Tag: art

Prison play goes on tour

Prison play goes on tour

The above linked article talks about how one prison’s play went on tour. The logistics of transportation and the audiences were taken into consideration. It’s a fairly interesting article.

At the end of the article, these two articles were linked, about art in prison.

Art on Prison Walls

Drawing in Prison

I am glad that the arts are still being taught, even when these people are in prison.

Headed home

Michelle dropped me off at 445 am at Philadelphia’s airport. We were worried that my bag would be over the fifty pound limit. I checked in with a 47 pound bag. My carryon and boarding bag went with me to security.

There was a long, long line to get to security. They had a dog sniffing shoes, so we didn’t have to remove them going through the actual security portion. I wish that I’d had my phone with me, instead of having it go through security, because I would have loved some photos of the stuff going through.

A woman shoved past me to get her bag through all of ten seconds faster than me. She reeked of fresh vodka at 5 am. Maybe she needed to get rid of the liquid in her bag?


One of men in front of me had one of those security bins full of bags of potato chips and the other with a loose oatmeal cookie and his cell phone.  The cell phone was confiscated, but not the cookie.  I didn’t stick around to find out why.


I had moved my seat when I checked in, so I knew I didn’t have anyone next to me on the first leg of the flight. When I boarded the plane, I put on my headphones and immediately fell asleep. I woke up for breakfast, pictured below, and then I went right back to sleep.

I woke up at touchdown. I grabbed my bag and wandered down to the next gate, at the opposite end of the terminal. I found a seat and almost right away they called for volunteers to gate check bags. I am headed home, so there’s no reason to not do it, and I’d packed it, expecting it, since I was going to board in group E anyhow.

I ended up seated next to a man who had taken a sleeping pill.   At least I wasn’t required to try to chat most of the flight.  I slept on and off. 

Eventually, we got to the end of the flight, and the guy decides he wants to chat.   He’s on his first vacation with his boyfriend of three months.   I gave him suggestions about what to see.   The part I didn’t know about, I told him where to find the info.

My suitcases came out fairly quickly and I headed to lunch before going home to nap.   I had to rest before going off to class.  

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Before we even got to the stairs of the museum, there were so many beautiful pieces to see.A lot of the pieces were similar to the pieces at Sutro Heights in San Francisco.Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the board with the description of these pieces, but it looks like they are a tribute to the order of the Cincinnati.  I saw works inside about the order, but not a description of what it was about.  Research! This is about how the museum became the museum. I didn’t get to all the art around the museum, but I got to the big pieces in front.  The Rocky statue needed a visit, of course. I have been asked many times.  No.  We didn’t run up these.   We walked.  And took breaks.   But we made it.Almost to the entrance.

We went inside and found that a ticket to the museum was good for two days.  And for multiple museums.  I stared planning on going to the other museum before the ticket expired.

We found this on the way to the bathroom, when we first entered.   I thought it was a beautiful piece.This was a lot easier to see than the full sized one on top of city hall.  What beautiful detail on it.When we were at the public area of the Constitution center, we learned about food that was eaten in the early days of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.   Pepper pots were one of the foods.  This piece struck me because of the depiction of the freed slave selling the pepper pot.Not every photo is a piece of art.  At least it wasn’t the inside of my pocket.

Unfortunately, this was the info for the photo below.   It was commissioned by the father of the baby for his wife.  The baby had died of smallpox.  

The painting originally hung on a wall with the curtain covering it, with a notification to be aware of upsetting parents who may have lost children.This piece was made near home, in a smaller town.   I found it interesting that it made its way to Philadelphia.You could hear the water running and dripping wherever you were in this room.This dog kennel was beautiful, but I kept thinking about how my dogs would manage to end up getting out somehow.On the way out of the museum.There were more photos that I wanted to get, but I was exhausted after the plane rides.   Michelle is supposed to send me some she took.   Maybe I’ll show her how to post them while I’m here.

Rodin Museum

Before you start reading this, please know that I fell in love with Rodin’s The Gates of Hell the first time I saw it at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia has a full sized version of it and I could get up close to it. There are a lot of photos of it here, and, because of the time of day, I couldn’t get a full photo without it being half in shadow. I will look closer when I can enlarge the photos, to remove duplicates.When I saw how Rodin signed his sculpture, it made me feel better about the way I sign my paintings in art class.You can’t show any work by Rodin without The Thinker.Beautiful pond in a beautiful garden.The first of many photos of The Gates of Hell.This was my ticket from yesterday’s visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I was thrilled that the Rodin Museum was included and a second day, too. Yesterday was exhausting.Today’s ticketMy photo doesn’t show the broken nose as well as I would have liked.I loved that they encourage artists to sketch. There were several places set up like this.I had seen other pieces that Rodin did of Victor Hugo. I loved seeing the story behind them here. Hugo never posed. Rodin just spent a lot of time with him to get his likeness.

I had seen these pieces before. They are still interesting.

I hadn’t seen the final piece for this. It’s beautiful.


I recognized this as not Rodin, but I didn’t realize it was a Picasso. For some reason, I thought Picasso only did paintings. Learn something new every day.

I had heard of this piece, but it was more fascinating in person, I think.


This was a very powerful piece. It really spoke to me.

The Three Shades are also at the Legion of Honor. They are the top of The Gates of Hell. I could get up close here, too.

I had seen the miniature version of this at the Legion of Honor. It was nice to get up close.

Performance art or my sense of humor?

My trip, so far

I have been all over the place for my trip. I have been to the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center, and Reading Terminal Market. I had a Philly cheese steak sandwich and walked a bunch of steps. I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum.

I will be posting them all out of order, because the new software for the blog only allows me to post one photo at a time and it’s a pain in the butt when I have taken so many photos. The old editor works, but crashes frequently, so, I’ll post what I can, when I can.

I am having a great time, even if you’re not really hearing much from me yet.

My trip, so far

I have been all over the place for my trip. I have been to the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center, and Reading Terminal Market. I had a Philly cheese steak sandwich and walked a bunch of steps. I went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum.

I will be posting them all out of order, because the new software for the blog only allows me to post one photo at a time and it’s a pain in the butt when I have taken so many photos. The old editor works, but crashes frequently, so, I’ll post what I can, when I can.

I am having a great time, even if you’re not really hearing much from me yet.