurate description of the emotional effect.

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