dallas revisited

this dallas trip was devoted to the museum of art in the downtown area. i must say, i was quite impressed with the matisse exhibit that the museum of art held in conjunction with the nasher sculpture museum/garden. i arrived just before noon and didn't leave the premises until 3:30p. starting from the portion at the museum of art, you were able to get a sense of matisse's mental and creative process as you were kind of guided through the exhibit, and it was really eye-opening to see his how he related painting to sculpting and vice versa. to him, the two mediums express his ideas in different ways; the limits of one method can be overcome by the other, obviously because one is 2-dimensional and the other is 3-dimensional. they are still intertwined, however. the way this exhibit is set up, you are able to see how matisse was able to take the creativity that came forth while sculpting and bring it into his paintings, qualities which take his paintings to another level.

after seeing the portion at the art museum, i crossed the street to the sculpture garden. there continued presentations of matisse's serial works such as "the backs", "madeleine", and busts of "jeanette". these series show matisse exploring abstraction as the figures progress becoming more abstract and more streamline in form. there was also a large display of "jazz", his book of paper cut outs. the method is so simple, something that kids do in elementary art classes. yet, his paper cut outs are vibrant in color and contain stimulating shapes and configurations. i'd have to say they're my favorite, combining a sense of innocence with exuberant creativity.

other works that interested me in the sculpture garden included jonathan borofsky's "walking to the sky", george segal's "rush hour", and naum gabo's "constructed head #2".

afterwards, as i was leaving the museum, i saw signs for the farmers market. it is a place i must revisit - i didn't arrive until the afternoon, and it seemed that most of the farmers had already left. there were a few stalls still in operation, and i managed to snag some snap peas, sweet cherry tomatoes, and limes. on one hand, it's so difficult to buy produce by the bucketful when you live by yourself. on the other hand, it prevented me from buying everything.

other destinations failed (a cd store i found online had actually closed forever, and a reebok listing turned out not to be a storefront but their business office), but it was still a good day. the thing that bugs me the most about dallas is the same thing that i don't like about la or probably any new big city: it takes at least 1/2 hour to drive to anywhere. i have to plan my trip before heading out the door or else i'll just spend the whole day driving. i was so exhausted by the time i returned to shreveport. thank goodness sundays are for sleeping in.