detroit-us

here in detroit, the weekend has somehow slipped into the week and i’ve barely noticed—it’s as if i time-warped my way here.

i arrived on thursday afternoon and was greeted heartily by my good friend buddy, who was all set to go walking with me ANY time i wanted. (i did want)

he also wanted to tell me ALL about the noisy, peeing thing that had invaded his household and had apparently put some sort of spell over his humans. NO one paid any attention to him any more! he was trying—really he was—not to lose it over this thing, but just when it seemed to be coming around to his way of thinking, it had started grabbing stuff and throwing it down. poor buddy, he never knows when he’s going to get pelted or with what.

padraig, meanwhile seems unaffected by the havoc he’s been wreaking in poor buddy’s life. he is working on solid foods now, trying a new one every few days. so far, he likes just about everything—carrots, squash, peas—and is already showing a preference for the colorful foods over his bland rice cereal.

once i was in the door, we put a pot of coffee on and plugged in our computers to do a little work until dinner time, when we made a lovely meal from the home made pea soup and cornbread i’d brought along.

friday was absolutely gorgeous and while we did have a lot of work to get through, i was determined to get out for a good run in the afternoon—i just love running in the neighborhoods surrounding erica’s house.

by the time i got back to the house and showered, matt was home and we all got ready to go on a fun friday evening outing

first, a yummy dinner at woodbridge pub, which is the perfect solution for dining with a mixed group of vegetarian and traditional eaters. they have many wonderful, tasty  options for a mixed party.

after dinner, it was on to the detroit institute of arts for the remainder of the evening. i had never been there, but recently the city voted to make it free for residents and this has encouraged everyone (including the baron family) to take more frequent advantage of the wonderful programs there.

there are free music performances on friday evenings in two seatings, as well as chess club, when the museum is open until 10 pm. last friday the performances were held in rivera hall, the historic fresco installation by artist diego rivera that chronicles the story of detroit industry, which was commissioned by edsel b. ford and executed in 1932-1933.

standing in the hall to absorb this momentous act of art left me incredulous. i’ve seen rivera murals before, but none of this size or scope—it is simply jaw-dropping.

we wandered the galleries for about an hour—haha, pretty much as long as the baby held out on quiet behavior. the institute has several amazing collections—i don’t know which i like better, the contemporary or the african american (which is one of the largest collections that i’ve personally seen, aside from the american visionary art museum in baltimore).

one of the highlights of the evening was exploring this romare beardon mosaic of a quilting party—i love his work, but didn’t realized he worked in this medium. at least i don’t remember ever seeing any other mosaics by him

the depiction of the textiles within this narrative piece is really exciting to me—i wanted to reach out and feel the folds in the cloth, run my fingers over the colorful triangles in the quilt.

the surface beauty and rhythm of the piece is completely enchanting. i thought that using the hard, ice-chip-sized nuggets of ceramic and glass was  a brilliant way to interpret the sort of scene that was sometimes over-idealized in art throughout our history.  the choice brought more thought-provoking depth to this work than first meets the eye.

this installation by nancy graves was another favorite of the evening—it looked to me at first like a stand of trees (an old favorite theme for me), but on closer inspection, they are actually sculpted facsimiles of bones.

but what really caught our attention was the kind of bones they are—clubbies will appreciates this one:

we wandered just a bit more after this—i was getting a little tired and i knew i had to get up early the next day to teach classes.

erica took one last opportunity to do some silly photos for a new series she’s starting on bare naked in the wild. me, i just stood by and let her . . .

after which, we called it quits for the evening. padraig was sacked out by this time, peacefully snoozing in the stroller. we made our way back to the house, where i packed my car and headed off on the next leg of the weekend adventure.

speaking of moving along, we have a meeting this morning that i must start getting ready for. i’m going to have to continue my account of the weekend adventures in another post—stay tuned!