I love Art!

After a week of bumming around the hotel grounds in Abilene, Tx I finally got off my lazy ass to do something productive.

I decided to go back to the downtown area and visit the art museums. I have unsuccessfully tried twice before to see the museums and today I am proud to say that I finally made it in through the door :)

The first place I visited was the 'Contemporary Center' This friendly musty smelling center had several gallery rooms and many studios for local artists. the main gallery had exhibited traditional western Texas art genre that I wasn't too crazy about. The work was well painted, but the genre does not appeal to my individual aesthetics. plus many of the images were giclee prints, meaning they were just digital prints of original artwork printed on a canvas or paper. Many artists will sell these prints of their paintings because most people can't afford the real piece of art work and the artists can sell copies of his or her more sucessful pieces to make a profit. I personally see them as expensive postcards.

The second gallery had snapshots from local highschool students. This I thought was amazing! The photos were fun, but the statements were fantastic. The honesty and individualism expressed by the students was inspiring.

After my visit to the Contemporary Art Center I explored the Grace Museum.

The Grace Museum was once a fancy historic hotel that fell into despair until 1992 when renovations were apporved by the city to transform the building into a museum. The museum had dispayed a lovely exhibit of experiemental color photography from end of the great depression era. I was listening to other museum patrons during my visit. many thought that these were black and white photos digitally colored. They were brillant photos that perfectly captured the nostolgic American spirit.